466 



HISTORY OF INSECTS. 



the cruelest enemies to each other. Matiper- 

 tuis put about a hundred of them together in 

 the same glass; and they scarce came into 

 contact, when they began to exert all their 

 rage in mutual destruction : there was nothing 

 to be seen but one universal carnage, without 

 any distinction of age or sex ; so that in a few 

 days there remained only fourteen, which had 

 killed and devoured all the rest. 



But their unnatural malignity is still more 

 apparent in their cruelty to their offspring. 

 He enclosed a female scorpion, big with young, 

 in a glass vessel, and she was seen to devour 

 them as fast as they were excluded : there was 

 but one only of the number that escaped the 

 general destruction, by taking refuge on the 

 back of its parent ; and this soon after reven- 

 ged the cause of its brethren, by killing the 

 old one in its turn. 



Such is the terrible and unrelenting nature 

 of this insect, which neither the bonds of 

 society nor of nature can reclaim : it is even 

 asserted that, when driven to an extremity, the 

 scorpion will often destroy itself. The follow- 

 ing experiment was ineffectually tried by 

 Maupertuis : but I am so well assured of it 

 by many eye-witnesses, who have seen it both 

 in Italy and America, that I have no doubt 

 remaining of its veracity. A scorpion, newly 

 caught, is placed in the midst of a circle of burn- 

 ing charcoal, and thus an egress prevented on 

 every side : the scorpion, as I am assured, runs 

 for about a minute round the circle, in hopes of 

 escaping : but finding that impossible, it stings 

 itself on the back of the head, and in this man- 

 ner the undaunted suicide instantly expires. 



It is happy for mankind that these animals 

 are thus destructive to each other; since other- 

 wise they would multiply in so great a degree 

 as to render some countries uninhabitable. 

 The male and female of this insect are very 

 easily distinguishable ; the male being smaller 

 and less hairy. The female brings forth her 

 young alive, and perfect in their kind. 1 Rhedi 

 having brought a quantity of scorpions, selec- 

 ted the females, which by their size and rough, 

 ness were easily distinguishable from the rest, 

 and putting them in separate glass vessels, he 

 kept them for some days without food. In 

 about five days one of them brought forth 

 thirty-eight young ones, well shaped, and of 

 a milk-white colour, which changed every day 

 more and more into a dark rusty hue. An- 

 other female, in a different vessel, brought 

 forth twenty-seven of the same colour : and the 

 day following the young ones seemed all fixed 

 to the back and belly of the female. For near 



1 All the scorpion tribe are produced from eggs, of 

 which one female lays a considerable number. After 

 their escape from the egg, they undergo no farther trans- 

 formation, except occasionally casting their skin like the 

 spider. 



a fortnight all these continued alive and well: 

 but afterwards some of them died daily ; until, 

 in about a month, they all died except two. 



Were it worth the trouble, these animals 

 might be kept living as long as curiosity 

 should think proper. Their chief food is worms 

 and insects; and upon a proper supply of 

 these, their lives might be lengthened to their 

 natural extent. How long that may be, we 

 are not told: but if we may argue from ana- 

 logy, it cannot be less than seven or eight 

 years ; and perhaps, in the larger kind, double 

 that duration. As they have somewhat the 

 form of the lobster, so they resemble that ani- 

 mal in casting their shell, or more properly 

 their skin ; since it is softer by far than the 

 covering of the lobster, and set with hairs, 

 which grow from it in great abundance, parti- 

 cularly at the joinings. The young lie in the 

 womb of the parent each covered up in its own 

 membrane, to the number of forty or fifty, and 

 united to each other by an oblong thread, so 

 as to exhibit altogether the form of a chaplet. 



Such is the manner in which the common 

 scorpion produces its young; but there is a 

 scorpion of America, produced from the egg, 

 in the manner of the spider. The eggs are no 

 larger than pin-points ; and they are deposited 

 in a web, which they spin from their bodies, 

 and carry about wilh them till they are hatched. 

 As soon as the young ones are excluded from 

 the shell, they get upon the back of the parent, 

 who turns her tail over them, and defends 

 them with her sting. It seems probable, there- 

 fore, that captivity produces that unnatural 

 disposition in the scorpion, which induces it 

 to destroy its young ; since, at liberty, it is 

 found to protect them with such unceasing as- 

 siduity. 2 



CHAP. X. 



OF THE SCOLOPENDRA AND GALLY-WORM. 



OF these hideous and angry insects we know 

 little, except the figure and the noxious quali- 



2 Black Scorpion. The black Scorpion of Ceylon is 

 a very dangerous insect, and its sting is frequently mor- 

 tal. This species is about four inches long, and from one 

 to two broad over the middle of the body. When run- 

 ning, or disturbed, their tail is usually carried on their 

 backs. They bite with their fangs, or forceps, and in- 

 stantly dart the sting, which lies in their tail, into the 

 place they have bitten. Their sting emits a poison re- 

 sembling milk, but not altogether so white. When these 

 scorpions are attacked by their inveterate enemy the ant, 

 and cannot get rid of him, they sting themselves to 

 death. 



The African Scorpion. The general colour of this 

 animal is a deep brown, nearly approaching in some spe- 

 cimens to black. It grows to a very large size, some- 

 times nearly a foot long. 



