for the purpose of devouring the grubs of it is of a black color, and so fœtid, that the hands the cockchafer, which, among others, are smell for hours after handling it; and if it crawl on woollen clothes which are not washed, the sometimes turned up in the furrows in great smell continues for several days. The sextonnumbers, but they instinctively, as it were, pitch upon those meadows and portions of meadows where the grubs are pursuing their subterranean work of destruction, root up the grasses with their strong beaks, and feast luxuriously upon the rich repast thus laid bare; as if to revenge themselves upon the cause of the charge undeservedly brought against them, of doing an injury to the farmer by uprooting his grass, when, in reality, they are conferring upon him one of the greatest benefits, by destroying an insidious enemy. The very extensive class Coleoptera, or the beetle tribe, to which the cockchafer belongs, furnishes many other examples of insects exceedingly injurious to agriculture, both in the larva and perfect states. Such are the different kinds of weevil which attack grain, both while growing and when stored away in the granary; the turnip-fly; the wire-worm, which is the grub of one of the little slender beetles allied to the exotic fire-flies; and many others, an attentive study of whose habits in their various stages would probably suggest remedies for the injuries inflicted by them. On the other hand, the same class furnishes examples of insects conferring benefits upon man, either

beetle lays its eggs in the bodies of putrefying dead animals, which, when practicable, it buries in the ground. In Russia, where the poor people are buried but a few inches below the surface of the ground, the sexton-beetles avail themselves of the bodies for this purpose, and the graves are pierced with their holes in every direction; at evening, hundreds of these beetles may be seen in the church-yards, either buzzing over recent graves, or emerging from them. The sexton-beetle, in this country, seldom finds so convenient a provi sion for him, and he is under the necessity of taking much more trouble; he sometimes avails himself of dead dogs and horses, but these are too great rarities to be his constant resort; the usual objects of his search are dead mice, rats, birds, frogs, and moles; of these, a bird is most commonly obtained. In the neighborhood of towns, every kind of garbage that is thrown out attracts these beetles as soon as it begins to smell; and it is not unusual to see them settling in our streets, enticed by the grateful odor of such substances. The sexton-beetles hunt in couples, male and female; and where six or eight are found in a large animal, they are almost sure to be males and females in equal numbers; they hunt by scent only, the chase being mostly performed when no other sense would be very available, viz., in the night. When they have found a bird, great comfort is expressed by the male, who wheels round and round above it, like a vulture over the putrefying carcass of some giant the forest. The female settles on by preying upon other insects whose ravages it at once, without this testimonial of satisfaction. interfere with his comforts or with the sup- The male at last settles also, and a savory and plying of his necessities, or by removing ample meal is made before the great work is be. decaying substances which would otherwise gun. After the beetles have appeased the calls of become offensive to the senses. Of the for- hunger, the bird is abandoned for a while; they mer description are the larvæ of the ladybirds, which do good service by destroying the Aphides infesting the hop; of the latter, in a small way, is the sexton, or burying beetle, which actually consigns to the bosom of mother earth the body of any small animal it may meet with; not, however, with a view of conferring a benefit upon the "lord of creation," but in order that its own progeny may be provided with a fitting nidus, and that they may find a sufficient store of provision on emerging from the egg. An exceedingly pleasing description of the proceedings of this beetle and his mate, from the pen of an observer who, we regret, now writes no more, appeared some years ago in the "Entomological Magazine," with the signature of " Rusticus, of Godalming," and is quoted by Mr. Newman in his "Introduction to the History of Insects," from

which we here extract it.

"The sexton-beetle is about an inch in length;

both leave it to explore the earth in the neighbor. hood, and ascertain whether there is a place suit able for interment; if on a ploughed field there is no difficulty; but if on grass, or among stones, much labor is required to draw it to a more suitable place. The operation of burying is performed almost entirely by the male beetle, the female mostly hiding herself in the body of the bird about to be buried, or sitting quietly upon it, and allowing herself to be buried with it: the male begins by digging a furrow all round the bird, at the distance of about half an inch, turning the earth outside; his head is the only tool used in this operation; it is held sloping outwards, and is exceedingly powerful. After the first furrow is com. pleted another is made within it, and the earth is thrown into the first furrow; then a third furrow is made, and this is completely under the bird, so is out of sight:

that the

beetle, whilst working at it,

now, the operation can only be traced by the heaving of the earth, which soon forms a little rampart round the bird; as the earth is moved from beneath, and the surrounding rampart increases in height, the bird sinks. After incessant labor for about three hours, the beetle emerges, crawls upon the bird, and takes a survey of his work. If the fe

imminent risk of being destroyed at a mouthful by the first fox or kite that chanced to espy them."Introd. i. 354.

