148 INDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 



in fitting them for the part they are destined to act : for if a longer time 

 was required for their growth, their food would not be a fit aliment for 

 them, or they would be too long in removing the nuisance it is given in 

 charge to them to dissipate. Thus we see there was some ground for 

 Linne's assertion, under M. vomitoria, that three of these flies will devour 

 a dead horse as quickly as would a lion. 



As soon as the various tribes of Musddcs have opened the way, and 

 devoured the softer parts, a whole host of beetles, Necrophori, Silphce, 

 Dermestes, Cholevce, and StaphylinidcB, actively second their labours. Wasps 

 and hornets also corne in for their portion of the spoil ; and even ants, 

 which prowl every where, rival their giant competitors in the quantity con- 

 sumed by them ; so that in no very long time, especially in warm climates, 

 the muscular covering is removed from the skeleton, which is then 

 cleansed from all remains of it by the little Corynetes cceruleus and ruficollis 

 (which last is so interesting, as having been the means of saving the life of 

 Latreille 1 ), and several Nitidulce? Even the horns of animals have an 

 appropriate genus (Trox) which inhabits them, and feeds upon their 

 contents. And not only are large animals thus disposed of, even the 

 smallest are not suffered long to annoy us. The burying beetle (Necro- 

 phorus Vespillo), inters the bodies of small animals, such as mice, several 

 assisting each other in the work 3 ; and those to which they commit their 

 eggs afford an ample supply of food to their lame. 4 Ants also in some 

 degree emulate these burying insects, at least they will carry off the 

 carcasses of insects into their nests; and I once saw some of the horse- 

 ants dragging away a half-dead snake of about the size of a goose-quill. 5 

 In fact in the extensive plains of South America and other tropical 

 regions, where ants are both larger and far more numerous than with us, 

 M. Lund conceives that they take the place of the Carabidce, Silphidez, and 

 other carnivorous tribes of more temperate climes, there rarely met with, 

 in removing all putrefying animal matter. 6 Some insects will even attack 

 living animals, and make them their prey, thus contributing to keep them 

 within due limits. The common earth-worm is attacked and devoured by 

 a centipede (Geophilus electricus). Mr. Sheppard saw one attack a worm 

 ten times its own size, round which it twisted itself like a serpent, and 

 which it finally mastered and devoured. 



But insects are not only useful in removing and dissipating dead animal 

 matter ; they are also intrusted with a similar office with respect to the 

 vegetable kingdom. The interior of rotten trees is inhabited by the larvae 



1 See Latr. Gen. i. 275. 



a This property in the carrion insects may be turned to a good account by the 

 comparative anatomist, who has only to flay the body of one of the smaller animals, 

 anoint it with honey, and bury it in an ant-hill : and in a short time he will obtain 

 a perfect skeleton, denudated of every fibril of muscle, though with the ligaments 

 and cartilages untouched. 



5 In India, as we learn from Col. Hearsey, a large species of Platynotus replaces 

 the Necrophori in their burying habits. 



* Gleditsch, Abhandlungen, iii. 200. 



8 It is to be observed that in our cold climates, during the winter months, when 

 excrement and putrescent animal matter are not so offensive, they are left to the 

 action of the elements, insects being then torpid. 



6 Lund in Ann. Soc. Nat., June 1831, quoted in Westwood's Mod. Class, of 2ns. 

 ii. 230. 



