LETTER VIII.

_INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS._

INDIRECT INJURIES CONCLUDED.

I have not yet arrived at the end of my catalogue of noxious insects. I have introduced you, indeed, to those that annoy man in his own person, in his domestic animals, in the produce of his fields, gardens, orchards, and forests; in a word, in every thing that is endued with the vital principle: but I have as yet said nothing of the injuries which he receives from them in that part of his property, consisting either of animal or vegetable matter, _from which that principle is departed_. And with these I shall conclude this melancholy detail of evils inflicted upon us by the very animals I am enticing you to study. The rest of my correspondence, I flatter myself, will paint them in more inviting colours.

The insects to which I now allude may be divided into those that attack and injure our food, our drugs and medicines, our clothes, our houses and furniture, our timber, and even the objects of our studies and amusements.

Various are those that attempt to share our _food_ with us. Flour and meal are eaten by the grub of _Tenebrio Molitor_, best known by the name of the meal-worm, which will remain in it two years before it goes into its state of inactivity:--its ravages however are not confined to flour alone, for it will eat any thing made of that article, such as bread, cakes, and the like. Old flour is also very apt to be infested by a mite (_Acarus Farinæ_)[405]. In long voyages the biscuit sometimes so swarms with the weevil and another beetle (_Dermestes paniceus_, L.) that they are swallowed with every mouthful; and even the ground peas so abound with these little vermin, that a spoonful of soup cannot be taken free from them[406]. Bread is also devoured by _Trogosita caraboides_, a larger beetle before alluded to[407].

Every one is aware that our animal food suffers still more than our farinaceous from insects; but perhaps you would not expect that our hams, bacon, and dried meats should have their peculiar beetle. Yet so it is; and this beetle, (_Dermestes lardarius_,) when a grub, sometimes commits great devastation in them; as does that of another described by De Geer under the name of _Tenebrio lardarius_[408]. How much our fresh meat of all kinds, our poultry and fish, are exposed to the flesh-fly, whose maggots will turn us disgusted from our tables, if we do not carefully guard these articles from being blown by them, you well know;--and assailants more violent, hornets, wasps, and the great rove-beetle, (_Creophilus maxillosus_) if butchers do not protect their shambles, will carry off no inconsiderable portion of their meat. A small cock-roach (_Blatta lapponica_) which I have taken upon our eastern coast, swarms in the huts of the Laplanders, and will sometimes annihilate in a single day, a work in which a carrion-beetle (_Silpha lapponica_) joins, their whole stock of dried fish[409]. The quantity of sugar that flies and wasps will devour, if they can come at it, especially the latter, the diminutive size of the creatures considered, is astonishing:--in one year long ago, when sugar was much cheaper than it is now, a tradesman told me he calculated his loss, by the wasps alone, at twenty pounds. A singular spectacle is exhibited in India (so Captain Green relates) by a small red ant with a black head. They march in long files, about three abreast, to any place where sugar is kept; and when they are saturated, return in the same order, but by a different route. If the sugar, upon which they are busy, be carried into the sun, they immediately desert it. What is very extraordinary, these ants are also fond of oil. Sweetmeats and preserves are very subject to be attacked by a minute oblong transparent mite with very short legs and without any hair upon its body. Our butter and lard are stated to be eaten by the caterpillar of a moth (_Aglossa pinguinalis_). _Tyrophaga_[410] _Casei_, the parent fly of the jumping cheese-maggot, loses no opportunity, we know, of laying its eggs in our fresh cheeses, and when they get dry and old the mite (_Acarus Siro_) settles her colonies in them, which multiply incredibly. Other substances, more unlikely, do not escape from our pygmy depredators. Thus Reaumur tells us of a little moth whose larva feeds upon chocolate, observing very justly that this could not have been its original food[411]. Both a moth and a beetle (_Sylvanus frumentarius?_) were detected by Leeuwenhoek preying upon two of our spices, the mace and the nutmeg[412]. The maggots of a fly (_Oscinis cellaris_) are found in vinegar, in the manufactories of which the perfect insects swarm in incredible numbers; others I have found in wine, which turned to a minute fly, of a yellow colour, with dark eyes and abdomen, which though near _Anthomyia_ as to its wings, appears to belong to a distinct genus not published by Meigen, which in my MS. stands under the name of _Oinopota ventralis_; and sometimes even water in the casks of ships, in long voyages, so abounds with larvæ of this tribe as to render it extremely disgusting. Browne, in his History of Jamaica, mentions an ant (_Formica omnivora_, L.) probably belonging to _Myrmica_, that consumes or spoils all kinds of food; which perhaps may be the same species that has been observed in Ceylon by Percival, and is described by him as inhabiting dwelling-houses, and speedily devouring every thing it can meet with. If at table any one drops a piece of bread, or of other food, it instantly appears in motion as if animated, from the vast number of these creatures that fasten upon it in order to carry it off. They can be kept, he tells us, by no contrivance from invading the table, and settling in swarms on the bread, sugar, and such things as they like. It is not uncommon to see a cup of tea, upon being poured out, completely covered with these creatures, and floating dead upon it like a scum[413].