male is on the bird, she is driven away by the it above ground than below. But if they had left male, who does not choose to be intruded upon thus exposed the carcass in which their eggs were during the important business. The male beetle deposited, both would have been exposed to the then remains for about an hour perfectly still, and does not stir hand nor foot; he then dismounts, dives again into the grave, and pulls the bird down by the feathers for half an hour; its own weight appears to sink it but very little. At last, after two or three hours' more labor, the beetle comes up, again gets on the bird, and again takes a survey, and then drops down as though dead, or fallen suddenly fast asleep. When sufficiently rested he rouses himself, treads the bird firmly into its

Much as we may deplore the devastations of the timber-boring insects, among which the beetle tribe figures most conspicuously, it must be remembered that in pursuing their destructive operations they are but perform

grave, pulls it by the feathers this way and that ing their share of the general economy of way, and having settled it to his mind, begins to nature, which provides for the removal of shovel in the earth; this is done in a very short all organic substances, whether animal or time, by means of his broad head. He goes behind vegetable, as soon as the vital principle has

the rampart of earth, and pushes it into the grave with amazing strength and dexterity: the head being bent directly downwards at first, and then the nose elevated with a kind of jerk, which sends the earth forwards. After the grave is thus filled up, the earth is trodden in, and undergoes another keen scrutiny all round, the bird being completely hidden; the beetle then makes a hole in the still loose earth, and having buried the bird and his own bride, next buries himself.

"The female having laid her eggs in the carcass of the bird, in number proportioned to its size, and the pair having eaten as much of the savory viand as they please, they make their way out, and fly away. The eggs are hatched in two days, and produce fat scaly grubs, which run about with great activity; these grubs grow excessively fast, and very soon consume all that their parents had left. As soon as they are full grown they cease eating, and burrowing further in the earth become pupe. The length of time they remain in this state appears uncertain; but when arrived at the perfect state, they make round holes in the ground, from which they come forth."-Newman, p. 53.

ceased to actuate them. That all such substances shall return to the dust whence they sprang is a decree from which there is no appeal; and the insect tribes do but hasten its fulfilment, while engaged in destroying our books, our furniture, the wooden framework of our houses, or the lofty tenants of our forests. The ease with which wood, when much "worm-eaten," is crumbled, even between the fingers, is well known; but it may not be so generally understood that the "worms" which produce this effect upon articles of furniture formed of wood, are no other than the soft-bodied grubs of various coleopterous insects, which are thus carrying out on a small scale the more extensive operations that quickly reduce to a similar condition the giants of tropical forests. Our domestic pests of this description are chiefly small beetles, which pass the early part of their lives in the wood, and by means of their powerful jaws mine through it in all directions, only emerging when they assume the perfect state. One. of these is the "death-watch," which even

Of the unwearying industry shown by these beetles, some idea may be formed by the result of experiments conducted by M. Gleditsch, as quoted by Kirby and Spence, yet is an object of superstitious dread to from an interesting article in the "Acts of the inhabitants of many an old house, of the Berlin Society" for 1752. M. Gleditsch the wood-work of which it has taken possesfound that "in fifty days four beetles had interred in the very small space of earth allotted to them, twelve carcasses: viz., four frogs, three small birds, two fishes, one mole, and two grasshoppers, besides the entrails of a fish, and two morsels of the lungs of an

sion The ticking noise, so alarming to weak minds, and which is often considered an infallible presage of impending death to some member of the family, is merely the call note of the perfect beetle of several species chiefly belonging to the genus Ano

In another experiment a single beetle bium, and, as we have often observed, buried a mole forty times its own bulk and principally by the largest species, A. tesseweight in two days." To this account the latum. The manner of producing this authors add the following pertinent remarks: noise, which greatly resembles the ticking of a watch, is thus very accurately described by Kirby and Spence.

