40 THE LIFE OF AN INSECT. 



cealment, except perhaps the waters, can secure 

 their prey from them ; and neither bulk, courage, 

 nor ferocity, avail to terrify them from effecting 

 their purpose. They attack the ruthless spider in 

 his toils ; they discover the retreat of the little 

 bee, that for safety bores deep into timber; and 

 though its enemy, the ichneumon, cannot enter its 

 cell, by means of her long ovipositor (organ for 

 depositing the egg), she reaches the helpless grub, 

 which its parent vainly thought secured from 

 every foe, and deposits in it an egg, which pro- 

 duces a larva that destroys it. In vain does the 

 destructive cecidomia of the wheat conceal its larvae 

 within the glumes that so closely cover the grain ; 

 three species of these minute benefactors of our 

 race, sent in mercy by Heaven, know how to in- 

 troduce their eggs into them, thus preventing the 

 mischief they would otherwise occasion, and saving 

 mankind from the horrors of famine. In vain, 

 also, the cynips, by its magic touch, produces the 

 curious excrescences on various trees and plants, 

 called gulls, for the nutriment and defence of its 

 progeny. This parasite insect discovers its secret 

 chamber, pierces its wall, however thick, and 

 commits the destroying egg to its offspring." In 



