FOOD OF INSECTS. 217 



feeders, while some eat the very petals (Cucullia Ferbasci, Xylina Linarias, 

 &c.), others in their perfect state select the pollen which swells the anthers 

 (bees, LepturcB, and Mordellci) ; and a still larger class of these the honey 

 secreted in the nectaries (most of the Lepidoptera, Hymenoptera, and 

 JDiptera). 



Nor are insects confined to vegetables in their recent or unmanufactured 

 state. A beam of oak, when it has supported the roof of a castle five 

 hundred years, is as much to the taste of some (Anobia) as the same tree 

 was in its growing state to that of others ; another class (Pt'mi) would 

 sooner feast on the herbarium of Brunfelsius than on the greenest herbs 

 that grow ; and a third (some Tinece, Termites), to whom 



" a river and a sea 



Are a dish of tea, 



And a kingdom bread and butter," 



would prefer the geographical treasures of Saxton or Speed, in spite of 

 their ink and alum, to the freshest rind of the flax plant. The larva of 

 a little fly (Oscinis cellaris), whose economy, as I can witness from my 

 own observations, is admirably described by Mentzelius 1 , disdains to feed 

 on anything but wine or beer, which, like Boniface in the play, it may 

 be said both to eat and drink ; though, unlike its toping counterpart, in- 

 different to the age of its liquor, which, whether sweet or sour, is equally 

 acceptable. 



A diversity of food almost as great may be boasted by the insects which 

 feed on animal substances. Some (flesh-flies, carrion-beetles, &c.) devour 

 dead carcasses only, which they will not touch until imbued with the haul 

 gout of putridity. Others, like Mr. Bruce's Abyssinians, preferring their 

 meat before it has passed through the hands of the butcher, select it from 

 living victims, and may with justice pride themselves upon the peculiar 

 freshness of their diet. Of these last, different tribes follow different pro- 

 cedures. The Ichneumons devour the flesh of the insects into which they 

 have insinuated themselves. Some of the (Estri, fixed in a spacious apart- 

 ment beneath the skin of an ox or deer, regale themselves on a purulent 

 secretion with which they are surrounded. Others of the same tribe, 

 partial to a higher temperature, attach themselves to the interior of the 

 stomach of a horse, and in a bath of chyme of 102 degrees, of Fahrenheit 

 revel on its juices. The various species of horse-flies dart their sharp 

 lancets into the veins of quadrupeds, and satiate themselves in living 

 streams ; while the gnat, the flea, the bug, and the louse, plunge their pro- 

 boscis even into those of us lords of the creation, and banquet on " the 

 ruddy drops which warm our hearts." Some make their repast upon birds 

 only, as the fly of the swallow, and other Ornithomyife, and the bird-louse ; 

 insects nearly allied, though one is dipterous and the other apterous. 

 And a most singular animal belonging to the latter tribe (Nycter'Jna Ves- 

 pertilionis) revenges upon the bat its ravages of the insect world 2 ; while 

 snails give subsistence to Drilusflavescens, a beetle, and its singular apte- 

 rous female, in the larva state, as well as to the larvae of glow-worms. 3 



1 Ephem. German. Ann. xii. Obs. 58. Ray, Hist. Ins. 261. 



2 Linn. Trans, xi. 11. t. 3. f. 57. 



3 Desmavest and Audouin in Ann. des Sciences Nat. i. 67. ; ii. 129. 443. ; vii. 353. ; 

 quoted in Burmeister's Manual of Ent. p. 552. 



