190 OF INSECTS. 



but inasmuch as the art and will of the bee may be sup- 

 posed to be concerned in this operation, there is, secondly, 

 that which doth not rest in art or will, a digestive faculty 

 which converts the loose powder into a stiff substance. 

 This is a just account of the honey and the honey comb'; and 

 this account, through every part, carries a creative intelli- 

 gence along with it. 



The sting also of the bee has this relation to the honey, 

 that it is necessary for the protection of a treasure which 

 invites so many robbers. 



III. Our business is with mechanism. In the panorpa 

 tribe of insects, there is a forceps in the tail of the male 

 insect, with which he catches and holds the female. (PI. 

 XXXIII. fig. 3.) Are a pair of pincers more mechanical, 

 than this provision, in their structure ? or is any structure 

 more clear and certain in its design 1 



IV. St. Pierre tells us,* that in a fly with six feet^ (I 

 do not remember that he describes the species) the pair 

 next the head, and the pair next the tail, have brushes at 

 their extremities, with which the fly dresses, as there may 

 be occasion, the anterior or the posterior part of its body: 

 but that the middle pair have no such brushes, the situation 

 of these legs not admitting of the brushes, if they were 

 there, being converted to the same use. This is a very ex- 

 act mechanical distinction. 



V. If the reader, looking to our distributions of science ; 

 wish to contemplate the chemistry, as well as the mechan- 

 ism of nature, the insect creation will afford him an ex- 

 ample. I refer to the light in the tail of n glow-worm. Two 

 points seem to be agreed upon by naturalists concerning it ; 

 first, that it is phosphoric ; secondly, that its use is to at- 

 tract the male insect. The only thing to be inquired af- 

 ter, is the singularity, if any such there be, in the natur- 

 al history of this animal, which should render a pro- 

 vision of this kind more necessary for it, than for other 

 insects. That singularity seems to be the difference, which 

 subsists between the male and the female ; which difference 

 is greater than what we find in any other species of animal 

 whatever. The glow-worm is a female caterpillar ; the 

 male of which is dijiy; lively, comparatively small, dissimi- 

 lar to the female in appearance, probably also as distinguish- 

 ed from her in habits, pursuits, and manners, as he is un- 

 like in form and external constitution. (PI. XXXIII. fig. 



* Vol. i. p. 342. 



