MARCH. 61 



bable that it would contain pupae : I should rather say, 

 that these are all the insects of last summer, and being now 

 revivified by the increasing warmth of the season from their 

 long torpidity, are at once setting about the business of their 

 lives. For this purpose they resort to the dunghill, as from 

 its genial warmth it is a fit nidus for the deposition of 

 their eggs. Insects have but one object in existence, in the 

 perfect state, the continuation of their race: this is suffi- 

 cient to overcome every other passion, and even almost to 

 conquer death itself; for it is exceedingly difficult in most 

 instances to deprive a female insect of life, before she has de- 

 posited her eggs, except by actual demolition. 



C. It is strange how animals so small, and with so 

 little vital heat, can survive the severity of a winter like 

 ours. 



F. It would appear from many experiments and observ- 

 ations, that insects, and perhaps all animals with cold fluids, 

 are able to resist the effects of very low degrees of tempera- 

 ture. I have myself had larvae so hard frozen as to be broken 

 in two like a piece of solid ice, and yet found that on being 

 thawed, those which had not been broken, but had been just 

 as solid as the others, were quite lively and apparently unin- 

 jured. A few days ago, I found a large thick larva of a Chafer 

 (Melolontha ?} in the heart of a birch-tree, surrounded by its 

 ejecta, which, as well as the grub itself, were hard frozen. 

 In this instance too, the insect was found to be alive, when 

 thawed by the warmth of the house. I have had ants 

 (Formicce) inclosed in the midst of a piece of solid ice, 

 having fallen into the water before it had frozen, which, on 

 being melted out, and placed awhile in the sunbeams, gra- 

 dually gave signs of life, and at length crawled about, as if 

 nothing had happened. These and other observations show 

 that insects sustain, without injury, severities of cold which 

 would be fatal to the superior animals ; but it seems that in 



