58 THE LIFE OF AN INSECT. 



several insects, large spiders, and lizards, were 

 found, in a half-torpid state. On the 15th a few 

 animals began to appear, and, by the 18th, (three 

 days from the equinox,) everything announced the 

 commencement of spring ; the plains were orna- 

 mented by the flowers of a pink wood-sorrel, wild 

 peas, mnoiherce, and geraniums; and the birds 

 began to lay their eggs. Numerous beetles were 

 crawling about, while the saurian tribe, the con- 

 stant inhabitants of a sandy soil, darted in every 

 direction." 



As to the torpid animal and buried seed, so to 

 the carefully laid up egg, the returning warmth of 

 the air is the signal for the commencement of life. 

 The winter-clouds roll reluctantly back, as the 

 genial days of spring advance, and the changes 

 which are to have their accomplishment in the 

 production of a living being out of the minute 

 object before us, are set in movement as the days 

 grow bright and pleasant. That the hatching of 

 the egg, in most cases, is due chiefly to the stimu- 

 lating influence of heat, is now well ascertained. 

 The school-boy who has ever amused himself with 

 silk-worms can well assure us of this fact, for he 

 is in the habit of hatching the insect's eggs by 



