MEANS OF DEFENCE OF INSECTS. 



217 



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 be- 

 hind the other, are erected. Gateways masked by the an- 

 terior 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 ne- 

 cessity. 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 1 , which places the instinct of 

 these animals in a wonderful light, and shows how well they 

 know how to adapt their proceedings to circumstances. Can 

 this be merely sensitive ? When attacked by strange bees, 

 they have recourse to a similar manoeuvre ; 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. 2 What 

 will you say, if humble-bees have recourse to a similar 

 manoeuvre ? It is related to me by Dr. Leach from the com- 

 munications of Mr. Daniel Bydder — an indefatigable and 

 well-informed collector of insects, and observer of their pro- 

 ceedings — that Bombus 3 terrestris, when labouring under 

 Acariasis from the numbers of a small mite {Gamasus Gym- 

 no jiter or um) that infest it, will take its station in an ant-hill ; 

 where beginning to scratch, and kick, and make a disturbance, 

 the ants immediately 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 observations — that the tender mercies of God are 

 over all his works. Not the least and most insignificant of 

 his creatures is, we see, deprived of his paternal care and at- 

 tention ; none are exiled from his all-directing providence. 

 Why then should man, the head of the visible creation, for 

 whom all the inferior animals were created and endowed ; for 



1 Huber, Nouv. Obs. ii. 294. 

 3 Apis. * *. e. 2. K. 



2 Hist. Nat. 1. viii. c. 36. 



