AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR TIIElR YOUNG. 339 



the first glance there seems even something absurd in 

 attributing any thing like parental aifection. An ani- 

 mal not so big perhaps as a grain of wheat, feel love for 

 its offspring — how preposterous ! we are ready to ex- 

 claim. Yet the exclamation would be very much mis- 

 placed. Nothing is more certain than that insects are 

 capable of feeling quite as much attachment to their off- 

 spring as the largest quadrupeds. They undergo as 

 severe privations in nourishing them; expose them- 

 selves to as great risk in defending them ; and in the 

 very article of death exhibit as much anxiety for their 

 preservation. Not that this can be said of all insects. 

 A very large proportion of them are doomed to die be- 

 fore their young come into existence. But in these the 

 passion is not extinguished. It is merely modified, and 

 its direction changed. And when you witness the so- 

 licitude with which they provide for the security and 

 sustenance of their future young, you can scarcely deny 

 to them love for a progeny they are never destined to 

 behold. Like affectionate parents in similar circum- 

 stances, their last efforts are employed in providing for 

 the children that are to succeed them. 



I. Observe the motions of that common white butter- 

 fly which you see flying from herb to herb. You per- 

 ceive that it is not food she is in pursuit of; for flowers 

 have no attraction for her. Her object is the discovery 

 of a plant that will supply the sustenance appropriated 

 by Providence to her young, upon which to deposit her 

 eggs. Her own food has been honey drawn from the 

 nectary of a flower. This, therefore, or its neighbour- 

 hood, we might expect would be the situation she would 



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