4q INTRODUCTION. 
they now expand new wings, and become butterflies, which feem feared 
employed in any other manner than that of reproducing their kinds. 
‘Thus we fee among infeéts thofe different offices of eating, fleeping, 
and generation make different feafons in their lives. Were we to com- 
pare them with other animals, we fhould find, that while thofe purfue 
fach pleafures by frequent returns, thefe experience each but once in 
“their lives, and die. ; 
There are fome infeéts, however, which lay up provifions for the win- 
ter, of which the bee and the foreign ant are remarkable inftances. The 
wafp, the hornet, and the wild bee are not lefs affiduous in laying in a 
proper ftock of food, and fitting up commodious apartments; but this 
is wholly for the fake of their young, for they forfake their nefts in 
winter, leave their young furnifhed with every convenience, and retire 
themfelves to other places, where, in all probability, they live without 
eating. : 
im wetieral all infeéts are equally careful for pofterity, and find out 
proper places wherein to lay their eggs, that, when they are hatched 
and produce young ones, there may be fufficient food to maintain 
them ; whether they chufe trees, plants, or animal fubftances, fill the 
paicent creature finds a bed which at once fupplies food and protection. 
‘The plumb and the pea, each feem to give birth to infedts peculiarly 
formed for refiding inthem. The pear and apple produce a white moth; 
on the oak leaf are hatched feveral of beautiful colours, white, green, 
yellow, brown, and variegated. The manner in which thofe infeds lay 
their eggs is fufliciently curious; they wound the leaf through, and then 
depofite their eggs in the little cavity.. As the infe& increaies, its nidus 
or bed, increafes alfo, fo that we often fee the leaves of trees with round 
{wellings on the furface, upon opening of which we may difcover num- 
berleis infeéts not yet come to maturity. On oak trees thefe nefts ap- 
pear like little buds, and are in fa@ only gems, or buds, which are in- 
creafed in thicknefs when they ought to have been pufhed out in length. 
The infeé& thrufts one or more eggs into the very heart of the gem 
which begins to be turgid in June, and but for this would have thot 
out in July. This egg foon becomes a maggot, that eats itfelf a 
fmall cell in the midft of the bud, the vegetation of which being thus 
obftructed, the fap defigned to nourith it is diverted to the remaining 
parts of the bud, which are only fcaly integuments that by this means 
row large, and becomea covering to the cafe in which the infeé lies. 
But not only the oak, but the willow, and fome other trees and plants, 
have knobs thus formed, which generally grow in or near the rib of the 
leaf. Among thefe cafes formed by infects, the aleppo galls may be 
reckoned as the moft ufeful, the infeés of which, when come to ma- 
turity, gnaw their way out, as may be feen by the little holes in every 
nut. But allthefe are formed by the ichneumon kinds of flies, namely, 
of thofe kinds which are vulgarly called the blte-bottle fly. : 
Thofe kinds, however, which do not wound the leaf, take great 
pains to lay their eggs on the furface, in the exa&eft and moft curious 
manner. When thus depofited, they are always faftened thereto with 
a glue, and conftantly at the fame end. Thofe which lay them in the 
waiters, place them in beautiful rows, and generally in a fizy fubftance, 
© prevent their being carried away with the motion of the water. 
Upoa 
