358 HISTORY OF 



most eaten away. Jt often happens, however, that it survives 

 thtir worm- state, and then they change into a chrysalis, inclosed 

 in the caterpillar's body till the time of their delivery approaches, 

 when they burst tiieir prisons, and fly away. The caterpillar, 

 however, is irreparably destroyed, it never changes into a chry- 

 salis, but dies shortly after from the injuries it had sustained. 



Such is the history of this fly, which, though very terrible to 

 the insect tribe, fails not to be of infinite service to mankind. 

 The millions which it kills in a single summer are inconceivable ; 

 and without such a destroyer, the fruits of the earth would only 

 rise to furnish a banquet for the insect race, to the exclusion of 

 all the nobler ranks of animated nature.* 



CHAP. V. 



OF THE ANT. 



Though the number of two-winged flies be very great, and 

 the naturalists have taken much pains to describe their charac- 

 ters and varieties ; yet there is such a similitude in their forms 

 and manners, that in a work like this, one description must 

 serve for all. We now, therefore, come to a species of four- 

 winged insects, that are famous from all antiquity for their 

 social and industrious habits, that are marked for their spirit 



• The Turner Savage. — The body is black, and the legs and pedicle which 

 connects the abdomen and thorax are yellow. This insect lives in the haunts 

 of men, whom it never willingly oflFeuds; but it is the terror of all the 

 smaller insects. It inhabits holes in the earth on the sides of hills and clift's, 

 and recesses that it forms for itself in the mud walls of cottages and out. 

 houses. The mud-wall of a cottage at Petersburgh, in Northamptonshire, 

 was observed to be frequented by these creatures ; and, on examination, it 

 was found to have been wrought into the appearance of honeycomb by their 

 o perations. The eggs, as in all tlie other species, are deposited by the fe- 

 rn ale in the back part of the cells. These cells are stored Avith insects for 

 food to the larvae as soon as they come into life, and are then filled up. 



Dr Derham observes, that a species of savage built its ne&t in a little hole 

 of his study window. The cell was coated over with an odoriferous and 

 resinous gum, collected, as he supposed, from some neighbouring fir trees. 

 The insect laid two eggs ; and he soon afterwards observed it carry in mag- 

 gots, some of which were even larger than itself. These it very sagaciousi; 

 sealed up with great carefulness in the nest and then left it. 



