AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG. 345 



heart, arteries, lungs, and intestines, should we not re- 

 gard such an instance as a perfect prodigy, as an exam- 

 ple of instinctive forbearance almost miraculous ? 



Some Ichneumons, instead of burying their eggs in 

 the body of the larvae that are to serve their young for 

 food, content themselves with gluing them to the skin of 

 their prey, which the young grubs pierce as soon as 

 hatched. Another tribe, whose activity and perseverance 

 are equally conspicuous, which includes the beautiful ge- 

 nus Chrysis and many other hymenopterous insects, imi- 

 tating the insidious cuckoo, contrive to introduce their 

 eggs into the nests in which bees and other insects have 

 deposited theirs. With this view they are constantly on 

 the watch, and, the moment the unsuspecting mother 

 has quitted her cell for the purpose of collecting a store 

 of food or materials, glide into it and leave an egg, the 

 germe of a future assassin of the larva that is to spring 

 from that deposited by its side. 



The females of the insects of which we have been speak- 

 ing, in providing for their offspring, are saved the trou- 

 ble of furnishing them with any habitation. Either they 

 occupy that of another insect, or find a convenient abode 

 within the body of that on which they feed. But upon 

 the maternal affection of another large hymenopterous 

 tribe, belonging to Latreille's Family of Burrowers (Fos- 

 sores), whose young in like manner feed on other insects, 

 is imposed the arduous task not merely of collecting a 

 supply of food, but of inclosing it along with their eggs 

 in cells or burrows often of considerable depth, and dug 

 with great labour in sand or the solid earth. 



The general economy of these insects is similar. Having 

 first dug a cylindrical cavity of the requisite dimensions, 



