HYBERNATION OF INSECTS. 



355 



has noticed this remarkable congregation of coleopterous 

 insects previously to hybernating, which it is so difficult to 

 explain on any of the received theories of torpidity, except 

 the pious Lesser, who so expressly alludes to it, and without 

 quoting any other authority, that he would seem to have 

 derived the fact from his own observation. 1 



The site chosen by different perfect insects for their hy- 

 bernacula is very various. Some are content with insinuating 

 themselves under any large stone, a collection of dead leaves, 

 or the moss of the sheltered side of an old wall or bank. 

 Others prefer for a retreat the lichen or ivy-covered inter- 

 stices of the bark of old trees, the decayed bark itself, espe- 

 cially that near the roots, or bury themselves deep in the 

 rotten trunk ; and a very great number penetrate into the 

 earth to the depth of several inches. The aquatic tribes, 

 such as Dytisci, Hydropkili, &c, burrow into the mud of 

 their pools; but some of these are occasionally met with 

 under stones, bark, &c. In every instance the selected dor- 

 mitory is admirably adapted to the constitution, mode of life, 

 and wants of the occupant. Those insects which can bear 

 considerable cold without injury are careless of providing 

 other than a slight covering ; while the more tender species 

 either enter the earth beyond the reach of frost, or prepare 

 for themselves artificial cavities in substances, such as moss 

 and rotten wood, which conduct heat with difficulty, and 

 defend them from an injuriously low temperature. It does 

 not appear that any perfect insect has the faculty of fabri- 

 cating for itself a winter abode similar to those formed of 

 silk, &c, by some larvae. Schmid, indeed, has mentioned 

 finding Rhagium mordax and Inquisitor in such abodes, con- 

 structed, as he thought, of the inner bark of trees ; but these, 

 as Illiger has suggested, were more probably the deserted 

 dwellings of lepidopterous larvaa, of which the beetles in 



1 Lesser, 1. i. 256. Lyonet inserts a note to explain that Lesser's remark is 

 to be understood only of such insects as live in societies ; and adds, that solitary 

 species do not assemble to pass the winter together. Lesser, however, says 

 nothing about these insects passing the winter together, as his translator erro- 

 neously understands him ; but merely that they assemble as if preparing to retire 

 for the winter, which my own observations* as above, confirm. His expression 

 in the original German is, " gleichsam als wenn sie sich zu ihrer winter-ruhe 

 fertig machen wolten." Edit. Frankfurt und Leipsig, 1738, p. 152. 



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