MARCH. 
61 
bable that it would contain pupae : I should rather say^ 
that these are all the insects of last summer, and being now 
revivified by the, increasing warmth of the season from their 
long torpidity, are at once setting about the business of their 
lives. For this purpose they resort to the dunghill, as from 
its genial warmth it is a fit nidus for the deposition of 
their eggs. Insects have but one object in existence, in the 
perfect state, — the continuation of their race: this is suffi- 
cient to overcome every other passion, and even almost to 
conquer death itself ; for it is exceedingly difficult in most 
instances to deprive a female insect of life, before she has de- 
posited her eggs, except by actual demolition. 
C, — - It is strange how animals so small, and with so 
little vital heat, can survive the severity of a winter like 
ours. 
F, — It would appear from many experiments and observ- 
ations, that insects, and perhaps all animals with cold fluids, 
are able to resist the effects of very low degrees of tempera- 
ture. I have myself had larvse so hard frozen as to be broken 
in two like a piece of solid ice, and yet found that on being 
thawed, those which had not been broken, but had been just 
as solid as the others, were quite lively and apparently unin- 
jured. A few days ago, I found a large thick larva of a Chafer 
( Melolontha ?J in the heart of a birch-tree, surrounded by its 
ejecta, which, as well as the grub itself, were hard frozen. 
In this instance too, the insect was found to be alive, when 
thawed by the warmth of the house. I have had ants 
f FormiccE J inclosed in the midst of a piece of solid ice, 
having fallen into the water before it had frozen, which, on 
being melted out, and placed awhile in the sunbeams, gra- 
dually gave signs of life, and at length crawled about, as if 
nothing had happened. These and other observations show 
that insects sustain, without injury, severities of cold which 
would be fatal to the superior animals ; but it seems that in 
