440 HYBERNATION OF INSECTS. 



The site chosen by different perfect insects for their 

 hybernacula is very various. Some are content with 

 insinuating themselves under any large stone, a collec- 

 tion of dead leaves, or the moss of the sheltered side of 

 an old wall or bank. Others prefer for a retreat the 

 lichen or ivy-covered interstices of the bark of old 

 trees, the decayed bark itself, especially that near the 

 roots, or bury themselves deep in the rotten trunk ; and 

 a very great number penetrate into the earth to tlie 

 depth of several inches. The aquatic tribes, such as 

 Di/tisci, Ili/drojj/iifi, &c. burrow into the mud of their 

 pools ; but some of these are occasionally met with un- 

 der stones, bark, &c. In every instance the selected 

 dormitory is admirably adapted to the constitution, 

 mode of life, and wants "of the occupant. Those in- 

 sects which can bear considerable cold witJiout injury, 

 are careless of providing other than a slight covering; 

 while the more tender species either enter the earth 

 beyond the reach of frost, or prepare for themselves 

 artificial cavities in substances such as moss and rotten 

 wood, which conduct heat with difliculty, and defend 

 them from an injuriously low temperature. It does not 

 appear that any perfect insect has the faculty of fabri- 

 cating for itself a winter abode similar to those formed 

 of silk, &c. by some larvae. Schmid, indeed, has men- 

 tioned finding Rhogium mordax and Inquisiior^ F. in 

 such abodes, constructed, as he thought, of the inner 

 bark of trees ; but these, as llliger has suggested, were 

 more probably the deserted dwellings of lepidopterous 

 larvai, of which the beetles in question had taken pos- 

 session''. — Most insects place themselves in their hy- 



» lUig. Mag. i. 216, 



