546 



HISTORY OF INSECTS. 



tionless, nor entirely swaddled up without 

 form. 



It would be tedious and endless to give a 

 description of all ; and yet it would be an un- 

 pardonable omission not to mention the par- 

 ticularities of some beetles, which are singular 

 rather from their size, their manners, or their 

 formation. That beetle, which the Americans 

 call the Tumble-dung, particularly demands 

 our attention; it is all over of a dusky black, 

 rounder than those animals are generally found 

 to be, and so strong, though not much larger 

 than the common black beetle, that if one of 

 them be put under a brass candlestick, it will 



cause it to move backwards and forwards, as 

 if it were by an invisible hand, to the admira- 

 tion of those who are not accustomed to the 

 sight; but this strength is given it for much 

 more useful purposes than those of exciting 

 human curiosity, for there is no creature more 

 laborious, either in seeking subsistence, or in 

 providing a proper retreat for its young. They 

 are endowed with sagacity to discover subsis- 

 tence by their excellent smelling, which directs 

 them in flights to excrements just fallen from 

 man or beast, ori which they instantly drop, 

 and fall unanimously to work in forming 

 round balls or pellets thereof, in the middle of 



noticed in the wheat fields of Long Island, from which 

 it spread gradually at the rate of fifteen or twenty miles 

 round; and in 1789 it had advanced two hundred miles 

 from its original station in Long Island. Other accounts 

 state that it did not travel more than seven miles annu- 

 ally, and did little serious damage before 1 788. Their 

 numbers seem almost incredible. The houses in the in- 

 fested districts swarmed with them to so great a degree, 

 that every vessel was filled with them ; five hundred were 

 actually counted on a glass tumbler which had been set 

 down for a few minutes with a little beer in it. They 

 were observed crossing the Delaware river like a cloud ; 

 and even mountains do not seem to interrupt their pro- 

 gress. We can well understand, therefore, that so for- 

 midable a ravager should have caused a very great alarm ; 

 and even our own government was in fear lest the insect 

 should be imported. The privy council, indeed, sat day 

 after day in deep consultation what measures should be 

 adopted to ward off the danger of a calamity more to be 

 dreaded, as they well knew, than the plague or the pes- 

 tilence. Expresses were sent oft' in all directions to the 

 officers of the customs at the different outports respecting 

 the examination of cargoes, despatches were written to 

 the ambassadors in France, Austria, Prussia, and Amer- 

 ica, to gain information, and so important altogether 

 was the business deemed, that the minutes of council, 

 and the documents collected from all quarters, fill up. 

 wards of two hundred pages. 



The cheese fly (Piophila Casei, Fallen) is very small 

 and black, with whitish wings margined with black. It 

 was one of those experimented upon by Redi to prove 

 that insects, in the fabric of which so much art, order, 

 contrivance, and wisdom appear, could not be the pro- 

 duction of chance or rottenness, but the work of the same 

 Omnipotent hand which created the heavens and the 

 earth. This tiny little fly is accordingly furnished with 

 an admirable instrument for depositing its eggs, in an 

 ovipositor, which it can thrust out and extend to a great 

 length, so that it can penetrate to a considerable depth 

 into the cracks of cheese, where it lays its eggs, 256 in 

 number. " I have seen them myself," says Swammer- 

 dam, " thrust out their tails for this purpose to an amaz- 

 ing length, and by that method bury the eggs in the 

 deepest cavities. I found in a few days afterwards a 

 number of maggots which had sprung from those eggs, 

 perfectly resembling those of the first brood that had 

 produced the mother fly. I cannot but also take notice 

 that the rottenness of cheese is really caused by these 

 maggots ; for they both crumble the substance of it into 

 small particles and also moisten it with some sort of li- 

 quid, so that the decayed part rapidly spreads, I once 

 observed a cheese which I had purposely exposed to this 

 kind of fly grow moist in a short time in those parts of it 

 where eggs had been deposited, and had afterwards been 

 hatched into maggots; though, before, the cheese was 

 perfectly sound and entire." 



The cheese-hopper is furnished with two horny claw- 

 shaped mandibles, which it uses both for digging into the 

 cheese and for moving itself, being destitute of feet. Its 

 powers of leaping have been observed by every one ; and 

 Swammerdam says, " I have seen one, whose length did 

 not exceed the fourth of an inch, leap out of a box six 

 inches deep, that is, twenty-four times the length of its 

 own body : others leap a great deal higher. " For this 

 purpose it first erects itself on its tail, which is furnished 

 with two wart-like projections, to enable it to maintain 

 its balance. It then bends itself into a circle, catches the 

 skin near its tail with its hooked mandible?, and after 

 strongly contracting itself from a circular into an oblong 

 form, it throws itself with a jerk into a straight line, and 

 thus makes the leap. 



Cheese hoppers (Piophila casei, Fallen), a, the rmifrsrot ex- 

 tended ; 6, in a leaping position ; d, the same magnified ; e, the 

 Ay magnified ;/, g, the fly, natural size. 



One very surprising provision is remarkable in the 

 breathing-tubes of the cheese maggot, which are not 

 placed, as in caterpillars, along the sides, but a pair near 

 the head and another pair near the tail. Now, when 

 burrowing in the moist cheese, these would be apt to be 

 obstructed ; but to prevent this, it has the power of bring- 

 ing over the front pair a fold of the skin, breathing in 

 the meanwhile through the under pair. Well may Swam- 

 merdam denominate these contrivances " surprising mir- 

 acles of God's power and wisdom in this abject creature." 



Like the other destructive insects above mentioned, 

 the multiplication of the cheese fly is checked by some 

 insect, whose history, so far as we are aware, is not yet 

 known. Swammerdam found many of the maggots with 

 other larvte in their bodies ; but he did not trace their 

 transformations. If they were the larva of an ichneumon 

 it must be exceedingly minute. 



