MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS. 429 
with their antennz extended, and alternately directed to the right and left. 
In the meantime the moths flutter round the entrance; and it is curious 
to see with what art they know how to profit of the disadvantage that the 
bees, which cannot discern objects but im a strong light, labour under at 
that time. But should they touch a moth with these organs of nice sensa- 
tion, it falls an immediate victim to their just anger. The moth, however, 
seeks to glide between the sentinels, avoiding with the utmost caution, as 
if she were sensible that her safety depended upon it, all contact with 
their antennz. These bees upon guard inthe night are frequently heard to 
utter a very short low hum ; but no sooner does any strange insect or 
enemy touch their antennz than the guard is put into a commotion, and 
the hum becomes louder, resembling that of bees when they fly, and the 
enemy is assailed by workers from the interior of the hive.' 
To defend themselves from the death’s-head hawk-moth, they have re- 
course to a different proceeding. In seasons in which they are annoyed 
by this animal, they often barricade the entrance of their hive by a thick 
wall made of wax and propolis. This wall is built immediately behind and 
sometimes in the gateway, which it entirely stops up ; but it is itself pierced 
with an opening or two sufficient for the passage of one or two workers. 
These fortifications are occasionally varied ; sometimes there is only one 
wall, as just described, the apertures of which are in arcades, and placed in 
the upper part of the masonry. At others many little bastions, one behind 
the other, are erected. Gateways masked by the anterior walls, and not 
corresponding with those in them, are made in the second line of building. 
These casemated gates are not constructed by the bees without the most 
urgent necessity. When their danger is present and pressing, and they 
are as it were compelled to seek some preservative, they have recourse to 
this mode of defence *, which places the instinct of these animals in a won- 
derful light, and shows how well they know how to adapt their proceed- 
ings to circumstances. Can this be merely sensitive? When attacked by 
strange bees, they have recourse to a similar manceuvre ; only in this case 
they make but narrow apertures, sufficient for a single bee to pass through. 
— Pliny affirms that a sick bear will provoke a hive of bees to attack him 
in order to let him blood.’ What will you say, if humble-bees have re- 
course to a similar manceuvre ? It is related to me by Dr, Leach from the 
communications of Mr. Daniel Bydder — an indefatigable and well-informed 
collector of insects, and observer of their proceedings—that Bombus* ter- 
restris, when labouring under Acariasis from the numbers of a small mite (Ga- 
masus Gymnopterorum) that infest it, will take its station in an ant-hill ; 
where beginning to scratch and kick, and make a disturbance, the ants im- 
mediately come out to attack it, and falling foul of the mites, they destroy 
or carry them all off; when the bee, thus delivered from its enemies, takes 
Its flight. 
In this long detail, the first idea that will, I should hope, strike the mind 
of every thinking being, is the truth of the Psalmist’s observation—that 
the tender mercies of God are over all his works. Not the least and most 
significant of his creatures is, we see, deprived of his paternal care and 
attention ; none are exiled from his all-directing providence. Why then 
Should man, the head of the visible creation, for whom all the inferior 
1 Huber, Wouv. Obs. ii. 412. § Tbid, ii, 294, 
5 Hist, Nat. |. viii. c. 36. 4 Apis * *. e. 2, K. 
