450 HYBERNATION OF INSECTS. 



can sustain, yet that when exposed to that degree they 

 consume considerably less food than at a higher tem- 

 perature ; and consequently that the plan of placing 

 hives in a north aspect in sunny and mild winters may 

 be adopted by the apiarist with advantage. John Hun- 

 ter's experiment, indeed, cited above, in u hich he found 

 that a hive grew lighter in a cold than in a warm week, 

 seems opposed to this conclusion ; but an insulated ob- 

 servation of this kind, which we do not know to have 

 been instituted with a due regard to all the circum- 

 stances that required attention, must not be allowed to 

 set aside the striking facts of a contrary description 

 recorded by Reaumur and corroborated by tlie almorst 

 universal sentiment of writers on bees. — After all, how- 

 ever, on this point, as well as on many others connected 

 with the winter economy of these endlessly-wonderful 

 insects, there is evidently much yet to be observed, and 

 many doubts which can be satisfactorily dispelled only 

 by new experiments. 



'^riie degree of cold which most insects in their diffe- 

 rent states, while torpid, are able to endure with im- 

 punity, is very various; and the habits of the different 

 species, as to the situation which they select to pass 

 the winter, are regulated by their greater or less sen- 

 sibility in this respect. Many insects, though able to 

 sustain a degree of cold sufficient to induce torpidity, 

 would be destroyed by the freezing temperature, to 

 avoid which they penetrate into the earth or hide theyi- 

 selves under non-conducting substances; and there can 

 be little doubt that it is with this view that so nuiny 

 species while pupai arc thus secured from cold by co- 



