PARENTAL AFFECTION OF INSECTS. 225 



has full leisure to acquire maturity. Having attained this 

 object, it abandons the dwelling of its youth, and falling to the 

 ground, soon finds a convenient retreat for undergoing its change 

 into a chrysalis. 



Generally the insects, after having once provided for the 

 future wants of their progeny, by laying their eggs on (or in) 

 such substances as will afterwards afford them a fitting suste- 

 nance, take no further care of them ; yet many instances may be 

 adduced, in which they give marks of a real parental affection. 

 Thus the earwig sits on her eggs in the manner of a hen until 

 they are hatched, and then continues to brood over her young 

 with affectionate assiduity, continuing frequently in the same 

 sitting posture for hours, allowing them to push her about, and 

 cautiously moving one foot after another, for fear of hurting them. 

 Baron de Greer, a distinguished pupil of the celebrated Linnaeus, 

 finding one in this position, removed it into a box, in different 

 parts of which he scattered the eggs. The mother, however, 

 speedily gathered them in her jaws into a heap, and sat on them 

 as before. 



A species of field-bug (Cimex griseus) brings up her family, 

 which generally consists of thirty or forty young, leading them 

 about as a hen does her chickens, and never leaving them for a 

 moment. 



De Greer having once, with all the cruelty of an inquisitive 

 naturalist, disturbed one of these happy families, which had 

 settled upon the branch of a birch-tree, the mother showed 

 every symptom of excessive uneasiness, and far from attempting 

 to escape from her tormentor, who to her must have seemed a 

 terrible monster, continued close to her little ones, incessantly 

 flapping her wings as if to preserve them from danger. 



Many insects are not satisfied with burrowing holes, in which 

 they deposit their eggs, but evince a remarkable architectural 

 skill in building cells for their reception. Thus the mole-cricket 

 forms a cavity of clammy earth, in which she deposits about 

 150 eggs; this nest, which is about the size of a common hen's 

 egg, is carefully closed up on every side, as well to defend its 

 contents from the injury of the weather, as to guard them from 

 the attacks of common beetles; which, being themselves un- 

 derground inhabitants, would certainly, but for this precaution, 

 either devour or destro them. 