" It is plain that all this labor is incurred for the sake of placing in security the future young of

these industrious insects along with a necessary provision of food. One mole would have sufficed "Raising itself upon its hind legs, with the body a long time for the repast of the beetles themselves, somewhat inclined, it beats its head with grea and they could have more conveniently fed upon (force and agility upon the plane of position; and

its strokes are so powerful, as to make a consider- | which is often the most indestructible part of it; able impression if they fall upon any substance and thousands of orifices into the solid trunk are softer than wood. The general number of distinct bored by others. The rain thus insinuates itself strokes in succession, is from seven to nine or into every part, and the action of heat promotes eleven. They follow each other quickly, and are the decomposition. Various fungi now take posrepeated at uncertain intervals. In old houses, session and assist in the process, which is followwhere these insects abound, they may be heard in ed up by the incessant attacks of other insects, warm weather during the day. The noise exact- that feed only upon wood in an incipient state of ly resembles that produced by tapping moderately decay. And thus, in a few months, a mighty with the nail upon the table; and when familiarized, the insects will answer very readily the tap of the nail."-Introd. ii. 383.

They also answer the ticking of a watch, if laid upon wood inhabited by them. By way of relieving this dry discussion, we may quote Dean Swift's description of the death-watch, with his infallible method of breaking the spell. He calls it

mass, which seemed inferior in hardness only to iron, is mouldered into dust, and its place occupied by younger trees full of life and vigor."-Introd. i. 260.

That the office of clearing the ground encumbered by the fallen monarchs of the forest is effectually aided by insects, is well attested by travellers in those regions where vegetation assumes its most luxuriant character; and in this work the larvæ of the beetle tribe do good service, in which they are assisted by those of insects belonging to the tribe next to be considered.

The Lepidoptera, or the butterfly and moth tribe, offers, perhaps, some of the most attractive insects, whether to the scientific or the non-scientific entomologist. The butterfly, with its gorgeous hues, its devious flight, and the comparative obscurity of its previous life, has furnished to poets of all ages some of their most glowing similes, and to philosophers, from a very early date, a number of striking and beautiful analogies with the repose of the tomb and the probability of a more glorious hereafter. These insects are also associated with the most agreeable images of the happiest pe riod of our early days, when, like the youthful Marcius, as portrayed by Shakspeare, we pursued the "rainbow butterflies," regardless of wet, dirt, and tumbles, and equally careless as to whether the object of our pursuit were "cabbage," "peacock,"

"Benefits equally great are rendered by the wood-destroying insects. We, indeed, in this country, who find use for ten times more timber than we produce, could dispense with their services; but to estimate them at their proper value, as affecting the great system of nature, we should or "tortoiseshell." Peter Pindar's clever transport ourselves to tropical climes, or to those but sarcastic description of the exploits of under the temperate zones, where millions of acres Sir Joseph Banks, in his mad career after are covered by one interminable forest. How is it the Emperor of Morocco, is by no means a that these untrodden regions, where thousands of very exaggerated picture of the doings of their giant inhabitants fall victims to the slow many an enthusiastic collector, with a ravages of time, or the more sudden operations of glittering prize in view; and we question of those scenes of ruin and desolation that might whether the coldest among them would hehave been expected, but are always found with sitate to follow the example of the worthy the verdant characters of youth and beauty? It knight, with a shadow of a chance of capis to the insect world that this great charge of keep- turing the Purple Emperor. ing the habitations of the Dryads in perpetual Most persons, at some time or other, have freshness has been committed. A century almost kept silkworms, and are consequently pretty would elapse before the removal from the face of well acquainted with the changes they unwooded tropical trees, by the mere influence of the dergo in their progress from the egg to the elements. But how speedy its decomposition, perfect winged condition. To those who when their operations are assisted by insects! As have not had this opportunity of practically soon as a tree is fallen, one tribe attack its bark, gaining a knowledge of the economy of the butterfly tribe, the following passages from extraordinary changes without being able to

Kirby and Spence will, in a great measure, supply the information.

