CHAP. I\, 



SPORTS OP IIS 7 SECTS. 



121 



(143.) Many of the aquatic insects are excellent 

 swimmers and expert divers ; of which the DytiscidfSj 

 or water beetles (fig. 40. a), and the Notonectidce, 

 or hoat flies ( ft), are 

 notable examples. Others 

 either live entirely beneath 

 the surface, or, like some 

 of the Nepidce, or water 

 scorpions, and other he- 

 mipterous genera, walk 

 slowly on the surface, 

 with the same care as they 

 would pursue a similar 

 motion upon land. Some of the grasshopper tribe 

 burrow in the earth, particularly the Gryllotalpa, or 

 mole cricket, which, like its namesake, is furnished with 

 palmated feet formed nearly on the same modeL and 

 which perform the same office. Others of the same order, 

 but with different shaped instruments, bore, like the 

 house cricket (Achetra campestris)., through the thickest 

 walls, by mining their laborious way through the inter- . 

 stices of the bricks or stones.* Innumerable hosts, in 

 the larva state, eat their way in solid timber, either 

 growing or dead : so that there is scarcely any animal 

 or vegetable substance which does not furnish the means 

 of showing a new modification in the actions of these 

 little creatures. 



(144.) Insects have also their motions of gaiety or 

 sport : among these, none seem to vie in their singularity 

 with the choral dances which so many of the Diptera, 

 and some of the A T europtera, maintain in the air ; in 

 which, however, it has been observed, the males alone 

 are engaged. These dances are kept up at all seasons 

 of the year ; only that in winter they are confined to the 

 robust Tipulidce, or gnats, which, however small, are 

 often seen in a sunny day of December, when snow is 

 on the ground, sporting as merrily as in the spring. 

 Sometimes these insects look like moving columns, 



* Int. to Ent 