In some countries the number of flies and other insects that enter the house in search of food, or allured by the light, is so great as to spoil the comfort of almost every meal. We are told that during the rainy season in India, insects of all descriptions are so incredibly numerous, and so busy every where, that it is often absolutely necessary to remove the lights from the supper-table:--were this not done, moths, flies, bugs, beetles, and the like, would be attracted in such numbers as to extinguish them entirely. When the lights are retained on the table, in some places they are put into glass cylinders, which St. Pierre tells us is the custom in the Island of Mauritius[414]; in others the candlesticks are placed in soup-plates, into which the insects are precipitated and drowned. Nothing can exceed the irritation caused by the stinking bugs when they get into the hair or between the linen and the body; and if they be bruised upon it the skin comes off[415]. To use the language of a poet of the Indies, from whom some of the above facts are selected,

"On every dish the booming beetle falls, The cock-roach plays, or caterpillar crawls: A thousand shapes of variegated hues Parade the table and inspect the stews. To living walls the swarming hundreds stick, Or court, a dainty meal, the oily wick; Heaps over heaps their slimy bodies drench, Out go the lamps with suffocating stench. When hideous insects every plate defile, The laugh how empty, and how forced the smile[416]!"

Drugs and medicines also, though often so nauseous to us, form occasionally part of the food of insects. A small beetle (_Sinodendrum pusillum_[417]) eats the roots of rhubarb, in which I detected it in the East India Company's warehouses. Opium is a dainty _morceau_ to the white ants[418];--and, what is more extraordinary, _Anobium paniceum_[419] (a coleopterous insect that preys naturally upon wood) has been known to devour the blister-beetle.--Swammerdam amongst his treasures mentions "a detestable beetle," produced from a worm that eats the roots of ginseng; and he likewise notices another, the larva of which devours the bag of the musk[420].--The cochineal at Rio de Janeiro is the prey of an insect resembling an Ichneumon, but furnished with only two wings; its station is in the cotton that envelops the Coccus. Previous to its assumption of the pupa it ejects a large globule of pure red colouring matter[421]. And lastly, the Coccus that produces the lac (_C. Lacca_) is, we are told, devoured by various insects[422].

Perhaps you imagine that these universal destroyers spare at least our garments, in which you may at first conceive there can be nothing very tempting to excite even the appetite of an insect. Your housekeeper, however, would probably tell you a different story, and enlarge upon the trouble and pains it costs her to guard those under her care against the ravages of the moths. Upon further inquiry you would find that nothing made of wool, whether cloth or stuff, comes amiss to them. There are five species described by Linné, which are more or less engaged in this work: _Tinea vestianella_, _tapetzella_, _pellionella_, _Recurvaria sarcitella_, and _Galleria Mellonella_. Of the first we have no particular history, except that it destroys garments in the summer; but of the others Reaumur has given a complete one. _T. tapetzella_, or the tapestry moth, not uncommon in our houses, is most injurious to the lining of carriages, which are more exposed to the air than the furniture of our apartments. These do not construct a moveable habitation like the common species, but, eating their way in the thickness of the cloth, weave themselves silken galleries in which they reside, and which they render close and warm by covering them with some of the eroded wool[423]. _T. pellionella_ is a most destructive insect, and ladies have often to deplore the ravages which it commits in their valuable furs, whether made up into muffs or tippets--it pays no more respect to the regal ermine than to the woollen habiliments of the poor; its proper food, indeed, being hair, though it devours both wool and fur. This species, if hard pressed by hunger, will even eat horsehair, and make its habitation, a moveable house or case, in which it travels from place to place, of this untractable material. These little creatures will shave the hair from a skin as neatly and closely as if a razor had been employed[424].--The most natural food of the next species, _R. sarcitella_, is wool; but in case of necessity it will eat fur and hair. To woollen cloths or stuffs it often does incredible injury, especially if they are not kept dry and well aired[425]. Of the devastation committed by _Galleria Mellonella_ in our bee-hives I have before given you an account: to this I must here add, that if it cannot come at wax, it will content itself with woollen cloth, leather, or even paper[426]. Mr. Curtis found the grub of a beetle (_Ptinus Fur_) in an old coat, which it devoured, making holes and channels in it; and another insect of the same order (_Megatoma Pellio_), Linné tells us, will sometimes entirely strip a fur garment of its hair[427]. A small beetle of the Capricorn tribe (_Callidium pygmæum_) I have good reason to believe devours leather, since I have found it abundant in old shoes.

