MOTIONS OF INSECTS. 



295 



But of all the burrowing tribes, none are so numerous as 

 those of the order Hymenoptera. Wherever you see a bare 

 bank, of a sunny exposure, you usually find it full of the 

 habitations of these insects ; — and almost every rail and old 

 piece of timber is with the same view perforated by them. 

 Bees, wasps, bee-wasps (Bembex), spider-wasps (Pompilus), 

 fly-wasps (Mellinus, Cerceris, Crabro), with many others, ex- 

 cavate subterranean or ligneous habitations for their young. 

 None is more remarkable in this respect than the sand-wasp 

 (Ammophila). It digs its burrows, by scratching with its 

 fore-legs like a dog or a rabbit, dispersing with its hind ones, 

 which are particularly constructed for that purpose, the sand 

 so collected. 1 



Since most of these burrows are designed for the reception 

 of the eggs of the burrowers, I shall next describe to you the 

 manner in which one of the long-legged gnats, or crane-flies 

 (Tipula variegata) — a proceeding to which I was myself a 

 witness — oviposits. Choosing a south bank bare of grass, 

 she stood with her legs stretched out on each side, and kept 

 turning herself half round backwards and forwards alternately. 

 Thus the ovipositor, which terminates her long cylindrical 

 pointed abdomen, made its way into the hard soil, and deposi- 

 ted her eggs in a secure situation. All, however, were not 

 committed to the same burrow ; for she every now and then 

 shifted her station, but not more than an inch from where she 

 bored last. While she was thus engaged, I observed her male 

 companion suspended by one of his legs on a twig, not far 

 from her. The common turf-boring crane-fly ( T. oleracea), 

 when engaged in laying eggs, moves over the grass with her 

 body in a vertical position, by the help — her four anterior 

 legs being in the air — of her two posterior ones, and the end 

 of her abdomen, which performs the office of another. Whe- 

 ther in boring, like T. variegata, she turns half round and 

 back, does not appear from Reaumur's account. 2 



I now come to motions whose object seems to be sport and 

 amusement rather than locomotion. They may be considered 

 as of three kinds — hovering — gyrations — and dancing. 



1 Linn. Trans, iv. 200. See Westw. in Trans. Ent. Soc. vol. i. p. 198. on 

 the construction of the burrows of this and some allied species. 



2 v. 20. 



u 4 



