MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS. 



209 



their nest, and in one instance their stings proved fatal to it. 1 

 A black ground-beetle devours the eggs of the mole cricket, 

 or Gryllotalpa. To defend them, the female places herself 

 at the entrance of the nest — which is a neatly smoothed and 

 rounded chamber protected by labyrinths, ditches, and ram- 

 parts — and whenever the beetle attempts to seize its prey, 

 she catches it and bites it asunder. 2 



I know nothing more astonishing than the wonderful mus- 

 cular strength of insects, which, in proportion to their size, 

 exceeds that of any other class of animals, and is likewise to 

 be reckoned amongst their means of defence. Take one of the 

 common chafers or dung-beetles {Geotrwpes stercorarius, or 

 Copris lunaris) into your hand, and observe how he makes 

 his way in spite of your utmost pressure ; and read the ac- 

 counts which authors have left us of the very great weights 

 that a flea will easily move, as if a single man should draw a 

 waggon with forty or fifty hundred weight of hay : — but 

 upon this I shall touch hereafter, and therefore only hint at 

 it now. 



We are next to consider the modes of concealment to which 

 insects have recourse in order to escape the observation of 

 their enemies. One is by covering themselves with various 

 substances. Of this description is a little water-beetle (Elc- 

 phorus aquaticus), which is always found covered with mud, 

 and so when feeding at the bottom of a pool or pond can 

 scarcely be distinguished, by the predaceous aquatic insects, 

 from the soil on which it rests. Another very minute insect of 

 the same order (Limnius ceneus) that is found in rivulets under 

 stones and the like, sometimes conceals its elytra with a thick 

 coating of sand, that becomes nearly as hard as stone. I 

 never met with these animals so circumstanced but once; 

 then, however, there were several which had thus defended 

 themselves, and I can now show you a specimen. — A species 

 of a minute coleopterous genus (Georyssus arehiferus 3 ), which 



1 Huber, Nouv. Obs. ii. 301. 



2 Bingley, Animal Biogr. iii. 1st Ed. 247. White, Nat. Hist. ii. 82. 



3 In former editions of this work this insect was stated to be synonymous with 

 Trox dubius of Panzer, which it much resembles, except in the sculpture of the 

 prothorax (Fn. Ins. Germ. Init. lxii. t. 5.); but as Schonherr and Gyllenhal, 

 who had better means of ascertaining the point, regard Georyssus pygmceus Latr. 



vol. ir. r 



