INGENUITY OF INSECTS. 67 



claim to those attributes. We do not here allude to that 

 instinctive endowment which guides the different species 

 to deposite their eggs in places where the young when 

 hatched, perhaps many months afterward, will immedi- 

 ately find the aliment best adapted to their condition ; 

 nor to that apparent foreknowledge with respect to time, 

 by which there is a precise adaptation in the state of the 

 plant to the want of the young larva; for these are 

 mysteries of which we can say nothing, except that they 

 are the means which the Creator has taken to perpetuate 

 his works. 



182. By the ingenuity of insects, we mean that endow- 

 ment by which they plan and execute various structures 

 for convenience, or comfort, and which are varied accord- 

 ing to circumstances ; and also the devices which they 

 employ for the purpose of entrapping, or escaping each 

 other. 



183. Ingenuity of Spiders. Thus one species of spider 

 constructs her net for catching game, in a place where 

 she thinks such flies as best suit her appetite are most 

 likely to come ; and being sensible that her presence is 

 frightful to those insects which she would make her vic- 

 tims, she takes the precaution to conceal herself with far 

 more cunning than the cat, or even the tiger. The spi- 

 der having finished its game-net, next goes to work to 

 make a place of ambush, where it can repose in com- 

 fort, until some poor fly, not seeing the trap, gets entan- 

 gled in it. The place of ambush is some sly crevice at a 

 distance from the net. In this it constructs a tube of 

 silk, the entrance of which is no larger than absolutely 

 necessary, and is often entirely concealed from external 

 view. This is constructed somewhat like a sack with a 

 small mouth, the interior being enlarged, so that the 

 inmate can stretch out its limbs, and turn around with 

 facility. But that the cunning insect may not be under 

 the necessity of watching continually at the mouth of its 

 ambuscade, it carries a cord from some convenient part 

 of it to the net, and having carefully fastened both ends, 

 retires to wait the result of its craftiness. The least 

 motion of the game-net instantly brings the owner to 

 the mouth of its ambuscade, the news being conveyed 



