INTERNAL ANATOMY OF INSECTS. 79 



mersion in any fluid, it is often resumed, even when it 

 has been long arid they are apparently dead, if they be 

 brought into contact with the atmosphere. Reaumur 

 found this to be the case with bees a ; and Swammerdam 

 tells us that the maggot of the cheese-fly ( Tyrophaga Casei) 

 lived six or seven days in rain-water b : he found it so 

 difficult to kill the larva of Stratyomis Chamccleon^ which 

 he first immersed twenty-four hours in spirits of wine, 

 and then put them several days in water, without killing 

 them, that he lost his patience, and dissected them 

 alive. He tried to drown them also in vinegar, in which 

 they held out more than two days c . 



That the suspended animation and subsequent death 

 of most terrestrial insects when thrown into water is 

 caused by the want of air 9 is evident from this, that the 

 same effect ensues if the spiracles be covered with any 

 oily or fatty matter. In this case too, their vital powers 

 soon become suspended : they revive, if the suffocating 

 matter be soon removed ; and if this be not done, in- 

 fallibly perish. This fact was known to the ancients, 

 for Pliny observes that bees die if dipped in oil or ho- 

 ney d . One exception to this law has been before men- 

 tioned 6 : a similar contrivance secures the cheese-mag- 

 got from having its respiration interrupted by its moist 

 and greasy food; the grub also of Sarcophaga carnaria, 

 and of other Muscidce probably, has its posterior spira- 

 cles placed in a plate at the bottom of a kind of fleshy 

 pouch, which has the shape of a hollow, truncated, and 



3 Reaum. v. 540. b Swamm. Bibl. Nat. ii. 65. a. 



c Ibid. 48. a. d Hist. Nat. I. xi. c. 19. 



e Swamm. Sibl. Nat. ii. G4. a. 



