166 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 



their queen, which as soon as uttered strikes them mo- 

 tionless, and thus it may be enabled to commit with 

 impunity such devastation in the midst of myriads of 

 armed bands \ The larvae of three species of moth 

 {Tortrlx Cereana^ F. Tinea Mellonella, F. and Tinea 

 sociella^ F.) exhibit equal hardihood with equal impu- 

 nity. They indeed pass the whole of their initiatory 

 state in the midst of the combs. Yet in spite of the 

 stings of the bees of a whole republic, they continue 

 their depred^itions unmolested, sheltering themselves 

 in tubes made of grains of w ax, and lined with silken 

 tapestry, spun and wove by themselves, which the bees 

 (however disposed they maybe to revenge the mischief 

 which they do them, by devouring, what to all other 

 animals would be indigestible, their wax,) are unable 

 to penetrate. These larvae are sometimes so nume- 

 rous in a hive, and commit such extensive ravages, as 

 to force the poor bees to desert it and seek another ha- 

 bitation. 



I shall not delay you longer upon this subject by de- 

 tailing what wild animals suffer from insects, further 

 than by observing that the two creatures of tliis descrip- 

 tion in which we are rather interested, the hare and the 

 rabbity do not escape their attack. The hare in Lap- 

 land is more tormented by the gnats than any other qua- 

 druped. To avoid this pest it is obliged to leave the 

 cover of the woods in full day, and seek the plains : 

 hence the hunters say, that of three litters which a hare 

 produces in a year, the first dies by the cold, the second 

 by gnats, and only the third escapes and comes to ma- 

 turity''. — We learn from the ingenious Mr. Clark, that 



* Huber. Pref. xi-xiii, " De Gecr, ii. 83. 



