AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG. 339 



Providence to her young, upon which to deposit her eggs. 

 Her own food has been honey drawn from the nectary 

 of a flower. This, therefore, or its neighbourhood, we 

 might expect would be the situation she would select for 

 them. But no : as if aware that this food would be to 

 them poison, she is in search of some plant of the cabbage 

 tribe. But how is she to distinguish it from the surround- 

 ing vegetables? She is taught of God! Led by an in- 

 stinct far more unerring than the practised eye of the 

 botanist, she recognises the desired plant the moment she 

 approaches it, and upon this she places her precious bur- 

 then; yet not without the further precaution of ascertain- 

 ing that it is not preoccupied by the eggs of some other 

 butterfly ! Having fulfilled this duty, from which no 

 obstacle short of absolute impossibility, no danger how- 

 ever threatening, can divert her, the affectionate mother 

 dies. 



This may serve as one instance of the solicitude of in- 

 sects for their future progeny. But almost every spe- 

 cies will supply examples similar in principle, and in 

 their particular circumstances even more extraordinary. 

 In every case (except in some remarkable instances of 

 mistakes of instinct, as they may be termed, which will 

 be subsequently adverted to) the parent unerringly di- 

 stinguishes the food suitable for her offspring, however 

 dissimilar to her own ; or at least invariably places her 

 eggs, often defended from external injury by a variety of 

 admirable contrivances, in the exact spot where, when 

 hatched, the larvae can have access to it.— The dragon- 

 fly is an inhabitant of the air, and could not exist in wa- 

 ter : yet in this element, which is alone adapted for her 



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