384- FOOD OF INSECTS. 



nectaries (most of the Lepidoptera, Hymenoplera, and 

 Dipt era). 



Nor are insects confined to vegetables in their recent 

 or unmanufactured state. A beam of oak when it has 

 supported the roof of a castle five hundred years, is as 

 much to the taste of some, (Anobia,) as the same tree 

 was in its growing s,tate to that of others ; another class 

 (Pti?ii) would sooner feast on the herbarium of Brunfel- 

 sius, than on the greenest herbs that grow ; and a third 

 ( Tinece, Termites), to whom 



" a river and a sea 



Are a dish of tea, 



And a kingdom bread and butter," 



would prefer the geographical treasures of Saxton or 

 Speed, in spite of their ink and alum, to the freshest rind 

 of the flax plant. — The larva of a little fly (Musca cella- 

 ris ? L. Oinopota cellaris, Kirby), whose economy, as I 

 can Avitness from my own observations, is admirably de- 

 scribed by Mentzelius a , disdains to feed on anything but 

 wine or beer, which like Boniface in the play it may be 

 said both to eat and drink, though, unlike its toping 

 counterpart, indifferent to the age of its liquor, which 

 whether sweet or sour is equally acceptable. 



A diversity of food almost as great may be boasted by 

 the insects which feed on animal substances. Some 

 (flesh-flies, carrion-beetles, &c.) devour dead carcases 

 only, which they will not touch until imbued with the 

 hant gout of putridity. Others, like Mr. Bruce's Abys- 

 sinians, preferring their meat before it has passed through 



a Ephem, German. An xii. Obs. 58. Rai. Hist. Ins. 261. 



