HVBERNATION OF INSECTS. 44'J 



however mild the atmosphere in winter, tlie ^reat 

 bulk of hybernating insects, as if conscious of the de- 

 ceptions nature of their pleasurable feelings, and that 

 no food could then be procured, never quit their quar- 

 ters, but quietly wait for a renewal of their insensibi- 

 lity by a fresh accession of cold. 



On this head I have had an opportunity of making 

 some observations which, in the paucity of recorded 

 facts on the hybernation of insects, you may not be sorry 

 to have laid before you. The second of December 1816 

 was even finer than many of the preceding days of the 

 season, which so happily falsified the predictions that 

 the unprecedented dismal summer would be followed 

 by a severe winter. The thermometer was 46" in the 

 shade ; not a breath of air was stirring ; and a bright 

 sun imparted animation to troops of the winter gnat 

 (Trichocera hiemalis, Meig.), which frisked under every 

 bush ; to numerous Psychodcc ; and even to the flesh- 

 fly, of which two or three individuals buzzed past me 

 while digging in my garden. Yet though these insects, 

 which I shall shortly advert to as exceptions to the ge- 

 neral rule, were thus active, the heat was not sufficient 

 to induce their hybernating brethren to quit their re- 

 treats. Removing some of the dead bark of an old 

 apple-tree, I soon discovered several insects in their 

 winter-quarters. Of the little beetle Lebia quadri- 

 notata, Duftschmid Faun. Austr. (Carabifs punctoiua- 

 cidatus, Ent. Brit.), I found six or eight individuals, 

 and all so lively, that though remaining perfectly quiet 

 in their abode until disturbed, they ran about with 

 their ordinary activity as soon a^ the covering of bark 

 was displaced. The same was the case with a colony 