Next to our garments our houses and buildings, which shelter us and our property from the inclemency and injuries of the atmosphere, are of consequence to us: yet these, solid and substantial as they appear, are not secure from the attack of insects; and even our furniture often suffers from them. A great part of our comfort within doors depends upon our apartments being kept clean and neat. Spiders by their webs, which they suspend in every angle, and flies by their excrements, which they scatter indiscriminately upon every thing, interfere with this comfort, and add much to the business of our servants. Even ants will sometimes plant their colonies in our kitchens, (I have known the horse-ant, _Formica rufa_, do this,) and are not easily expelled. Those of Sierra Leone, as I was once informed by the learned Professor Afzelius, make their way by millions through the houses. They resolutely pursue a straight course; and neither buildings nor rivers, even though myriads perish in the attempt, can divert them from it. Numerous are the tribes of insects that seek their food in our timber, whether laid up in store for our future use, employed in our houses, buildings, gates or fences, or made up into furniture. The several species of Mr. Marsham's genus _Ips_ (which includes the coleopterous genera _Apate_, _Bostrichus_, _Hylessinus_, _Hylurgus_, _Tomicus_, _Platypus_, _Scolytus_, and _Phloiotribus_ of modern systematists) all prey upon timber, feeding between the bark and the wood, and many of them excavating curious pinnated labyrinths. Almost every kind of tree has a species of this genus appropriated to it, and some have more than one[428]. The Stag-beetle tribe, or _Lucanidæ_, and several of the weevils[429], have a similar appetite, but penetrate deeper into the wood. The most extensive family, however, of timber-borers are the capricorn beetles, including the Fabrician genera of _Prionus_, _Cerambyx_, _Lamia_[430], _Stenocorus_, _Calopus_, _Rhagium_, _Gnoma_, _Saperda_, _Callidium_, and _Clytus_. The larva of these, as soon as hatched, leaves its first station between the bark and wood, and begins to make its way into the solid timber, (some of them plunging even into the iron heart of the oak, and one even perforating lead[431],) where it eats for itself tortuous paths, at its first starting perhaps not bigger than a pin's head, but gradually increasing in dimensions as the animal increases in magnitude, till it attains in some instances to a diameter of one or two inches. Only conceive what havoc the grub of the vast _Prionus giganteus_ must make in a beam! Percival is probably speaking of this beetle, when, in his account of Ceylon, he tells us, "There is an insect found here which resembles an immense over-grown beetle. It is called by us a carpenter, from its boring large holes in timber, of a regular form, and to the depth of several feet, in which, when finished, it takes up its habitation[432]." Seeing the perfect insect come out of these holes, an unentomological observer would naturally conclude that the beetle he saw had formed it, and lived in it; but, doubtless, the whole was the work of the grub[433].--Of all the coleopterous genera there is none the species of which are generally so rich, resplendent and beautiful as those of _Buprestis_: these likewise, in their first state, there is abundant reason to believe, derive their nutriment from the produce of the forest, in which they sometimes remain for many years before they assume their perfect state, and appear in their full splendour, as if nature required more time than usual to decorate these lovely insects. We learn from Mr. Marsham, that the grub of _B. splendida_ was ascertained to have existed in the wood of a deal table more than twenty years[434].--In this enumeration of timber-eating beetles, I must not forget the Fabrician genera, _Anobium_ and _Ptilinus_, because of one of them (_Anobium pertinax_) Linné complains "_terebravit et destruxit sedilia mea_[435];" and I can renew the same complaint against _A. striatum_, which not only has destroyed my chairs, but also picture-frames, and has perforated in every direction the deal floor of my chamber, from which it annually emerges through little round apertures in great numbers.--The utility of entomological knowledge in economics was strikingly exemplified, when the great naturalist just mentioned, at the desire of the king of Sweden, traced out the cause of the destruction of the oak-timber in the royal dock-yards; and, having detected the lurking culprit under the form of a beetle, (_Lymexylon navale_) by directing the timber to be immersed during the time of the metamorphosis of that insect and its season of oviposition, furnished a remedy which effectually secured it from its future attacks[436].--No coleopterous insects are more singular than those that belong to the genus _Pausus_, L.; and one of them at least, remarkable for emitting a phosphoric light from the globes of its antennæ, is also a timber-feeder[437].--Amongst the _Hymenoptera_ there are many insects that injure us in this department. The species of the genus _Sirex_, probably all of them in their _larva_ state, have no appetite but for ligneous food. Linné has observed this with respect to _S. Spectrum_ and _Camelus_; and Mr. Marsham, on the authority of Sir Joseph Banks, relates that several specimens of _S. Gigas_ were seen to come out of the floor of a nursery in a gentleman's house, to the no small alarm and discomfiture of both nurse and children[438].--The genus _Trypoxylon_, many species of _Crabro_, _Eumenes Parietum_, Latreille's genera _Xylocopa_, _Chelostoma_, _Heriades_, _Megachile_ and _Anthophora_, (all separated from _Apis_, L.,) perforate posts and rails and other timber, to form cells for their young[439].

