194 



MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS. 



and elevate the other, agitate the elevated part, whether it 

 be the head or the tail, as if to strike what disturbs them. 1 

 The giant caterpillar of a large North American moth ( Ce- 

 racampa regalis) is armed behind the head and at the back of 

 the anterior segments with seven or eight strong curved spines 

 from half to three fourths of an inch in length. Mr. Abbot 

 tells us that this caterpillar is called in Virginia the hickory- 

 horned devil, and that when disturbed it draws up its head, 

 shaking or striking it from side to side ; which attitude gives 

 it so formidable an aspect, that no one, he affirms, will venture 

 to handle it, people in general dreading it as much as a rattle- 

 snake. When, to convince the Negroes that it was harmless, 

 he himself took hold of this animal in their presence, they 

 used to reply that it could not sting him, but would them. 2 

 The species of a genus of beetles named Malachius endeavour 

 to alarm their enemies and show their rage by puffing out 

 and inflating four vesicles from the sides of their body, which 

 are of a bright red, soft, and of an irregular shape. When 

 the cause of alarm is removed, they are retracted, so that only 

 a small portion of them appears. 3 



Insects often endeavour to repel or escape from assailants 

 by their motions. Mr. White, mentioning a wild bee that 

 makes its nest on the summit of a remarkable hill near Lewes 

 in Sussex, in the chalky soil, says : — " When people approach 

 the place these insects begin to be alarmed, and with a sharp 

 and hostile sound dash and strike round the heads and faces 

 of intruders. I have often been interrupted myself while 

 contemplating the grandeur of the scenery around me, and 

 have thought myself in danger of being stung." 4 — The hive- 

 bee will sometimes have recourse to the same expedient, when 

 her hive is approached too near, and thus give you notice 

 what you may expect if you do not take her warning and 

 retire. — Humble-bees when disturbed, whether out of the 

 nest or in it, assume some very grotesque and at the same 

 time threatening attitudes. If you put your finger to them, 

 they will either successively or simultaneously lift up the 



1 Reaum. i. 100. 



2 Smith's Abbot's Ins. of Georgia, ii. 121. 



3 De Geer, iv. 74. * Nat. Hist. ii. 268. 



