256 MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS. 



assailants. I once suffered considerable pain from tlie 

 bite of tlie common water-beetle {Dt/Hscus margimiUs^ 

 J^.)^ as well as from tliat of the great rove-beetle (Sto- 

 ^hylinus olens, F.) ; b<iit the most tremendous and effec- 

 tual weapon with which insects are armed — though 

 this, except in the case of tlie scorpion, is also a sexual 

 instrument, and useful to the females in oviposition — 

 is their sting. With this they keep not only the larger 

 araimals, but even man himself, in awe and at a di- 

 stance. But on these I enlarged sufficiently in a former 

 letter ^ 



These weapons, tremendous as they are, would be 

 of but little use to insects if they had not courage to 

 employ them : in this quality, however, they are by no 

 means deficient ; for, their diminutive size considered, 

 they are, many of them, the most valiant animals in 

 nature. The giant bulk of an elephant would not de- 

 ter a hornet, a bee, or even an ant, from attacking it, 

 if it was provoked. I once observed a small spider 

 walking in my path. On putting my stick to it, it im- 

 mediately turned round as if to defend itself. On the 

 approach of my finger, it lifted itself up and stretched 

 out its legs to meet it. — In Ray's Letters mention is 

 made of a singular conibat between a spider and a toad 

 fought at Hetcorne near Sittinghurst in Kent; but 



* !Mr. MacLeay relates to me, from the communications of ]Mr. E. 

 Forster, the following particulars respecting the history of Mutilla coc- 

 cinea, L., which from this account appears to be one of the most redoubt- 

 able of stinging insects. The females are most plentiful in Maryland, in 

 the months of July and August, but are never very numerous. They are 

 very active, and have been observed to take flies by surprise. A person 

 stung by one of them lost his senses in five minutes, and w as so ill for 

 several days that his life was despaired of. 



