Animal Evolution. 201 



perfumery."* Some eject poisons, caustic secretions 

 and fulminating powders ; some contain drugs, ethers, 

 and dyes ; while others emit odours, noxious or 

 agreeable. 



Out of such a medley of anomalous creations it is 

 difficult to select typical examples of the accidental 

 and automatic character of insect mechanism and 

 life, but a few striking forms at once suggest them- 

 selves. For instance, the "walking leaf" (Pliylliidoe), 

 whose wings and legs are foliaceous ; the beetle whose 

 shrivelled-up wings are contained within soldered-up 

 wing-cases ; the moths and butterflies, whose excessive 

 size of pinion entails an early death ; the fire-flies of 

 America which, Diogenes-like, carry a lamp with 

 them ; and the " bombardier " beetle which, on being 

 disturbed, discharges a cloud of vapour that spreads 

 and enables it to escape under cover. \ But perhaps 

 the most extraordinary and disgusting of all living 

 things is the termite queen, an animal with unchanged 

 head, but body so enormously swollen (sometimes 

 two thousand times its normal size) that it is out of 

 all proportion, while its fecundity is terrible, for it 

 pours out an uninterrupted torrent of eggs at the rate 

 of eighty thousand per day. Finally, when we 

 remember that no less than 200,000 species of insects 

 are known, while probably thousands more actually 

 exist, imagination fails to convey to us any idea of 

 the multitude of mechanical oddities in Insccta alone. 



* "The Insect." Michelet,^. 195. 



t These phenomena are undoubtedly the result of electric action. 



