294 BIOLOGICAL LECTURES. 



have observed that a carrion beetle (Silpha thoracicd) when 

 alarmed has recourse to a similar manoeuvre. Its orange- 

 colored thorax, the rest of the body being black, renders 

 it particularly conspicuous. To obviate this inconvenience, it 

 turns it head and tail inwards till they are parallel with the 

 trunk and abdomen, and gives its thorax a vertical direction, 

 when it resembles a rough stone. The species of another 

 genus of beetles (Agathidium) will also bend both head and 

 thorax under the elytra, and so assume the appearance of 

 shining, globular pebbles. 



" Related to the defensive attitude of the two last-mentioned 

 insects, and precisely the same with that of the Armadillo 

 (Dasypus) amongst quadrupeds, is that of one of the species of 

 wood-louse (Armadillo vulgaris). The insect, when alarmed, 

 rolls itself up into a little ball. In this attitude its legs and 

 the underside of the body, which are soft, are entirely covered 

 and defended by the hard crust that forms the upper surface 

 of the animal. These balls are perfectly spherical, black, and 

 shining, and belted with narrow white bands, so as to resemble 

 beautiful beads ; and could they be preserved in this form and 

 strung, would make very ornamental necklaces and bracelets. 

 At least so thought Swammerdam's maid, who, finding a num- 

 ber of these insects thus rolled up in her master's garden, mis- 

 taking them for beads, employed herself in stringing them on a 

 thread ; when, to her great surprise, the poor animals beginning 

 to move and struggle for their liberty, crying out and running 

 away in the utmost alarm, she threw down her prize. The 

 golden wasp tribe also (Chry$idid&)> all of which I suspect to 

 be parasitic insects, roll themselves up, as I have often observed, 

 into a little ball when alarmed, and can thus secure themselves 

 the upper surface of the body being remarkably hard, and 

 impenetrable to their weapons from the stings of those Hymen- 

 optera whose nests they enter with the view of depositing 

 their eggs in their offspring. Latreille noticed this attitude 

 in Parnopes carnea, which, he tells us, Bembex rostrata pursues, 

 though it attacks no other similar insect, with great fury ; and, 

 seizing it with its feet, attempts to dispatch it with its sting, 

 from which it thus secures itself. M. Lepelletier de Saint- 



