HYBERNATION OF INSECTS, 44] 
assume when at rest; but others choose a position pecu- 
liar to their winter abode. So most of the Carabide 
adhere by their claws to the under side of the stone, 
which serves for their retreat, their backs being next to 
the ground; in which posture, probably, they are most 
effectually ‘protected from wet. Staphylinus sanguino- 
lentus Gyrohypnus, K.), Gravenhorst, and others of the 
same family, coils itself up like a hak with the head 
in the centre. 
The majority of insects pass the winter in perfect soli- 
tude. Occasionally, however, several individuals of one 
species, not merely of such insects as Harpalus (Cara- 
bus, L.) prasinus, Cimex apterus, &c., which usually in 
summer also live in a sort of society, but of others which 
are never. seen thus to associate, as Haltica oleracea, 
Carabus intricatus, and several Coccinelle, &c. are found 
crowded together. ‘This is perhaps often more through 
accident than design, as individuals of the same species 
are frequently met with singly; yet that it is not wholly 
accidental, seems proved by the fact that such assem- 
blages are generally of the same genus and even species. 
Sometimes, however, insects of dissimilar genera and 
even orders are met with together. Schmid once in 
February found the rare Lomechusa strumosa, Graven- 
horst, (Staphylinus, L.) torpid in an ant-hill in the midst 
of a conglomerated lump of ants, with which it was 
closely intertwined *. 
By far the greater proportion of insects pass the winter 
only in one or other of the several states of egg, pupa, 
larva, or imago, but are never found to hybernate in 
more than one. Some species, however, depart from 
@ |ilig. Mag. 1. 494. 
