424 MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS. 



out its legs to meet it. In Ray's Letters mention is made of a singular 

 combat between a spider and a toad fought at Hetcorne near Sittinghurst 1 

 in Kent ; but as the particulars and issue of this famous duel are not 

 given, I can only mention the circumstance, and conjecture that the 

 spider was victorious ! 2 Terrible as is the dragon-fly to the insect world 

 in general, putting to flight and devouring whole hosts of butterflies, May- 

 flies, and others of its tribes, it instils no terror into the stout heart of 

 the scorpion-fly (Panorpa communis), though much its inferior in size and 

 strength. Lyonnet saw one attack a dragon-fly of ten times its own big- 

 ness, bring it to the ground, pierce it repeatedly with its proboscis ; and 

 had he not by his eagerness parted them, he doubts not it would have 

 destroyed this tyrant of the insect creation. 3 



When the death's head hawk-moth was introduced by Huber into a 

 nest of humble-bees, they were not affected by it, like the hive-bees, but 

 attacked it$and drove it out of their nest, and in one instance their stings 

 proved fatal to it. 4 A black ground-beetle devours the eggs of the mole 

 cricket, or Gryllotalpa. To defend them, the female places herself at the 

 entrance of the nest which is a neatly smoothed and rounded chamber 

 protected by labyrinths, ditches, and ramparts and whenever the beetle 

 attempts to seize its prey, she catches it and bites it asunder. 5 



I know nothing more astonishing than the wonderful muscular strength 

 of insects, which, in proportion to their size, exceeds that of any other 

 class of animals, and is likewise to be reckoned amongst their means of 

 defence. Take one of the common chafers or dung-beetles (Geotrupes 

 stercorarius, or Copris lunaris) into your hand, and observe how he makes 

 his way in spite of your utmost pressure ; and read the accounts which 

 authors have left us of the very great weights that a flea will easily move, 

 as if a single man should draw a waggon with forty or fifty hundred weight 

 of hay : but upon this I shall touch hereafter, and therefore only hint at 

 it now. 



We are next to consider the modes of concealment to which insects have 

 recourse in order to escape the observation of their enemies. One is by 

 covering themselves with various substances. Of this description is a little 

 water-beetle (Elophorus aquations) which is always found covered with mud, 

 and so when feeding at the bottom of a pool or pond can scarcely be 

 distinguished, by the predaceous aquatic insects from the soil on which 

 it rests. Another very minute insect of the same order (Limnius ceneus) 

 that is found in rivulets under stones and the like, sometimes conceals its 

 elytra with a thick coating of sand, that becomes nearly as hard as stone. 

 I never met with these animals so circumstanced but once ; then, however, 

 there were several which had thus defended themselves, and I can now 

 show you a specimen. A species of a minute coleopterous genus ( Geo- 

 ryssus areniferus 6 ), which lives in wet spots where the toad-rush (Juncus 



1 Hedcorne near Sittingbourne. 2 Dr. Long in Ray's Letters, 370. 



5 Lesser, 1. i. 263. Note %. 



4 Huber, Nouv. Obs. ii. 301. 



5 Bingley, Animal. Biogr. iii. 1st Ed. 247. White, Nat. Hist. ii. 82. 



6 In former editions of this work this insect was stated to be synonymous with 

 Trox dubius of Panzer, which it much resembles, except in the sculpture of the 

 prothorax (Fn. Ins. Germ. Init. Ixii. t. 5.) ; but as Schonherr and Gyllenhall, who 

 had better means of ascertaining the point, regarded Georyssus pygmceus Latr. as 

 Panzer's insect, the reference is now omitted. G. areniferus differs considerably 

 from G. pygmceus, as described by Gyllenhall (Insect. Suec. I. iii. 675.) The front is 