"That butterfly which amuses you with its aerial excursions, one while extracting nectar from the tube of the honeysuckle, and then, the very image of fickleness, flying to a rose, as if to contrast the hue of its wings with that of the flower on which it reposes-did not come into the world as you now behold it. At its first exclusion from

the egg, and for some months of its existence afterwards, it was a worm-like caterpillar, crawling

account for them physiologically, it is quite
possible, as Kirby has suggested, that "some
of the wonderful tales of the ancients were

grafted on the changes which they observed
to take place in insects." The story of the
phenix, for example, in many of its particu-
lars, closely resembles various occurrences
in the metamorphoses of insects. At first a
worm, emerging from the ashes of its pa-
rent's funeral pile, and eventually a glorious

upon sixteen short legs, greedily devouring leaves winged creature, providing in the means of
with two jaws, and seeing by means of twelve its own destruction, the nidus of its future
eyes so minute as to be nearly imperceptible with- and unseen progeny; the fabled phœnix
out the aid of a microscope. You now view it might assuredly have acquired its type from
furnished with wings capable of rapid and extensive the actual butterfly, without any great
flights: of its sixteen feet ten have disappeared, stretch of imagination. Then again the
and the remaining six are in most respects wholly doctrine of metempsychosis, or transmigra-
unlike those to which they have succeeded; its
jaws have vanished, and are replaced by a curled-

tion of souls, would, to the minds of the

up proboscis, suited only for sipping liquid sweets; early observers, be shadowed forth in the the form of its head is entirely changed, two long apparent revivification of the seemingly dead /horns project from its upper surface; and, instead chrysalis. But the doctrine of a future life, of twelve invisible eyes, you behold two, very more glorious than that of transmigration, large, and composed of at least 20,000 convex also derived support and countenance from lenses, each supposed to be a distinct and effective the same remarkable vicissitudes of insect

eye.

life. In the words of Mr. Newman

"Were you to push your examination further, and by dissection to compare the internal conformation of the caterpillar with that of the butterfly, "What can be more wonderful than the fact you would witness changes even more extraordi- that an unsightly worm should pass through a nary. In the former you would find some thou- shrouded and death-like sleep, and should wake at sands of muscles, which in the latter are replaced last a glorious butterfly, to bask in sunshine, float by others of a form and structure entirely different. on the impalpable atmosphere, and quaff the lusNearly the whole body of the caterpillar is occu-cious nectar of beauteous flowers. Well might pied by a capacious stomach, In the butterfly such a miracle be made a poet's theme! Well

this has become converted into an almost imperceptible thread-like viscus; and the abdomen is now filled by two large packets of eggs, or other organs not visible in the first state. In the former, two spirally convoluted tubes were filled with a silky gum; in the latter, both tubes and silk have almost totally vanished: and changes equally great have taken place in the economy and structure of the nerves and other organs.

"What a surprising transformation! Nor was this all. The change from one form to the other was not direct. An intermediate state not less singular intervened. After casting its skin even to its very jaws several times, and attaining its full growth, the caterpillar attached itself to a leaf by a silken girth. Its body greatly contracted; its skin once more split asunder, and disclosed an oviform mass, without exterior mouth, eyes or limbs, and exhibiting no other symptom of life than a slight motion when touched. In this state of death-like stupor, and without tasting food, the insect existed for several months, until at length the tomb burst, and out of a case not more than an inch long, and a quarter of an inch in diameter, proceeded the butterfly before you, which covers a surface of nearly four inches square."-Introd. i.

60.

Witnessing, as they doubtless did, these |

might those philosophers, on whose mind there
dawned, albeit dimly, the great truth of an after
life, well might they imagine their toilsome ex-
istence typified in the caterpillar, their descent to
the quiet grave in the tomb-like repose of the
chrysalis, and the hereafter they sighed for in the
spirit-like resurrection of the happy butterfly; and
seizing with avidity the idea, well might they
designate these aërial creatures by the name of
'souls.' "*-Newman, p. 73.

Observation and research have shown the true nature of insect metamorphosis; which although no longer possessing a claim to the supernatural, has by no means lost its legitimate character of the wonderful. Instead of the crawling caterpillar being metamorphosed into the chrysalis, in the strict sense of the term, or the quiescent chrysalis into the active butterfly, "it is now established beyond a doubt, that the wings, legs, and other parts of the butterfly pre-exist in the chrysalis, and even in the caterpillar; these facts have been ascertained by immersing the chrysalis and caterpillar in hot

** Ψυχή, signifying both soul and butterfly.

:

470

water, and dissecting them when a greater the insect, should at another be cast off, and the degree of solidity has thus been given to the whole system that supported them vanish."-Invarious parts." This is still more minutely trod. i. 70. explained by Kirby and Spence, in the following paragraphs:

But, beautiful as are the members of this tribe, and interesting as are their curious changes, a vast amount of the injuries caused by insects to the agriculturist, the forester, the merchant, and even to domestic economy, may fairly be laid to their charge.

