109 



Keaumur, speaking of this cannibal of cannibals, writes with 

 amusing naivete: " Elle n'a d'ailleurs rien qui la fit juger d'un 

 si mauvais naturel. Elle parait aussi douce qu'aucune chenille 

 que ce soit." Out of a score of these fratricides, which he 

 kept in a box, taking care to supply them with fresh oak 

 leaves, one only remained, whose portrait he had taken while 

 in the act of gorging its last companion. 



In the above general picture .of an oak tree city, and its 

 occupants, we have taken the license of the dramatist and 

 painter to group together several insect personages, which are 

 not likely to be seen assembled under the sun of a single sum- 

 mer's day, though all are almost certain to be found in the 

 course of a summer excepting the social Hammock "Weavers, 

 who only occupy their abodes from autumn to spring. 



Besides the very few of them above noticed, the oak has, at 

 all seasons, a variety of insect inhabitants, or frequenters. So 

 numerous are those already known, that the briefest descrip- 

 tion of them would fill a volume and volumes accord not 

 with our purpose, which is merely to scatter leaves acorns, 

 rather, of curiosity to be productive, we would hope, of 

 growths of inquiry, all, like the oak, tending heavenwards. 



We shall attempt, however, before we leave the court of the 

 sylvan monarch, to introduce our country friends to some two 

 or three other of their insect neighbours, who are distinguished 

 by a residence within its precincts. A large number of Moth 



