200 AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG. 



another day the work was completed and the bird covered. M. Gleditsch 

 continued to add other small dead animals, which were all sooner or later 

 buried : and the result of his experiment was, that in fifty days four beetles 

 had interred in the very small space of earth allotted to them, twelve car- 

 casses ; viz. four frogs, three small birds, two fishes, one mole, and two 

 grasshoppers, besides the entrails of a fish, and two morsels of the lungs 

 of an ox. In another experiment a single beetle buried a mole forty times 

 its own bulk and weight in two days. 1 It is plain that all this labour is 

 incurred for the sake of placing in security the future young of these in- 

 dustrious insects along with a necessary provision of food. One mole 

 would have sufficed a long time for the repast of the beetles themselves, 

 and they could have more conveniently fed upon it above ground than 

 below. But if they had left thus exposed the carcass in which their eggs 

 were deposited, both would have been exposed to the imminent risk of 

 being destroyed at a mouthful by the first fox or kite that chanced to 

 espy them. 



At the first view I dare say you feel almost inclined to pity the little 

 animals doomed to exertions apparently so disproportioned to their size. 

 You are ready to exclaim that the pains of so short an existence, engrossed 

 with such arduous and incessant toil, must far outweigh the pleasures. 

 Yet the inference would be altogether erroneous. What strikes us as 

 wearisome toil, is to the little agents delightful occupation. The kind 

 Author of their being has associated the performance of an essential duty 

 with feelings evidently of the most pleasurable description ; and, like the 

 affectionate father whose love for his children sweetens the most painful 

 labours, these little insects are never more happy than when thus actively 

 engaged. " A bee," as Dr. Paley has well observed, " amongst the flowers 

 in spring (when it is occupied without intermission in collecting farina for 

 its young or honey for its associates), is one of the cheerfullest objects 

 that can be looked upon. Its life appears to be all enjoyment so busy 

 and so pleased." 2 



Of the sources of exquisite gratification which every rural walk will 

 open to you, while witnessing in the animals themselves those marks of 

 affection* for their unseen progeny of which I have endeavoured to give 

 you a slight sketch, it will be none of the least fertile to examine the 

 various and appropriate instruments with which insects have been fur- 

 nished for the effective execution of their labours. The young of the saw- 

 fly tribe (Serrifera 3 ) are destined to feed upon the leaves of rose-trees and 

 various other plants. Upon the branches of these the parent fly deposits 

 her eggs in cells symmetrically arranged ; and tiie instrument with which 

 she forms them is a saw, somewhat like ours, but far more ingenious and 

 perfect, being toothed on each side, or rather consisting of two distinct 

 saws, with their backs (the teeth or serratures of which are themselves 

 often serrated, and the exterior flat sides scored and toothed), which play 

 alternately ; and, while their vertical effect is that of a saw, act laterally 

 as a rasp. When by this alternate motion the incision, or cell, is made, 

 the two saws, receding from each other, conduct the egg between them 



1 Gleditsch, Physic. Bot (Econ. Abhandl iii. 200227. 



2 Natural Theology, 497. 



3 Latreille denominates this tribe Securifera ; but as the tool of these insects re- 

 sembles a saw and not a hatchet, we have ventured to change it to Serrifera, which 

 is more appropriate. 



