HYBERNATION OF INSECTS. 44-5 



in sunny and mild winters may be adopted by the apiarist 

 with advantage. John Hunter's experiment, indeed, 

 cited above, in which he found that a hive grew lighter 

 in a cold than in a warm week, seems opposed to this 

 conclusion ; but an insulated observation of this kind, 

 which we do not know to have been instituted with a 

 due regard to all the circumstances that required atten- 

 tion, must not be allowed to set aside the striking facts 

 of a contrary description recorded by Reaumur and cor- 

 roborated by the almost universal sentiment of writers 

 on bees. After all, however, on this point, as well as on 

 many others connected with the winter economy of these 

 endlessly-wonderful insects, there is evidently much yet 

 to be observed, and many doubts which can be satisfac- 

 torily dispelled only by new experiments. 



The degree of cold which most insects in their diffe- 

 rent states, while torpid, are able to endure with impu- 

 nity, is very various ; and the habits of the different 

 species, as to the situation which they select to pass the 

 winter, are regulated by their greater or less sensibility 

 in this respect. Many insects, though able to sustain a 

 degree of cold sufficient to induce torpidity, would be 

 destroyed by the freezing temperature, to avoid which 

 they penetrate into the earth or hide themselves under 

 non-conducting substances; and there can be little doubt 

 that it is with this view that so many species while pupae 

 are thus secured from cold by cocoons of silk or other 

 materials. Yet a very great proportion of insects in all 

 their states are necessarily subjected to an extreme de- 

 gree of cold. Many eggs and pupae are exposed to the 

 air without any covering ; and many, both larvae and per- 



