AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG. 205 



alive along with the treasure dearer to her than her existence ; and it was 

 only by force that Bonnet at length withdrew her from the unequal conflict. 

 But the bag of eggs remained with the assassin : and though he pushed her 

 repeatedly with a twig of wood, she still persisted in continuing on the spot. 

 Life seemed to have become a burden to her, and all her pleasures to 

 have been buried in the grave which contained the germ of her progeny ! l 

 The attachment of this affectionate mother is not confined to her eggs. 

 After the young spiders are hatched, they make their way out of the bag 

 by an orifice which she is careful to open for them, and without which 

 they could never escape 2 ; and then like the young of the Surinam toad 

 (Rana pipa), they attach themselves in clusters upon her back, belly, 

 head, and even legs ; and in this situation, where they present a very sin- 

 gular appearance, she carries them about with her and feeds them until 

 their first moult, when they are big enough to provide their own sub- 

 sistence. I have more than once been gratified by a sight of the former 

 part of this interesting spectacle ; and when I nearly touched the mother, 

 thus covered by hundreds of her progeny, it was most amusing to see them 

 all leap from her back and run away in every direction. 3 



A similar attachment to their eggs and young is manifested by many 

 other species of the same tribe, particularly of the genera Lycosa and Dolo- 

 medcs. Clubiona holosericea was found by De Geer in her nest with fifty 

 or sixty young ones, when manifesting nothing of her usual timidity, so 

 obstinately did she persist in remaining with them, that to drive her away 

 it was necessary to cut her whole nest in pieces. 4 



I must now conduct you to a hasty survey of those insects which live to- 

 gether in societies, and fabricate dwellings for the community, such as ants, 

 wasps, bees, humble-bees, and termites, whose great object (sometimes combined, 

 indeed, with the storing up of a stock of winter provisions for themselves) 

 is the nutrition and education of their young. Of the proceedings of many 

 of these insects we know comparatively nothing. There are, it is likely, 

 some hundreds of distinct species of bees which live in societies, and form 

 nests of a different and peculiar construction. The constitution of these 

 societies is probably as various as the exterior forms of their nests, and 

 their habits possibly curious in the highest degree ; yet our knowledge is 

 almost confined to the economy of the hive-bee and of some species of 

 humble-bees. The same may be said of wasps, ants, and termites, of 

 which, though there is a vast variety of different kinds, we are acquainted 

 with the history of but a very few. You will not, therefore, expect more 

 than a sketch of the most interesting traits of affection for their young 

 manifested by the common species of each genus. 



1 Bonnet, ii. 435. 2 De Geer, vii. 194. 



3 Dr. Heineken, whose zeal for Entomology as manifested by his valuable communi- 

 cations in spite of ill health.to the Zoological Journal,shovts how great a loss the science 

 sustained by his untimely death, states that having placed a large female Lycosa 

 covered with her young, just hatched, in a cage so constructed that they could quit 

 it while she could not, he fed her with flies for fifteen days, but never observed her 

 to feed her young ones, nor them to quit their station on her body, nor to seem at 

 all interested or excited when she was engaged in eating. At length, fifteen days 

 after their birth, they quitted the mother and escaped from the cage. Dr. Heineken, 

 however, admits thai" observations of this kind made on insects in confinement are 

 by no means conclusive. (Zool. Journ. v. 192.) 



4 De Geer, vii. 268. 



