206 STUBBORN TENANCY. 



holding fast upon their roof-trees, laughing at notice, landlord, 

 writ, and bailiff. Now of insects in general, save the bee and 

 the silk-worm, it may certainly be said, according to our 

 motto, that 



" He's his own landlord, his own tenant: stay 

 Long as he will he dreads no quarter day." 



This, as respects his local habitation ; but if we consider the 

 principle of life as the tenant the outward form the residence 

 held at will of the indulgent landlord the Great Creator of 

 us all, then the tiniest of midges holds, as the greatest of 

 men, a given lease. Regarded thus, the vital spark, or tenant, 

 whose assigned abode is an insect tabernacle, is oftentimes a 

 most difficult spark to put out, a leaseholder as troublesome 

 to eject (we mean, of course, at the bidding of subordinate 

 agents) as the most determined house-clinger that ever baffled 

 bailiff ingenuity. 



It is a fact, proved by observation and experiment, that 

 caterpillars will retain their vitality, and pass through their 

 usual changes, after the congealment of their juices by intense 

 cold. Those of the magpie-moth, exposed all through the 

 winter on a leafless currant bush, will sometimes become stift 

 as the twigs they occupy, and those of the cabbage butterfly 

 subjected to a frost which turned them into lumps of ice, 1 

 arrived, nevertheless, at their perfect state. 



Other insects would seem to be endowed with the same power 

 of resisting cold. Amongst these are gnats and mosquitos, 

 which, as attested by recent travellers, have risen, an active 

 swarm, from dissolved masses of ice, wherein they have lain 

 imbedded as thick as plums in a Christmas pudding. 



Nor is it only against the "Demon Frost" that these 

 determined insect occupiers are accustomed to bar the doors 



1 By Re'aumur. 



