218 INSECT ARCHITECTURE. 



scorpion will never afterwards be stung by a bee, or a 

 wasp, or a hornet ! Rhasis again says, that cantha- 

 rides suspended in a house drive away moths ; and, 

 he adds, that they will not touch anything wrapped in 

 a lion's skin ! — the poor little insects, says Reaumur 

 sarcastically, being probably in bodily fear of so ter- 

 rible an animal.* Such are the stories which fill the 

 imagination even of philosophers, till real science 

 entirely expels them. 



The effluvium of camphor or turpentine, or fumiga- 

 tion by sulphur or chlorine may sometimes kill them, 

 when in the winged state, but this will have no effect 

 upon their eggs, and seldom upon the caterpillars ; 

 for they wrap themselves up too closely to be easily 

 readied by any agent except heat. This, when it can 

 be conveniently applied, will be certain either to dis- 

 lodge or to kill them. When the effluvium of tur- 

 pentine, however, reaches the caterpillar, Bonnet 

 says it falls into convulsions, becomes covered with 

 livid blotches, and dies.t 



The mother insect takes care to deposit her eggs 

 on or near such substances as she instinctively fore- 

 knows will be best adapted for the food of the young, 

 taking care to distribute them so that there may be 

 a plentiful supply and enough of room for each. We 

 have found, for example, some of those caterpillars 

 feeding upon the shreds of cloth used in training 

 wall-fruit trees; but we never saw more than two 

 caterpillars on one shred. Tins scattering of the 

 eggs in many places renders the effects of the cater- 

 pillars more injurious, from their attacking many 

 parts of a garment or a piece of stuff at the same 

 time.} 



When one of the caterpillars of this family issues 



* Reaumur, Mem. Hist. Insectes, iii. 70. 



t Contemplation de la Nature, part xii. chap. x. note. 



t J. H. 



