INSECTS. 



Death's-head Moth. 



Lantern Fly. 



Dynastes Hercules. 



the banks. At the time of their last change they quit the water, cast their skin and appear in a new. form. 

 But, singularly, they must again doff their skin, before being competent to propagate. At sunset, on fine 

 summer and autumn days, they appear along the margin of the waters, wherein they were developed. After 

 their second moulting they never eat, and as the propagation of their kind is their only object, they die 

 soon after it is performed, often in a few hours after leaving the water. Hence their name, " for a day." 



The White Ants are land animals, carnivorous or omnivorous through all their stages. The sexless in- 

 dividuals in these communities are mere soldiers, while the so named workers are larvse, which, except 

 being wingless, closely resemble the perfect animal Being excessively voracious, they commit terrible ra- 

 vages. They live in large nests, above ground, their buildings being channelled with connecting galleries 

 throughout. The workers imprison the females in the centre of the nest, where the abdomen reaches a 

 monstrous size from the quantity of eggs it contains, and the soldiers maintain careful guard. 



The Hive Bea, with which all are more or less acquainted, are a social race, with regular government, 

 and famed for constructive talent Each society has but one female, the queen, several hundred males, 

 called drones ; and about twenty thousand working bees, which are sexless. The latter build the hives, 

 construct the combs, secrete the honey, and. in a word, do all the work of the establishment. The honey 

 finds its way out of the abdomen of the workers in little scales, which being taken up and kneaded by the 

 jaws, is then put in the proper place. The drones are killed at the close of summer, but the queen and 

 workers remain and go on with their labors in the following season. On the hive becoming too populous, 

 they send forth colonies. 



The Dynastes Hercules, a native Brazil, is five inches long, and most remarkably formed, having an 

 enormous horn, toothed on the inner edge, projecting from the head, which is matched by a corresponding 

 protuberance from the thorax. Its back is marked with black spots on a white ground. 



The Lantern Fly is thus named from its possession of a luminous property, which is supposed to exist in a 

 curious prolongation of the fore head, which sometimes equals in size all the rest of the body. It is found 

 in Brazil, Guiana, and China. 



The Death's-head Moth is so named from a skull-like patch on the back of the thorax, which emits a 

 squeaking sort of sound, produced by means as yet unknown. When appearing in large numbers, its pe- 

 culiar aspect has oaused such appearance to be counted ominous. It is a great enemy to bees, it enters 

 their hives, devours the honey, and terrifies the inhabitants to flight. 



The Scorpio Occitanus has a large development of the palpi, which form extended arms, terminated by 

 a pincor, or claw. The whole body is clothed in a hard skin ; the abdomen is much prolonged, so as to 

 form a sort of tail, and this tail is terminated by a sting furnished with a venomous secretion. 



Queen Bee. 

 (351) 



Scorpio Occitanua. 



Drone Be*. 



