MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS. 257 
out of their nest, and in one instance their stings proved 
fatal to it..—A black beetle, probably a Harpalus or 
Carabus, devours the eggs of the mole-cricket, or Gryl- 
lotalpa. ‘To defend them, the female places“herself at 
the entrance of the nest—whichr is a neatly smoothed and 
rounded chamber protected by labyrinths, ditches, and 
ramparts—and whenever the beetle attempts to seize its 
prey, she catches it and bites it asunder?. 
I know nothing more astonishing than the wonderful 
muscular strength of insects, which in proportion to their 
size exceeds that of any other class of animals, and is 
likewise to be reckoned amongst their means of defence. 
Take one of the common chafers or dung-beetles (Geo- 
trupes stercorarius, or Copris lunaris, ¥'.) into your hand, 
and observe how he makes his way in spite of your ut- 
most pressure; and read the accounts which authors 
have left us of the very great weights that a flea will ea- 
sily move, as if a single man should draw a waggon with 
forty or fifty hundred weight of hay:—but upon this I 
shall touch hereafter, and therefore only hint at it now. 
We are next to consider the modes of concealment to 
which insects have recourse in order to escape the ob- 
servation of their enemies. One is by covering them- 
selves with various substances. Of this description is a 
little water-beetle (Hlophorus aquaticus, T°.), which is al- 
ways found covered with mud, and so when feeding at the 
bottom of a pool or pond can scarcely be distinguished, 
by the predaceous aquatic insects, from the soil on which 
it rests. Another very minute insect of the same order 
® Huber, Nouv. Obs. ii. 301— y 
> Bingley, Animal Biogr, iii. Ist Ed. 247— White, Nat. Hist. 0. 82. 
VOL. II. Ss 
