824 



A HISTORY OF 



methods of killing them, arise the different 

 colour- which they appear in when brought 

 to u-. While they are living they seem tc 

 be sprinkled over with a white powder, 

 which they lose as soon as the boiling water 

 is poured upon them. Those that are dried 

 upon hot plates are the blackest. What we 

 call the cochineal are only the females, for 

 the males are a sort of fly, p.s already observ- 

 ed in the kermes. They are used both for 

 dying and medicine, and are said to have 

 much the same virtue as the kernes, though 

 they are now seldom used alone, but are 

 mixed with other things for ths sa!:e of the 

 colour. 



I shall end this account of the beetle tribe 

 with the history of an animal which cannot 

 properly be ranked under this species, n.nd 

 yet cannot be more methodically ranged un- 

 der any other. This is the insect that forms 

 and resides in the gall-nut, the spoils of 

 which are converted to such useful purposes. 

 The gall-insects are bred in a sort of bodies 

 adhering to a kind of oak in Asia, which dif- 

 fer with regard to their colour, size, rough- 

 ness, smoothness, and shape, and which we 

 call galls. They are not fruit, as some have 

 imagined, but preternatural tumours, owing to 

 the wounds given to the buds, leaves, and 

 twigs of the tree, by a kind of insects that 

 lay their eggs within them. This animal is 

 furnished with an implement, by which the 

 female penetrates into the bark of the tree, 

 or into that spot which just begins to bud, 

 and there sheds a drop of corrosive fluid into 

 the cavity. Having thus formed a recep- 

 tacle for her eggs, she deposites them in the 

 place, and dies soon after. The heart of the 

 bud beitig thus wounded, the circulation of 

 the nutritive juice is interrupted, and the fer- 

 mentation thereof, with the poison injected 

 by the fly, burns the parts adjacent, and then 

 alters the natural colour of the plant. The 

 juice or sap, turned back from its natural 

 course, extravasates, and flows round the egg. 



(a) To the Beetle kind also belongs that little animal 

 which causes such alarm to the superstitious hy its ticking 

 noise, and which is often called the death-watch. It is 

 found in decayed trees and furniture, or among hay and 

 dried leaves. This noise is merely the call of one sex to 



After which it swells and dilates by the as- 

 sistance of some bubbles of air, which get 

 admission through the pores of the bark, and 

 which run in the vessels with the sap. The 

 crterrial coat of this excrescence is dried by 

 the air, anil grows into a figure, which bears 

 some resemblance to the bow of an arch, or 

 the roundneso of a kernel. Ibis little ball 

 .-?:cves its nutriment, growth, and vegeiation, 

 as the other parts of the tree, by slow de- 

 grees, and is what we rail the gall-nut. 1 he 

 worm that is hatched under this spacious 

 vault, finds in the substance of the ball, which 

 is ao yet very tender, a subsistence suitable 

 toitsnaturs; gnaws and digests it till the 

 time cornes for its transformation to a nyinph, 

 and from that state of existence changes into 

 a fly. After this, the insect, perceiving'iiself 

 duly provided with all things requisite, dis- 

 engages itself soon from its confinement, and 

 takes its flight into the open air. The case, 

 however, is not similar with respect to the 

 gall-nut that grows in autumn. The cold 

 weather frequently comes on belbre the worm 

 is transformed into a fly, or before the fly can 

 pierce through its enclosure. The nut falls 

 with the leaves, and although you may imagine 

 that the fly which lies within is lost, yet in 

 reality it is not so ; on the contrary, its being 

 covered up so close, is the means of its | re- 

 servation. Thus it spends the winter in a 

 warm house, where every crack and cranny 

 of the nut is well stopped up; and lies buri- 

 ed, as it were, under a heap of leaves, which 

 preserves it from the injuries of the weather. 

 This apartment, however, though so commo- 

 dious a retreat in the winter, is a perfect 

 prison in the spring. The fly, roused out of 

 its lethargy by the first heats, breaks its way 

 through, and ranges where it pleases. A 

 very small aperture is sufficient, since at this 

 time the fly is but a diminutive creature. Be- 

 sides, the ringlets whereof its body is com- 

 posed, dilate, and become pliant in the pas- 

 sage." 



the other, and is caused by the animal's beating on any 

 hard substance with the shield or fore part of the head j 

 which is always in seven, nine, or eleven distinct strokes. 

 A little insect, hardly the tenth of an inch lone;, often found 

 in old books, is sometimes falsely charged with this alarm* 



