AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOIl TilEIR YOUNG. 35/ 



positing them, but attend upon their young, when ex- 

 cluded, with an affectionate assiduity equal to any thing 

 exhibited amongst the larger animals, and in the highest 

 degree interesting. Of this description are some soli- 

 tary insects, as several species of the Linnean genus 

 Sphex, earwigs, field-bugs, and spiders : and those in- 

 sects which live in societies, namely, ants, bees, wasps, 

 and Termites : the most striking traits of whose history 

 in these respects I shall endeavour to lay before you. 



You have seen that the greater number of the Linnea n 

 Spheges, (Sphex, Bemhew, F.) after depositing their 

 eggs in cells stored with a supply of food, take no fur- 

 ther care of them. Some, however, adopt a different pro- 

 cedure. One of these, called by Bonnet the Mason-wasp, 

 but different from Reaumur's, not only incloses a living 

 caterpillar along with its eg^ in the cell, which it care- 

 fully closes, but at the expiration of a fev/ days, when 

 the young grub has appeared and has consumed its pro- 

 Tision, re-opens the nest, incloses a second caterpillar, 

 and again shuts the mouth : and this operation it re- 

 peats until the young one has attained its full growth'*. 

 A similar mode, according to Rolander, is followed by 

 Ammophila vulgaris as well as by the yellowish wasp 

 of Pennsylvania, described by Bartram in the Philoso- 

 phical Transactions^, and by a Sphex ? observed by Du- 

 hamel'^; both of which, however, instead of caterpillars, 

 supply their larv?e with a periodical provision of living 

 Hies. 



What a crowd of interesting reflections are these 

 most singular facts calculated to excite ! With what 

 foresight must the parent insect be endowed, thus to be 



' bonnet, ix, 398. "liii.S?. ' Reaum. vi. 269. 



