542 INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 
the pieces from the surrounding leaf before they proceed to set a stitch 
into them." 
A remarkable instance of variation of instinct in the common house- 
spider (Aranea domestica) is mentioned by an anonymous writer in the 
Zoological Journal. He states that having placed one on a piece of wootl 
fixed in the middle of a glass of water, the spider, finding its other efforts 
to escape ineffectual, enveloped its abdomen by means of its hinder legs in 
a loose web which it spun, and then descended at once without the least 
hesitation into the water, surrounded under its mantle with a bubble of air, 
evidently intended for respiration as it included the spiracles ; and in this 
extemporaneous diving-bell, like that of the water-spider (Argyroneta 
aquatica) before described, it endeayoured to make its escape on every side, 
but, on account of the slipperiness of the glass, in vain; and after remain- 
ing at the bottom of the water for thirteen minutes, it returned apparently 
much exhausted, as it coiled itself under its wooden platform without mo- 
tion.? As we cannot refer so philosophical a contrivance to reason, we 
must regard it as a variation of instinct ; but certainly, if correctly reported, 
a very curious one, as the occasions on which the house-spider can want to 
escape through water must be very rare. 
In the preceding instances the variation of instinct takes place in the 
same individual ; but Bonnet mentions a very curious fact in which it oc- 
curs in different generations of the same species. There are annually, he 
informs us, two generations of the Angoumois moth, an insect which has 
been before mentioned as destructive to wheat: the first appear in May 
and June, and lay their eggs upon the ears of wheat in the fields; the 
second appear at the end of the summer or in autumn, and these 
lay their eggs upon wheat in the granaries. These last pass the 
winter in the state of larvae, from which proceeds the first genera- 
tion of moths. But what is extremely singular as a variation of instinct, 
those moths which are disclosed in May and June in the granaries quit 
them with a rapid flight at sunset, and betake themselves to the yet un- 
reaped fields, where they lay their eggs ; while the moths which are disclosed 
in the granaries after harvest stay there, and never attempt to go out, but 
lay their egzs upon the stored wheat. This is as extraordinary and inex- 
plicable as if a litter of rabbits produced in spring were impelled by instinct 
to eat vegetables, while another produced in autunin should be as irresistibly 
directed to choose flesh. 
It is, however, into the history of the hive-bee that we must look for the 
most striking examples of variation of instinct ; and here, as in every thing 
relating to this insect, the work of the elder Huber is an unfailing source 
of the most novel and interesting facts. 
It is the ordinary instinct of bees to lay the foundation of their combs 
at the top of the hive, building them perpendicularly downwards ;.and they 
pursue this plan so constantly, that you might examine a thousand (proba- 
bly ten thousand) hives, without finding any material deviation from it. 
Yet Huber in the course of his experiments forced them to build their 
combs perpendicularly upward“ ; and, what seems even more remarkable, 
in an horizontal direction.® 
The combs of bees are always at an uniform distance from each other, 
1 Reaum. iii. 112—119, 
2 Zoological Journ, i. 284, 8 Quvres, ix. 370. 
4 Huber, ii, 134, 5 Ibid. ii, 216. 
