HISTORY OF INSECTS, &c. 



BOOK IV. 



INSECTS OF THE FOURTH ORDER. 



CHAP. I. 



OF THE FOURTH ORDER OF INSECTS IN 

 GENERAL. 



IN the foregoing part we treated of caterpillars 

 changing into butterflies ; in the present will 

 be given the history of grubs changing into 

 their corresponding winged animals. These, 

 like the former, undergo their transformation, 

 and appear as grubs or maggots, as aurelias, 

 and at last as winged insects. Like the for- 

 mer, they are bred from eggs ; they feed in 

 their reptile state ; they continue motionless 

 and lifeless, as aurelias ; and fly and propa- 

 gate, when furnished with wings. But they 

 differ in many respects : the grub or maggot 

 wants the number of feet which the caterpillar 

 is seen to have ; the aurelia is not so totally 

 wrapped up, but that its feet and its wings 

 appear. The perfect animal, when emanci- 

 pated, also has its wings either cased, or trans- 

 parent like gauze ; riot coloured with that 

 beautifully painted dust which adorns the 

 wings of the butterfly. 



In this class of insects, therefore, we may 

 place a various tribe, that are first laid, .as 

 eggs, then are excluded as maggots or grubs, 

 then change into aurelias, with their legs and 

 wings not wrapped up but appearing ; and, 

 lastly, assuming wings, in which state they 

 propagate their kind. Some of these have 

 four transparent wings, as bees ; some have 

 two membranous cases to their wings, as bee- 

 tles ; and some have but two wings, which 

 are transparent as ants. Here, therefore, we 

 will place the bee, the wasp, the humble-bee, 

 the ichneumon fly, the gnat, the tipula or long 

 legs, the beetle, the may-bug, the glow-worm, 

 and the ant. The transformations which all 

 these undergo, are pretty nearly similar ; and 



though very different animals in form , yet are 

 produced nearly in the same manner. 



CHAP. II. 



OF THE BEE. 



To give a complete history of this insect in 

 a few pages, which some have exhausted vol- 

 umes in describing, and whose nature and 

 properties still continue in dispute, is impossi- 

 ble. 1 It will be sufficient to give a general 

 idea of the animal's operations ; which, though 

 they have been studied for more than two 

 thousand years, are still but incompletely 

 known. The account given us by Reaumur 

 is sufficiently minute ; and, if true, sufficient- 

 ly wonderful : but I find many of the facts 

 which he relates, doubted by those who are 

 most conversant with bees : and some of them 

 actually declared not to have a real existence 

 in nature. 



It is unhappy, therefore, for those whose 

 method demand? a history of bees, that they 

 are unfurnished with those materials which 

 have induced so many observers to contradict 

 so great a naturalist. His life was spent in 



1 Many works have been written on the nature and 

 habits of bees. Among those who have contributed 

 largely to our knowledge of the subject may be mentioned, 

 Swammerdam, Reaumur, Schirach, ThorJey, Wildman, 

 Huish, Howison, Huber, and Bonner. The two latter 

 made many valuable discoveries regarding the bee under 

 very peculiar and, one would almost imagine, insur- 

 mountable disadvantages. Huber was stone blind, and 

 Bonnet's researches were conducted in the midst of a 

 populous city, and during the pressure of daily toil, he 

 being a poor weaver, and his hives being kept for many 

 years in a garret in the Gallowgate of Glasgow ! Bon- 

 ner's work on Bees was published at Edinburgh in 1795, 

 (one volume, 8vo) and an English translation of Huber's 

 was published in 1806, (I2mo.) 



