VARIOUS HAUNTS OF INSECTS. 273 



necessaries for the young brood, by collecting honey 

 and wax, building up the cells, watching the approach 

 of an enemy, &c. The outside covering of the bodies 

 of insects is often hard, and supplies the place of bones, 

 of which, internally, they are destitute. Another cir- 

 cumstance peculiar to insects is, a change from one 

 place to another : from the egg is hatched the caterpil- 

 lar or maggot, which is transformed into the chrysalis, 

 from whence proceeds the fly, or perfect insect. 



As insects are endowed with the various powers of 

 creeping, flying, and swimming, the air, earth, and 

 water teem with them : and so minute and numerous 

 are they, that scarcely any place is free from them. 

 Trees, shrubs, leaves, and flowers, are the favourite 

 haunts of many kinds ; rocks, sands, rivers, lakes, and 

 standing pools, of others ; whilst different tribes being 

 appointed to clear our globe from all offensive sub- 

 stances, resort to houses, dark cellars, damp pits, rot- 

 ten wood, subterranean passages, putrid carcasses, and 

 the dung of animals. These little creatures, so feeble, 

 so diminutive, apparently so insignificant, are, never- 

 theless, powerful agents to benefit or injure mankind. 

 My ignorance will not suffer me to mention half their 

 uses ; but some of them serve for food, others for me- 

 dicine ; some are important in the arts, and especially 

 to the dissector. The great Ruysch sui-prised the ana- 

 tomists of his day by the nicety of his preparations. 



