STATES OF INSECTS. 73 



much quickness and agility : from these spinners a white 

 and glutinous fluid appears to issue, that forms the pouch, 

 which it takes the animal about three hours to construct. 

 The exterior tissue is produced by a kind of liquid and 

 glutinous paste, which by desiccation becomes a flexible 

 covering impermeable to water ; the second, which en- 

 velops the eggs, is a kind of light down of great white- 

 ness, that keeps them from injuring each other. The 

 tissue of the horn is of a silky nature, porous and shining, 

 and greatly resembling the cocoons of Lepidoptera. This 

 part, contrary to what Lyonnet supposes, appears calcu- 

 lated to admit the air, the water soon penetrating it when 

 submerged. At its base is the opening prepared for the 

 egress of the larvae, when hatched, which is closed by 

 some threads, that, by means of the air confined in the 

 cocoon or pouch, hinder the water from getting in a . 

 This nidus does not float at liberty in the water till after 

 the eggs are hatched, the parent animal always attaching 

 it to some plant. By means of this anomalous process 

 for a beetle, which this insect is instructed by Providence 

 thus to perfect, the precious contents of its little ark are 

 secured from the action of the element which is to be the 

 theatre of their first state of existence, from the voracity 

 of fishes, or the more rapacious larvae of its own tribe, 

 until the included eggs are hatched, and emerge from 

 their curious cradle. 



I shall next amuse you with a few instances, in which 

 the Allwise Creator instructs the parent insect, instead 

 of defending her eggs with a covering furnished by her 

 internal organs, to provide it from without, either from 



a Miger Ann. die Mus. ubi supr. Comp. N. Diet. d'Hist. Nat. xv. 

 482-. 



