22 



I N S E C T S. 



three or four days they bring forth their young, \yhich leave their nefts in 

 a few days, and creep on the branches of the plant, till the females are 

 vifned by the males, which are winged inftds'; they produce a new off- 

 fpring yielding a new harveft thrice a year., When gathered, they put 

 them into holes in the ground^ they are killed with boiling water, and 

 dried in the fun, or on hot plates. From the various methods of killing 

 them arife their different colours when brought to us, 



it is evident that the foregoing (like the following) are not beetles, as 

 they do not undergo the changes, &c. which belong to that tribe 5 yet, 

 on the whole, this may be as convenient a place as any for them to oc- 

 cupy. 



Gall Insects are bred in excrefcenccs, adhering to a kind of oak in 

 Afia, which differ in colour, fize, roughnefsj and {hape; thefe we call 

 g^lls. The female of this anim.al is furnifhed with an implement, by 

 which fhe penetrates into the bark of the tree,, or into a fpot which juft 

 begins to bud, and there fheds a drop of corrofive fluid. She depofits 

 her eggs in the place. The juice or fap fermented by the wound and 

 fluid, turned from its natural courfe, flows round the egg j after which 

 it is fwelled by bubbles of air. The external coat of thick t icrefcence is 

 dried by the air, and groWs' like a kernel, receiving nutriinent llowly. 

 The wbtm that is hatched under itfinds in its fubftance, which is tender, 

 a fubfiftence till the time for its transformation to a nymph, and from that 

 changes to a fly, and- rifes into the air. The gall-nut that grows in 

 autumn if furprifed by the Cold weather before the worm is transformed 

 to a fly, the nut falls with the leaves, and the fly paffes the winter in a 

 Ihelter, where, every crack and cranny is well flopped up, which prefervcs 

 it from the injuries of the weather. Here it acquires its perfect ftate, and, 

 roufed by the firft: heats, breaks its way through. 



THE GNAT A N D f ft E T I P U L A. 



THEIR differences of fari;n are fo very minute, that it is djflicultto 

 difliinguifli one from the other: they have both long legs, two 

 ■wings, *and flender bocy ; their heads large, they feem hump-backed ; 

 but fhe tipula wants a trunk, while the gnat has a large one. The tipula 

 harmlefsand peaceful j the gnat fanguinary and prcdaceous. 



The gnat proceeds from a little worm, at the bottom ^f .{landing wa- 

 ters. Its eggs, after being laid on the furface of the water, are furrounded 



by 



