AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG. 353 



the pleasures. Yet the inference would be altogether 

 erroneous. What strikes us as wearisome toil, is to the 

 little agents delightful occupation. The kind Author of 

 their being has associated the performance of an essen- 

 tial duty with feelings evidently of the most pleasurable 

 description ; and, like the affectionate father whose love 

 for his children sweetens the most painful labours, these 

 little insects are never more happy than when thus ac- 

 tively engaged. " A bee," as Dr. Paley has well ob- 

 served, " amongst the flowers in spring, (when it is oc- 

 cupied without intermission in collecting farina for its 

 young or honey for its associates,) is one of the cheer- 

 fullest objects that can be looked upon. Its life appears 

 to be all enjoyment : so busy and so pleased 3 ." 



Of the sources of exquisite gratification which every 

 rural walk will open to you, while witnessing in the ani- 

 mals themselves those marks of affection for their unseen 

 progeny of which I have endeavoured to give you a 

 slight sketch, it will be none of the least fertile to exa- 

 mine the various and appropriate instruments with which 

 insects have been furnished for the effective execution of 

 their labours. The young of the saw-fly tribe ( Tenthre- 

 do, L.) are destined to feed upon the leaves of rose-trees 

 and various other plants. Upon the branches of these 

 the parent fly deposits her eggs in cells symmetrically 

 arranged: and the instrument with which she forms 

 them is a saw, somewhat like ours but far more inge- 

 nious and perfect, being toothed on each side, or rather 

 consisting of two distinct saws, with their backs (the teeth 

 or serratures of which are themselves often serrated, 

 a Natural Theology, 497. 



VOL. I. 2 A 



