AND AMERICAN RURAL SPORTS. 
151 
shape. It of course follows, that the base of these cells, in- 
stead of being formed like those of the hexagonal cells of 
three rhomboids, consists of one rhomboid and two trape- 
ziums. 
Here then are effects both of geometry and philosophy, al- 
though the creatures are neither geometricians nor philoso- 
phers. They indeed act precisely as geometricians and 
philosophers would act, were they to undertake construct- 
ing the same thing with the same end in view. Neither 
can we conceive them in their process of collecting honey 
and storing it up, as actuated by any reflection upon the na- 
ture of the act; or as contemplating a season of winter when 
their labours must cease. Actuated by an impressing influ- 
ence to gather and store up, and led to the immediate 
means and to the best mode of applying them, their con- 
sciousness, although it reaches to and embraces the whole 
of the sensible detail of the operations to which it is direct- 
ed, and includes a gratification resulting from the exercise 
of its inferior powers, reaches no further: their conscious 
world consists of the sensible images of flowers, and fields, 
and combs, and honey; in these, as to themselves, “they 
live, and move, and have their being:” — they advance no 
higher; — they know nothing of a regular hexagon, separate 
from a honey comb, nor can they reason upon the conse- 
quences of their actions. 
Reason, intelligence, and science, therefore, cannot, as 
is asserted by some philosophers, be the result of instinct; 
or the Bee would certainly be a reasoner : it must be evident, 
on the contrary, that its consciousness can reach only to the 
immediate inferior acts themselves, to which it is directed 
by a potent energy operating upon its nature. 
Exercising in voluntary consciousness the inferior powers 
just mentioned, the animal is led and informed by an influ- 
ence, impressing its conscious mind, and producing the 
effects of the most perfect science; thereby accomplishing 
those objects which constitute the ends of its existence. No 
effect can be produced without a cause, and the Bee is 
either a scientific and intellectual being, or it is the instru- 
ment of an agency that is of such a quality, operating in and 
upon its animal mind, in a sphere above its proper percep- 
tion. 
Other less familiar, but not less wonderful instances of 
the mechanical and even philosophical powers exerted in 
the actions of insects, are exhibited to us in whatever quar- 
ter we contemplate their economy. The larva of a small 
Moth, (P. Tinea serratella L.) constructs a little cylin- 
drical tower for its residence upon the surface of a leaf, and 
uses the utmost ingenuity to fix and retain it in a position 
perpendicular to the site, by attaching silken threads from a 
protuberance at its base to the surrounding surface; and 
when the stability of its habitation is threatened by exter- 
nal violence, it produces a vacuum by drawing itself up to 
the summit of its tower, which at other times it completely 
fills; “ and thus as effectually fastens it to the leaf as if an 
air-pump had been employed;” and in order to preserve 
the power of forming this vacuum, the insect never eats 
through the lower epidermis, or inferior surface of his es- 
planade on the leaf: — yet so insignificant is this little crea- 
ture as to its bulk, that its castle appears like a small spine 
on the leaf to which it is attached. 
Equally curious is the history of insect architecture in 
other instances, as in the Aquatic Spider, ( Aranea aqua- 
tica,) whose habitation “ is built in the midst of water, and 
formed, in fact, o‘f air!” This creature spins a frame-work 
for her intended chamber, which she attaches to the leaves 
of aquatic plants growing at the bottom of the water, and 
having spread over the threads which form this frame-work 
a transparent varnish resembling liquid glass, and very elas- 
tic, she next spreads over her belly a pellicle of the same 
material, and ascending to the surface of the water, by some 
means not fully ascertained, transfers a bubble of air be- 
neath this pellicle, and then descending to her structure, 
discharges the bubble into it, until, by successively repeat- 
ing the operation, she effects the expansion of her aerial 
sub-aquatic tenement to its proper habitable dimensions. 
The entire history, indeed, of the various species of the 
Spider and of the Bee teems with wonders, and supplies an 
ample stock of evidence in support of the proposition, that 
they are guided and instructed by an intelligence which 
they do not themselves perceive. But as their history may 
be seen at large in the excellent work on Entomology from 
which our illustrations from that science have hitherto been 
derived, I forbear to swell the catalogue; and shall con- 
clude this branch of the subject, by adducing from the same 
work, two remarkable instances, exemplifying, in the larva 
of a species of Myrmeleon , and in the Termes fatalis, 
the most extraordinary and surprising operations, totally 
incompatible with any conscious scientific ability of the 
creatures; appending to these some remarks on the infe- 
rences drawn by Messrs. Kirby and Spence, from a singu- 
lar case of instinct, adapted to contingency in the Humble- 
Bee. 
The first-mentioned insect, whose length, when full- 
grown, is about half an inch, and whose shape slightly resem- 
bles that of the Wood-louse, is an inhabitant of the south 
of Europe, feeds upon the juices of Ants and other insects, 
digging a conical hole or pit for the purpose of entrapping 
them. This it effects by tracing a circle in a soil of loose, 
dry sand, and excavating with surprising dexterity, a furrow 
within the included space; loading its flat head by means 
of one leg, with a portion of the sand, which it jerks adroitly 
over the boundary; and working backwards till it arrives 
at the part of the circle whence it started; it then traces a 
new circle and proceeds with the work, constantly throw- 
