484 



HISTORY OF INSECTS. 



assailant. But its attempts are only the 

 threats of impotence ; they draw down the re- 

 sentment of powerful animals, but no way 

 serve to defend it. The deformity of its figure, 

 and its slender make, have also subjected it 

 to an imputation, which though entirely found- 

 ed in prejudice, has more than once procured 

 its destruction. It is supposed, as the name 

 imports, that it often enters into the ears of 

 people sleeping ; thus causing madness from 

 the intolerable pain, and soon after death it- 

 self. Indeed, the French name which signi- 

 fies the Ear-piercer, urges the calumny against 

 the harmless insect in very plain terms ; yet 

 nothing can be more unjust : the ear is already 

 filled with a substance which prevents any 

 insect from entering ; and besides, it is well 

 lined and defended with membranes, which 

 would keep out any little animal, even though 

 the ear- wax were away. These reproaches, 

 therefore, are entirely groundless: but it were 

 well if the accusations which gardeners bring 

 against the earwig were as slightly founded. 

 There is nothing more certain than that it 

 lives among flowers, and destroys them. 

 When fruit also has been wounded by flies, 

 the earwig generally comes in for a second 

 feast, and sucks those juices which they first 

 began to broach. Still, however, this insect 

 is not so noxious as it would seem ; and sel- 

 dom is found but where the mischief has been 

 originally begun by others. Like all of this 

 class, the earwig is hatched from an egg. As 

 there are various kinds of this animal, so they 

 choose different places to breed in : in gene- 

 ral, however, they lay their eggs under the 

 bark of plants, or in the clefts of trees, when 

 beginning to decay. They proceed from the 

 egg in that reptile state in which they are 

 most commonly seen ; and as they grow lar- 

 ger, the wings bound under the skin begin to 

 bourgeon. It is amazing how very little room 

 four large wings take up before they are pro- 

 truded ; for no person could ever conceive such 

 an expansion of natural drapery could be rolled 

 up in so small a packet. The sheath in 

 which they are enveloped, folds and covers 

 them so neatly, that the animal seems quite 

 destitute of wings ;* and even when they are 

 burst from their confinement, the animal, by 

 the power of the muscles and joints which it 

 has in the middle of its wings, can closely fold 

 them into a very narrow compass. When 

 the earwig has become a winged insect, it flies 

 in pursuit of the female, ceasing to feed, and 

 is wholly employed in the business of propa- 

 gation. It lives in its winged state but a few 

 days; and having taken care for the continu- 

 ance of posterity, dries up, and dies to all ap- 

 pearance consumptive. 8 



1 Swammerrtatn, p. 114. 



8 The indefatigable M. de Geer has discovircd that 



To this order of insects we may also refer 

 the Cuckoo Spit, or Froth Worm, that is often 

 found hid in that frothy matter which we find 

 on the surface of plants. It has an oblong ob- 

 tuse body ; and a large head with small eyes. 

 The external wings, for it has four, are of a 

 dusky brown, marked with two white spots : 

 the head is black. The spume in which it is 

 found wallowing is all of its own formation, 

 and very much resembles frothy spittle. It 

 proceeds from the vent of the animal, and other 

 parts of the body; and if it be wiped away, 

 a new quantity will be quickly seen ejected 

 from the little animal's body. Within this 

 spume it is seen in time to acquire four tuber- 

 cles on its back, wherein the wings are en- 

 closed : these bursting, from a reptile it be- 

 comes a winged animal; and thus rendered 

 perfect, it flies to meet its mate, and propagate 

 its kind. 



The Water Tipula also belongs to this class. 

 It has an oblong slender body, with four feet 

 fixed upon the breast, and four feelers near the 

 mouth. It has four weak wings, which do 

 not at all seem proper for flying, but leaping 

 only. But what this insect chiefly demands 

 our attention for, is the wonderful lightness 

 wherewith it runs on the surface of the water, 

 so as scarce to put it in motion. It is some- 

 times seen in rivers, and on their banks, es- 

 pecially under shady trees ; and generally in 

 swarms of several together. 



The Common Water-fly also breeds in the 

 same manner with those above mentioned. 

 This animal is by some called Notonecta, be- 

 cause it does not swim, in the usual manner, 

 upon its belly, but on its back : nor can we 

 help admiring that fitness in this insect for its 

 situation, as it feeds on the under-side of 

 plants which grow on the surface of the water ; 

 and therefore it is thus formed with its mouth 

 upwards, to take its food with greater conve- 

 nience and ease. 



We may also add the Water- Scorpion, 

 which is a large insect, being near an inch in 

 length, and about half an inch in breadth. Its 

 body is nearly oval, but very flat and thin ; 

 and its tail long and pointed. The head is 

 small ; and the feelers appear like legs, re- 

 sembling the claws of a scorpion, but without 

 sharp points. This insect is generally found 

 in ponds ; and is, of all others, the most tyran- 

 nical and rapacious. It destroys, like a wolf 

 among sheep, twenty times as many as its 

 hunger requires. One of these, when put into 

 a basin of water, in which were thirty or forty 

 worms of the libellula kind, each as large as 

 itself, destroyed them all in a few minutes ; 

 getting on their backs, and piercing with its 

 trunk through their body. These animals, 



the female earwig sits over her eggs, and fosters her 

 young, in the same manner as a hen does her chickens. 



