CONTENTS. IX 



37. JACK V LANTERN IN ARMOUR. 



A Mole Cricket (Gryllotalpa, mdgaris) is the illustration of this Episode, 

 which consists of a tale founded on the supposed luminosity of that 

 insect a 40 



" The phantom light suddenly fell." 



The mailed and handed and luminous insect, in the knightly semblance it 

 assumed to the eye of " Tombstone Tim " 79 



38. INSTINCTS OF MATERNITY. 



In the foreground is an Earwig (Forficula vulgaris), surrounded by her brood 

 as a hen by her chickens. Above, on the leaf of a rose-bush, is an out- 

 door Spider (a beautiful species, white with crimson markings), keeping 

 guard over her numerous eggs, enveloped in a covering of bluish silk. 

 The leaf behind her has been converted by her industry into a nest, from 

 which, with her eggs, she is supposed to have been dislodged. On the 

 wooden pale opposite is the excavated nest, with enclosed cocoons of a 

 mother " Carpentress," amongst the solitary wasps (Eumenes}, who is 

 flying up towards it. On one of the leaflets of the rose above it, is a 

 Leaf-cutter Bee (Megachile centuncularis), employed in excision of one of 

 the circular pieces used in the lining of her nest ; and above, flies another 

 of the same " Upholsterer " craft ........ 80 



" Admire the dexterity of the Leaf-cutter Bee" 



A Maternal " Upholstress " shaping the material of her leaf-lined nest, which, 

 in form of a cradle, is represented near her 97 



39. FATHER LONGLEGS AND HIS FAMILY. 



On the grass to the left, is one of the common brown Crane-flies (Tipula 

 oleracea), distinguished as a female by her pointed ovipositor. In flight, 

 above, is a male of the same species, and below, in the earth, another, in 

 its state of grubhood, employed in devouring the grass roots, on which, in 

 its earliest stage, it is accustomed to feed. On the right, above, is a hand- 

 some Crane-fly (Otenophora), with black and yellow markings and plumed 

 antennae . 98 



"How vast to an emmet its stupendous elevation /" 

 A spacious platform and commanding observatory for creeping millions . 109 



