FOOD OF INSECTS. 385 



ferent tribes follow different procedures. The Ichneu- 

 mons devour the ilesli of the insects into which they 

 have insinuated themselves. Some of the (Estri, fixed 

 in a spacious apartment beneath the skin of an ox or 

 deer, regale themselves on a purulent secretion with 

 which they are surrounded. Others of the same tribe, 

 partial to a higher temperature, attach themselves to 

 the interior of the stomach of a horse, and in a bath of 

 chyme of 102 degrees of Fahrenheit revel on its juices. 

 The various species of horse-Hies (Tabcmus and Sto- 

 moxj/s, F.) dart their sharp lancets into the veins of 

 quadrupeds, and satiate themselves in living- streams ; 

 while the gnat, the flea, the bug, and the louse, plunge 

 their proboscis even into those of us lords of the crea- 

 tion, and banquet on " the ruddy drops which warm 

 our hearts." Some make their repast upon birds only, 

 as the fly of the swallow, and other Ornithomi/ice, Latr., 

 and the bird-louse {Ricinus, De Geer) ; insects nearly 

 allied, though one is dipterous and the other apterous. 

 And a most singular animal belonging to the latter 

 tribe {Nycteribia Vespertilionis, Latr.), revenges upon 

 the bat its ravages of the insect world '^. Another nu- 

 merous class kill their prey outright, either devouring 

 its solid parts, as the Carahidce^ StapJii/linidcCy &c., or 

 imbibing its juices only, as the infinite hordes of the 

 field-bug tribe. And the larvae of the gnat, Stratyomys, 

 and other flies aquatic in that state, the leviathans of 

 "the world of animalcules, swallow whole hosts of these 

 minute inha])itants of pools and ponds at a gulp, causing 

 with their oral apparatus a vortex in the water, down 



^ Linn. Trans, xi. 11. t. 3./. 5—7. 

 VOL. I. 2 C 



