CHAP. V. STRATAGEMS OP INSECTS. 165 



employed in securing and carrying their food ; but this 

 our author explains when describing another species.* 

 When the caterpillar arrived at the entrance of his re- 

 treat, he raised up the door with his hinder parts, and, 

 sliding down into the cell backwards, dragged the leaf 

 after it, the extreme end of the stalk of which it held 

 artfully in its jaws ; nor did it quit its hold until the 

 leaf was safely anil almost wholly within its cell, where 

 it fastened it down, together with the covering; of the 

 entrance (fig. 56'. ), by a web. 



(184.) The stratagems by which insects defend 

 themselves are almost innumerable. They are, how- 

 ever, for the most part, connected with those methods 

 of self-defence which we have already noticed. It has 

 been observed that some of the Brazilian Hesperidte, or 

 skipper butterflies, upon flying into cover, strike vio- 

 lently some leaf to deceive the eye of the pursuer, and 



to make it appear that the insect is there concealed, 



whereas it retreated by another passage. The same 

 artifice is used by the common golden Y. moth, and 

 by many other Bombycides ; for the whole group repre- 

 sent the Hesperidcs. Bees are exceedingly skilful in 

 their stratagems. In order to guard against certain 

 little moths (Tinea mellonella Fab.), the greatest de- 

 stroyers of their combs, they place sentinels at the en- 

 trance of their hives, who pace about, with their an- 

 tennae extended, and alternately directed to the right 

 and left. In the mean time, the moths flutter round 

 the entrance ; and it is curious to see with what art 

 they know how to profit by the disadvantage that the 

 bees, which cannot discern objects but in a strong light, 

 labour under by moonlight. But, should they touch 

 a moth with these organs of nice sensation, it falls an 

 immediate victim to their just anger. The moth, how- 

 ever, seems to glide between the sentinels, avoiding, 

 with the utmost caution, as if she was sensible that her 

 safety depended upon it, all contact with their antennae. 

 These night sentinels upon guard are often hsard to 



* Ins. of Natl Hist. p. 12. pi. 11. 

 M 3 



