APPENDIX. 51 



worthy of relation, and the more so that it takes place/not in the 

 full intelligence of the perfect insect, but while he is yet a nursling ! 

 The larva? of the Cicindeke, are said, to resort to the following 

 device for their livelihood, nor could the sagacity of Ulysses have 

 imagined a belter. They drill a series of perpendicular holes in the 

 earth, which they excavate with great care as dwelling places for 

 themselves, and a snare for their prey. Within the immediate em- 

 bouchure, which is a perfect circle, sits the larva, and when an in- 

 sect passes over it, he is liable to find himself seized upon by a pair 

 of unrelenting jaw?, which twist him over, and consign him at once 

 to the black abyss, there doomed to remain till the inhospitable 

 host is sufficiently hungry. 



The Hydrophiles, another predatory tribe, living mostly in the 

 water, are obliged to come up to the surface occasionally, to breathe : 

 this they effect in the following manner : being a very little 

 lighter '.haa the element itself, their backs only are just visible 

 above the surface; in order to emerge sufficiently, they push their 

 wing cases outwards from the flat position which they occupy 

 against the body in a quiescent stale, and so form a vacuum into 

 which air rushes, and finds it way into their stigmata, or lungs, 

 which are situated under these wing cases. 



CATERPILLARS. 



These insects have been studied with peculiar attention by 

 Reaumur and Lyonnet, and much information respecting their mode 

 of life is to be found in Malpighi, Swammerdam, and Bonnet. For 

 their instincts, " as soon as a new-born caterpillar finds his way 

 to a leaf, he is followed by another, then by a third, fourth, fifth, 

 sixth, etc., who establish themselves, as by mutual consent, all of a 

 row, like guests on the same side of a long table ; thus arranged, 

 they begin to eat, in society, their first leguminous dinner. Butano. 

 Uierrow is already placing itself behind the first, and a third line of 

 new arrivals is followed by a fourth, and so on till the whole surface, 

 down to the very stalk, is covered bylines of invaders. When all are 

 led in a manner, which makes waste impossible, they begin to 

 construct a silky awning over their heads, and carry a series of threads 

 from one border of the leaf to the other, which collapsing in the mid- 



