MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS. 259 
feather, this clothing will soon be removed, and you may 
behold the creature unmasked, and in its proper form. 
It is an insect of prey; and amongst other victims will 
devour its more hateful congener the bed-bug*. Its slow 
movements, combined with its covering, seem to indicate 
that the object of these manceuvres is to conceal itself’ 
from observation, probably, both of its enemies and of 
its prey. It is therefore properly noticed under my pre- 
sent head. 
As Hercules, after he had slain the Nemean lion, 
made a doublet of its skin, so the larva of another insect 
(Hemerobius Chrysops, L., a lace-winged fly with golden 
eyes,) covers itself with the skins of the luckless Aphides 
that it has slain and devoured. From the head to the 
tail, this pygmy destroyer of the helpless is defended by a 
thick coat, or rather mountain composed of the skins, 
limbs, and down of these creatures. Reaumur, in order 
to ascertain how far this covering was necessary, removed 
it, and put the animal into a glass, at one time with a 
silk cocoon, and at another with raspings of paper. In 
the first instance, in the space of an hour it had clothed it- 
self with particles of the silk: and in the second, being 
again laid bare, it found the paper so convenient a mate- 
rial, that it made of it a coat of unusual thickness». 
Insects in general are remarkable for their cleanliness ; 
—however filthy the substances which they inhabit, yet 
they so manage as to keep themselves personally neat. 
Several, however, by no means deserve this character ; 
and I fear you will scarcely credit me when I tell you that 
@ De Geer, iii. 283— Geoffr. Hist. Ins. i, 437. 
> Reaum. ii, 391, 
s@2 
