236 MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS. 



alarm is removed, they are retracted, so that only a small 

 portion of them appears a . 



Insects often endeavour to repel or escape from assail- 

 ants by their motions. Mr. White, mentioning a wild bee 

 that makes its nest on the summit of a remarkable hill 

 near Lewes in Sussex, in the chalky soil, says : " When 

 people approach the place these insects begin to be alarm- 

 ed, and with a sharp and hostile sound dash and strike 

 round the heads and faces of intruders. I have often been 

 interrupted myself while contemplating the grandeur of 

 the scenery around me, and have thought myself in 

 danger of being stung b ." The hive-bee will sometimes 

 have recourse to the same expedient, when her hive is 

 approached too near, and thus give you notice what you 

 may expect if you do not take her warning and retire.- 

 Humble-bees when disturbed, whether out of the nest 

 or in it, assume some very grotesque and at the same 

 time threatening attitudes. If you put your finger to 

 them, they will either successively or simultaneously lift 

 up the three legs of one side ; turn themselves upon their 

 back ; bend up their anus and show their sting accom- 

 panied by a drop of poison. Sometimes they will even 

 spirt out that liquor. When in the nest, if it be attack- 

 ed, they also beat their wings violently and emit a great 

 hum . 



These motions menace vengeance; those of some 

 other insects are merely to effect their escape. Thus I 

 have observed that the species of the May-fly tribe 

 ( Trichoptera*-\ when I have attempted to take them, have 



a De Geer, iv. 74. b Nat. Hist. ii. 268. 



c P. Huber in Linn. Trans, vi. 219. Kirby, Man. Ap. Angl. i. 201. 



d Kirby in Linn. Trans, xi. 87, note*. 



