200 AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG. 
another day the work was completed and the bird covered, — M. Gleditsch 
continued to add other small dead animals, which were all sooner or later 
buried : and the result of his experiment was, that in fifty days four beetles 
had interred in the very small space of earth allotted to them, twelve car- 
casses ; viz. four frogs, three small birds, two fishes, one mole, and two 
grasshoppers, besides the entrails of a fish, and two morsels of the lungs 
of an ox. In another experiment a single beetle buried a mole forty times 
its own bulk and weight in two days.’ It is plain that all this labour is 
incurred for the sake of placing in security the future young of these in- 
dustrious insects along with a necessary provision of food. One moie 
would have sufficed a long time for the repast of the beetles themselves, 
and they could have more conveniently fed upon it above ground than 
below. But if they had left thus exposed the carcass in which their eggs 
were deposited, both would have been exposed to the imminent risk of 
being destroyed at a mouthful by the first fox or kite that chanced to 
espy them. 
At the first view I dare say you feel almost inclined to pity the little 
animals doomed to exertions apparently so disproportioned to their size. 
You are ready to exclaim that the pains of so short an existence, engrossed 
with such arduous and incessant toil, must far outweigh 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 essential 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 actively 
engaged. “A bee,” as Dr. Paley has well observed, “ amongst the flowers 
in spring (when it is occupied without intermission in collecting farina for 
its young or honey for its associates), is one of the cheerfullest objects 
that can be looked upon. Its life appears to be all enjoyment — so busy 
and so pleased.” 
Of the sources of exquisite gratification which every rural walk will 
open to you, while witnessing in the animals 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 examine the 
various and appropriate instruments with which insects have been fur- 
nished for the effective execution of their labours. The young of the saw- 
fly tribe (Serrifera’) 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 ingenious 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, and the exterior flat sides scored and toothed), which play 
alternately ; and, while their vertical effect is that of a saw, act laterally 
asarasp. When by this alternate motion the incision, or cell, is made, 
the two saws, receding from each other, conduct the egg between them 
1 Gleditsch, Physic. Bot. Qicon. Abhandl. iii, 200—227. 
2 Natural Theology, 497. 
5 Latreille denominates this tribe Securifera; but as the tool of these insects re- 
sembles a saw and not a hatchet, we have ventured to change it to Serrifera, which 
is more appropriate, 
