928 



INSECT. 



wasps, and other insects provided with poisonous 

 tings, which, however, they seldom employ except 

 in their own defence, or to resent injuries offered to 

 themselves. Here also may be added the spiders, 

 whose powerful jaws are equally provided with a 

 poisonous fluid, as well as the scorpion, whose long 

 and jointed tail is defended at the tip with a powerful 

 sting. Other insects are to be ranked amongst our 

 minor miseries, namely, such as, by the emission of a 

 caustic, or disgusting fluid, operate strongly upon 

 our olfactory nerves. But the tribes of insects 

 which prey "upon our cattle is equally numerous, 

 including fleas of different species, ticks, gadflies, 

 forest flies, and especially the remarkable family of 

 (Estrideous flies, the larvae of some of which are or- 

 dinarily termed bots. Of the latter we have already 

 iriven an account in our article EOT. In like manner, 

 our poultry and our bees are subject to the attacks of 

 various insects, of some of which accounts will be 

 found in our articles upon the DEATH'S-HEAD MOTH 

 and the GALLERIA. 



It is not, however, upon ourselves and living ani- 

 mals that the ravages of insects are confined, almost 

 every species of property being in some measure 

 or other liable to be injured by them. Our clothes, 

 and other woollen productions, are devoured by the 

 larvae of various species of clothes' moths, which not 

 only feed thereon, but also form for themselves cover- 

 ings of the same materials ; and the richest fars are 

 subject to the attacks of a similar insect ; whilst our 

 museums are equally ravaged by the Dcrmcstcs and 

 Anthrcni. Our furniture is often completely destroyed 

 by the timber-boring beetles and death-watches 

 (Anobiuni) ; and some species of white ants, in warm 

 climates, are so destructive in this respect, that if a 

 chair or table be suffered to remain for a time in the 

 same situation, the interior substance will be com- 

 pletely consumed, nothing remaining but the outside 

 shell, which the insect has the instinct to leave entire. 

 The last named insects may indeed be regarded as 

 amongst the most destructive of our insect enemies, 

 since they scarcely leave any article untouched. 

 Ants also are, in warm climates, almost as destructive ; 

 and even in our own country, one of the smallest 

 species of ants, Formica unifasciata, has increased to 

 such an extent in certain parts of London, and some 

 other towns, devouring all kinds of articles, that the 

 inhabitants have been compelled to quit their abodes. 



Our provisions are also not less liable to the attacks 

 of insects ; bread and flour are devoured by the blattae 

 and meal-worms, and we have seen ship-biscuit swarm- 

 ing to such a degree with the grubs of a species of 

 Anobium as to be worse than useless. The Dermestes 

 feed upon our dried meats. Cheese is attacked by 

 mites ; and the cheese-fly, the grubs of which are 

 termed cheese-hoppers, from their singular motions 

 which we have already described in our account of 

 this insect Our granaries are ravaged by the corn 

 weevil and by the larvae of a species of tinea ; but if 

 we turn our attention to the species of insects which 

 attack such living vegetable productions as are most 

 gratifying to the lip of mankind, we find the cata- 

 logue wofully augmented. 



We need scarcely mention the locust as being the 

 most redoubtable of our insect enemies in this respect, 

 although, fortunately for our coantry, their ravages' 

 are here unknown, except by description. Our wheat 

 whilst in blossom suffers from the attacks of the 

 Hessian fly and Ceddomya tribici, of which we have 



already given an account, whilst its roots are de- 

 voured by the larvae of the Zabrus gibbus, which 

 sometimes, as in the year 1812, near Halie in Ger- 

 many, is produced in such numbers, that whole corn 

 fields are entirely destroyed. The larvae of some of 

 the Elatcrida, known by the ordinary name of wire- 

 worms, also attack its roots, as well as the roots of 

 various other garden plants and culinary vegetables. 

 The errubs of the cockchaffer in like manner often do 

 much injury by devouring the roots of grass, as do 

 also those of the Tipulce. Of the former, an instance 

 is recorded by Kirby and Spence, in which all the 

 fields of a farmer near Norwich were entirely de- 

 stroyed, and as many as eighty bushels were collected 

 by him and his men. Various other esculent roots 

 are also devoured by the larvae of other insects ; 

 amongst which the damage occasioned by the onion- 

 fly (Anthomyia ceparuni), the grub of which destroys 

 the plant when still very young, is, perhaps, the most 

 detrimental. In like manner the steins and the pith 

 of trees and plants are equally subject to the ravages 

 of insects, amongst which may especially be noticed 

 the Bostrichidee, of whose proceedings under the bark 

 of trees we have already given a detailed account. The 

 gigantic larvae of the longicorn beetles, goat-moths, 

 Siricidts, &c., are not less destructive by boring- 

 through the solid wood of various trees; whilst an 

 ant (Formica saccharivora), which takes up its abode 

 in the stem of the sugar-cane, has proved at certain 

 periods in the highest degree obnoxious. But it is 

 upon the leaves and young buds and stems of plants 

 that insects are the most detrimental in their attacks. 

 Of these the turnip-fly, Haltica nemorum, and some 

 other species hold the foremost rank. Entire and 

 extensive families of beetles (Crioccridee, Chrysomelidce, 

 &c.), are similarly employed in devouring the leaves 

 of various plants, as well as the numerous species of 

 saw-flies; but it is amongst the Lepidnptera that this 

 species of injury occurs ia the highest degree, whole 

 forests being sometimes entirely defoliated by various 

 species. In like manner the flowers and fruits of 

 various plants are subject to similar devastation by 

 insects. It would, however, require an entire enu- 

 meration of vegetables and their attendant species of 

 insects, in order to lay before the reader a complete 

 account of the ravages of insects upon our vegetable 

 productions ; since it is to be observed that, for the 

 most part, the latter are destined by an all-wise 

 Creator for the support of the former. Their ravages, 

 therefore, which man regards as injuries towards him- 

 self, are but the natural result of the ordinary work- 

 ings of the economy of nature. A few observations 

 upon this branch of the subject, and with reference 

 to the employment of remedies against the attacks of 

 these noxious insects, will not be considered out of 

 place. One of the most common, and at the same 

 time most weighty charges brought against the ento- 

 mologist is, that whilst he bestows endless labour and 

 trouble in collecting and preserving the various 

 species of insects, his attention is never, or but very 

 rarely, directed to inquiries into the most effectual 

 remedies against those insect scourges which nature 

 has inflicted upon our vegetable productions. He is 

 told over and over again, that to make the science 

 which he cultivates more beneficial to society, ana 

 thereby more generally known, a share, at least, of 

 his attention must be occupied in prosecuting expe- 

 riments for the purpose of discovering how this or 

 that insect enemy cay be combated in the most sue- 



