358 AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG. 



to one object, is less astonishing; but such a compli- 

 cation of instincts, applied to actions so varied and dissi- 

 milar, is beyond our conception. We can but wonder 

 and adore ! 



We are indebted to De Geer for the history of a field- 

 bug (Cimex griseus), a species found in this country, which 

 shows marks of affection for her young such as I trust will 

 lead you, notwithstanding any repugnant association that 

 the name may call up, to search upon the birch tree, 

 which it inhabits, for so interesting an insect. The family 

 of this field-bug consists of thirty or forty young ones, 

 which she conducts as a hen does her chickens. She 

 never leaves them ; and as soon as she begins to move, all 

 the little ones closely follow, and whenever she stops as- 

 semble in a cluster round her. De Geer having had oc- 

 casion to cut a branch of birch peopled with one of those 

 families, the mother showed every sympton of excessive 

 uneasiness. In other circumstances such an alarm would 

 have caused her immediate flight; but now she never 

 stired from her young, but kept beating her wings inces- 

 santly with a very rapid motion, evidently for the purpose 

 of protecting them from the apprehended danger*. — As 

 far as our knowledge of the economy of this tribe of in- 

 sects extends, there is no other species that manifests a 

 similar attachment to its progeny ; but such may proba- 

 bly be discovered by future observers. 



It is De Geer also that we have to thank for a series 

 of interesting observations on the maternal affection ex- 

 hibited by the common earwig. This curious insect so 

 unjustly traduced by a vulgar prejudice, — as if the Crea- 

 a De Geer, iii. 262, 



