401 Dr. Kiclcl on the Anatomif 



lotalpa is furnished like the mole with limbs particularly cal- 

 culated for burrowing ; with a skin which effectually prevents 

 the adhesion of the moist earth through which it moves; and 

 with exactly that form and structure of body by which it is 

 enabled to penetrate the opposing medium with the greatest 

 ease. At the same time, in order to prevent the necessity of 

 its excavating a track so wide as to admit of the body being 

 turned round in case of a desire to retreat, it is endued with 

 the power of moving as easily in a retrograde as in a progres- 

 sive direction ; and, apparently to perform the office of an- 

 tennae, which warn the insect of approaching danger in its pro- 

 gressive motions, it has two appendages, which might not im- 

 properly be called caudal antennae, evidently calculated to 

 serve a similar purpose during its retrograde motions ; parti- 

 cularly as they are furnished with very large nerves. The in- 

 difference with which the insect is disposed to move in either 

 direction is manifested by the following experiment : — If you 

 touch it towards the head, it retreats ; if towards the other ex- 

 tremity of the body, it advances. 



The genera] colour of the animal is such as indirectly to 

 serve as a protection to it, being nearly of the same hue as 

 the vegetable mould in which it lives ; so that it is not very 

 readily distinguished upon being first turned up to view ; and 

 its safety seems to be still further insured by the appearance 

 of death, which, in common with many other insects, it as- 

 sumes when suddenly disturbed. This stratagem, for so it 

 may be called, appears to be most decidedly practised by the 

 animal while in captivity; and if thrown at random out of the 

 vessel in which it has been confined, however unnatural the 

 posture may be into which it has been thrown, it remains as 

 it were in a state of catalepsy during half a minute or more : 

 the first indication w hich it gives of recover}^ from this stupor, 

 invariably consists in a motion of the extremity of the an- 

 tenna. 



The general colour of the insect is a dusky brovsTi, passing 

 either into a reddish brown or into an ochry yellow ; those 

 parts being of the darkest colour which are most exposed to 

 view when the animal is moving in the open air. Every part 

 of the body is to a greater or less degree covered by a kind 

 of dovni, which seems to be the efficient cause of its capability 

 of repelling moisture; which capability is so remarkable, that 

 when the insect is plunged under water it appears as if cased 

 in silver, or some bright metallic covering ; this appearance 

 being evidently derived from a stratum of air interposed be- 

 tween its body and the surrounding liquid. This down not 

 t)nly serves to repel the adhesion of any moibt substance to its 



body, 



