INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 219 



In the insect world the wonders of instinct may truly be said 

 to have reached their highest development, as if Providence had 

 wished to indemnify these little creatures for their want of phy- 

 sical strength by the sharpening of their intellectual faculties. 

 Like the protecting aegis of Minerva, instinct preserves the 

 insect from a thousand dangers, teaches it to seek its food in 

 the most profitable manner, accompanies it throughout the 

 various phases of its life, watches over the infant brood, and 

 even compels the individual to subordinate his whole exist- 

 ence to the welfare of the state or community of which he forms 

 a part. 



How beautiful is the care which the insects bestow upon their 

 progeny ! how admirable the instinct which teaches them to 

 lay their eggs in those places where the larvae as soon as they 

 come forth are sure to find the most appropriate food ! 



At the beginning of August, when the fruits of the nut-tree 

 are still young and tender, the nut-weevil (Balaninus nucum) 

 pierces the soft rind with her long slender snout, deposits 

 her egg in the puncture, and continues this operation until her 

 whole provision is exhausted. The nut, being but slightly injured, 

 continues to grow and ripen for the benefit of the larva, which 

 feeds deliciously upon the kernel in which it is imbedded. 

 When in autumn the nut drops upon the ground, it creeps out 

 of its snug little nursery, and immediately burrows into the 

 earth, where it assumes the pupa state, and in the following 

 summer comes forth as a perfect insect. 



Another species of rynchophorous insects, the rynchites 

 auratus, seeks the sunny side of an apple, detaches a small 

 piece of the skin, lays an egg in a little hole which it hollows 

 out, and then covers it again so carefully with the detached rind 

 that it is almost impossible to find out the place. The larva 

 does not live upon the fleshy part of the fruit, but bores its way 

 to the kernels ; and after having devoured them again pierces 

 the apple, and dropping down undergoes its pupal transforma- 

 tion in the earth. 



The rynchites betulae divides the borders of the birch-leaves 

 in a most artistical manner, so as to be able to roll them up 

 into a funnel, in which it deposits an egg. At the same time it 

 also partially cuts through the middle rib of the leaf, so as to 

 cause it gradually to wither. When the larva comes forth, it thus 



