INDIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 269 



great acquisition to your cabinet, it being one of our 

 rarest insects % I mean Calosoma Sycophanta. This ani- 

 mal takes up its station in the nests of Bambyx proces- 

 sioned and other moths, and sometimes fills itself so full 

 with these caterpillars, which we cannot handle or even 

 approach without injury, as to be rendered incapable of 

 motion and appear ready to burst. Another beautiful 

 insect of this tribe, Carabus auratus, known in France by 

 the name of Vinaigrier, is supposed to destroy more 

 cockchafers than all their other enemies, attacking and 

 killing the females at the moment of oviposition, and 

 thus preventing the birth of thousands of young grubs b . 

 Lastly come the Staphylinidte, many of which prey upon 

 insects as well as on putrescent substances. Mr. Leh- 

 mann tells us that some of them are very useful in de- 

 stroying the great enemy of our crops of clover seed, 

 Apion Jiavifemoratum c . 



Amongst the devourers of insects in their perfect state 

 only, must be ranked a few of the social tribes, ants, 

 wasps, and hornets. The first-mentioned indefatigable 

 and industrious creatures kill and carry off great num- 

 bers of insects of every description to their nests, and 

 prodigious are their efforts in this work. I have seen an 

 ant dragging a wild bee many times bigger than itself; 

 and there was brought to me this very morning while 

 writing this letter, an Elater quite alive and active, which 

 three or four ants in spite of its struggles were carrying 



a One was taken at Aldeburgh in Suffolk by Dr. Crabbe, the cele- 

 brated poet; another by a young lady at Southwold, which is now in 

 the cabinet of W. J. Hooker, esq. ; and a third by a boy at Norwich, 

 crawling- up a wall, which was purchased of him by S. Wilkin, esq. 



b Latr. Hist. Nat. x. 181. 



e Linn. Trans, vi. 149, Kirby, Ibid. ix. 42. 23. 



