MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS. 239 



out and inflating four vesicles from the sides of their 

 body, Avhich are of a bright red, soft, and of an irregu- 

 lar shape. When the cause of alarm is removed, they 

 are retracted, so that only a small portion of them ap- 

 pears '. 



Insects often endeavour to repel or escape from as- 

 sailants by their motions. Mr. White, mentioning a wild 

 bee that makes its nest on the summit of a remarkable 

 hill near Lewes in Sussex, in the chalky soil, says : 

 " When people approach the place tliese insects begin 

 to be alarmed, and with a sharp and hostile sound dash 

 and strike round the heads and faces of intruders. I 

 have often been interrupted myself while contemplat- 

 ing the grandeur of the scenery around me, and have 

 thougjit myself in danger of being stung''." — The hive- 

 bee will sometimes have recourse to the same expe- 

 dient, when her hive is approached too near, and thus 

 give you notice wljat you may expect if you do not 

 take her warning and retire. — Humble-bees when dis- 

 turbed, whether out of the nest or in it, assume some 

 very grotesque and at the same time threatening at- 

 titudes. If you put your finger to them, they will 

 either successively or simultaneously lift up the three 

 legs of one side; turn themselves upon tijeir back; 

 bend up their anus and show their sting accompanied 

 by a drop of poison . Sometimes they wdll even spirt out 

 that liquor. When in the nest, if it be attacked, they 

 also beat their wings violently and emit a great hum''. 



These motions menace vengeance ; those of some 

 other insects are merely to effect their escape. Thus I 



" De Gecr, iv. 74. " NcU. Hist. ii. 2C8. 



^ P. iliiber in Linn. Trans, vi. 219. Kiihy, Mon. ^p. An^l. i. 'iOJ . 