"A caterpillar, is not, in fact, a simple, but a compound animal, containing within it the germ of the future butterfly, enclosed in what will be the case of the pupa, which is itself included in the three or more skins, one over the other, that will It is no unusual circumstance for hedges and

successively cover the larva. As this increases in size, these parts expand, present themselves, and are in turn thrown off, until at length the perfect insect, which had been concealed in this succes

sion of masks, is displayed in its genuine form. That this is the proper explanation of the phenomenon, has been satisfactorily proved by Swammerdam, Malpighi, and other anatomists. The first-mentioned illustrious naturalist discovered, by accurate dissections, not only the skins of the larva and of the pupa incased in each other, but within them the very butterfly itself, with its or gans indeed in an almost fluid state, but still per

fect in all its parts. Of this fact may con

trees to be entirely stripped of their foliage in spring and early summer, remaining as bare and leafless as in the depth of winter. This mischief is chiefly caused by the caterpillars of several species of moths or butterflies, which occasionally make their appearance in astonishing numbers, and devour every green leaf that falls in their way. Caterpillars of other species also greatly injure living trees, by eating away the internal wood; and in this way they do as much mischief as the grubs of wood-boring beetles previously spoken of. In short, vegetable substances of all descriptions, living and dead, are liable to the attacks of innumerable insect foes, which are by no means confined to the members of the two classes here referred to, since almost every tribe furdepredations are doubtless permitted for certain wise purposes, not the least important of which is the removal of decaying organie substances.

vince yourself without Swammerdam's skill, by plunging into vinegar or spirits of wine a caterpillar about to assume the pupa state, and letting it remain there a few days, for the purpose of giving consistency to its parts; or by boiling it in water for a few minutes. A very rough dissection will then enable you to detect the future but-nishes its contingent to the great army, whose

terfly; and you will find that the wings, rolled up

in a sort of a cord, are lodged between the first and second segment of the caterpillar; that the antennæ and trunk are coiled up in front of the head; and that the legs, however different their form, are actually sheathed in its legs. Malpighi discovered the eggs of the future moth in the chrysalis of the silkworm only a few days old; and Reaumer those of another moth (Hypogymna dispar) even in the caterpillar, and that seven or eight days before its change into the pupa. A caterpillar, then, may be regarded as a locomotive egg, having for its embryo the included butterfly, which, after a certain period, assimilates to itself the animal substances by which it is surrounded; has its organs gradually developed; and at length not, however, the case with all. A species breaks through the shell which encloses it. This explanation strips the miraculous, yet by no means reduces it to a simple or uninteresting operation. Our reason is confounded at the reflection that a larva, at first not thicker than does of her chickens. Another insect, per

The care with which insects provide for the safety and well-being of their progeny, whom the majority of them never see, furnishes some of the most curious manifestations of instinct. Most inseet parents perish soon after they have deposited their eggs in suitable situations, with, in some cases, a supply of food to be ready for the young the moment they emerge from the egg. This is of bug, inhabiting the birch tree, keeps near subject of everything her eggs, and collects and takes as much care of the young when hatched as a hen

a thread, includes its own triple, or sometimes octuple teguments; the case of a chrysalis, and a but terfly, all curiously folded into each other; with an apparatus of vessels for breathing and digesting, of nerves for sensation, and of muscles for moving; and that these various forms of existence will undergo their successive evolutions by aid of a few leaves received into its stomach. And still less able are we to comprehend how this organ should at one time be capable of digesting leaves, a another only honey; how one while a silky fluid should be secreted, at another none; or how organs at one period essential to the existence of

fectly harmless to man personally, though the object of much unfounded dislike, does the same thing; we allude to the earwig, whose proceedings are thus detailed by Mr. Newman:

"The earwig is one of our most common insects; it is well known to every one, and is very generally an object of unconquerable dislike; the forceps at its tail, and the threatening manner in which these are turned over its back, to pinch any thing of which it is afraid, render it peculiarly dis