Miscellaneous Observations oji Insects. 147 



learning the progress, and indeed, the character of the curciilio, 

 with the larvcB of which this fruit was obviously infested. I had 

 never seen the perfect insect. In a few days, the larvae forsook 

 the plums, and penetrated the contained earth. I did not expect 

 to see any thing more of them till next spring; but on casually 

 looking at the jar about a month afterward I Avas greatly surpris- 

 ed to find that my prisoners had put off their old clothes, and as- 

 sumed a quite different appearance. They had of course retired 

 below merely to change their dress ; but I did not expect them to 

 get through with the duties of the toilet so soon. They were now 

 (eighteen or twenty of them) ready to effect their escape through 

 the gauze with which I had covered the vessel. They manifest- 

 ed much sagacity ; a strong light would arrest all their motions ; 

 and when the jar was struck, they would instantly fold up their 

 little limbs, and remain for a considerable time motionless and at- 

 tached to the gauze, or drop to the earth below like an inanimate 

 thing. In a faint light they were " nimble as a bug," traversing 

 the jar in all directions, but especially going upwards, tumbling 

 down, and returning to the top, I separated two of them, and pla- 

 ced them with a sound plum, in another glass vessel, to witness 

 the manner of their depredation upon the fruit. They lost no time 

 in mounting the plum, and preying upon it : but instead of the 

 usual incision for the deposit of an egg, they feasted upon it, 

 making a broad area where they fed. I am trying a similar ex- 

 periment with the " fly," which has been sadly mischievous this 

 year in our neighborhood, attacking in some instances the rye 

 and barley as well as the wheat. 



What a difference there is in the retentiveness of life in differ- 

 ent insects ! A large coleopter I could not destroy by several days 

 confinement in carbonic acid gas : after this trial I subjected it for 

 hours, to strong ammoniacal gas, with no perceptible effect ; and 

 starvation afterward for several weeks, was not fatal to it. (It 

 forcibly reminded me of some " bots" upon which I tried experi- 

 ments many years ago : I could not succeed in killing them by 

 any of the powerful agents to which I exposed them, till I cover- 

 ed them with sulphur and set fire to it, ) On the other hand, some 

 neuroptera perished in ten hours by confinement in common air. 

 A Lepisma saccharina was placed in a vessel with a small, green, 

 trigonal shaped or more properly triquetrous Gryllus : the latter in 

 twenty four hours was exceedingly feeble, and soon after died ; 



