INSECTS. 217 



THimal ; and some, again, make a hole in tlje earth, and 

 having stored it with a quantity of proper food, deposit their 

 eggs in it. In all which we are to observe, that the expe- 

 dient depends not so much upon the address of the animal, 

 as upon the physical resources of his constitution. 



The art also with which the young insect is coiled up 

 M the Q^^ presents, where it can be examined, a subject of 

 great curiosity. The insect, furnished with all the mem- 

 bers which it ought to have, is rolled up into a form which 

 seems to contract it into the least possible space ; by which 

 contraction, notwithstanding the smallness of the egg, it has 

 room enough in its apartment, and to spare. This folding 

 of the limbs appears to me to indicate a special direction ; 

 for if it were merely the effect of compression, the colloca- 

 tion of the parts would be more various than it is. In the 

 same species, I believe, it is always the same. 



These observations belong to the whole insect tribe, or to 

 a great part of them. Other observations are limited to fewer 

 species, but not perhaps less important or satisfactory, 



I. The organization in the abdomen of the silk-worrii 

 or sjndcr, whereby these insects form their thread, is as 

 incontestably mechanical as a wire-drawer's mill. In the 

 body of the silk-worm are two bags, remarkable for their 

 form, position, and use. They wind round the intestine ; 

 when drawn out they are ten inches in length, though the 

 animal itself be only two. Within these bags is collected a 

 glue ; and communicating wdth the bags are two paps or 

 outlets, perforated like a grater by a number of small holes. 

 The glue or gum being passed through these minute aper- 

 tures, forms hairs of almost imperceptible fineness ; and these 

 hairs, when joined, compose the silk which we wind cli 

 h-om the cone in which the silk- worm has wrapped itscK 

 up : in the spider, the web is formed from this thread, lu 

 both cases, the extremity of the thread, by means of its 

 adhesive quality, is first attached by the animal to some 

 internal hold; and the end being now fkstened to a point, 



Nat. Theol. 10 



