A WINTER SLEEPER 303 



cold season. In the case of most insects the life 

 of the species is carried over this season in the 

 larval form or in the form of pupae, and in not a 

 few the chasm of winter is bridged by the well- 

 protected egg. Some of the butterflies, however, 

 hibernate, though they do not risk the fate of the 

 species upon it, for the main current of life is 

 carried in the chrysalides either buried in the 

 ground or safely hung up in sheltered nooks. With 

 the humble-bees and the social wasps hibernation 

 by the fertilized queens is the only plan, and just 

 now countless thousands of these are sleeping away 

 the months either in little cells dug out by them- 

 selves in the earth or in nests at the bottom of thick 

 moss. It is a very rare thing to find one of th'e 

 sleepers. Those that pass the winter in the earth 

 very generally choose a spot for their little burrow 

 close to the root of a tree, and such spots are 

 rarely disturbed by spade or plough. Those that 

 blanket themselves in moss are equally safe, for 

 the existence of thick moss means that the place 

 is left untouched from year to year. Yet, despite 

 all this, such is our sense of the delicacy of insects 

 in the mature state, that it is difficult to overcome 

 the feeling that in trusting to a successful winter 

 sleep they are trusting to a very precarious plan. 

 It would be a little difficult to justify the 

 feeling. A very large proportion of insects fulfil 

 the whole purpose of their existence in the summer 

 and die with the first frosts. But the insect 

 organization is not on this account to be taken 

 as peculiarly incapable of resisting cold. Many 

 larvae can survive the ordeal of being frozen hard, 