The Linnean order _Aptera_ furnishes another timber-eating insect, a kind of wood-louse, though scarcely an eighth of the size of the common one, (_Limnoria terebrans_ of Dr. Leach,) which in point of rapidity of execution seems to surpass all its European brethren, and in many cases may be productive of more serious injury than any of them, since it attacks the wood-work of piers and jetties constructed in salt-water, and so effectually, as to threaten the rapid destruction of those in which it has established itself. In December 1815 I was favoured by Charles Lutwidge, esq. of Hull, with specimens of wood from the piers at Bridlington Quay which wofully confirm the fears entertained of their total ruin by the hosts of these pygmy assailants that have made good a lodgement in them, and which, though not so big as a grain of rice, ply their masticatory organs with such assiduity as to have reduced great part of the wood-work into a state resembling honey-comb. One specimen was a portion of a three-inch fir plank nailed to the North Pier about three years since, which is now crumbled away to less than an inch in thickness--in fact, deducting the space occupied by the cells which cover both surfaces as closely as possible, barely half an inch of solid wood is left; and though its progress is slower in oak, that wood is equally liable to be attacked by it.--If this insect were easily introduced to new stations, it might soon prove as destructive to our jetties as the _Teredo navalis_ to those of Holland, and induce the necessity of substituting stone for wood universally, whatever the expense: but happily it seems endowed with very limited powers of migration; for, though it has spread along both the South and East Piers of Bridlington harbour, it has not yet, as Mr. Lutwidge informs me, reached the dolphin nor an insulated jetty within the harbour.--No other remedy against its attacks is known than that of keeping the wood free from salt-water for three or four days, in which case it dies; but this method it is obvious can be rarely applicable[440].

How dear are their books, their cabinets of the various productions of nature, and their collections of prints and other works of art and science, to the learned, the scientific, and the virtuosi! Even these precious treasures have their insect enemies. The larva of _Aglossa pinguinalis_, whose ravages in another quarter I have noticed before[441], will establish itself upon the binding of a book, and spinning a robe, which it covers with its own excrement[442], will do it no little injury. A mite (_Cheyletus eruditus_) eats the paste that fastens the paper over the edges of the binding, and so loosens it[443]. I have also often observed the caterpillar of another little moth, of which I have not ascertained the species, that takes its station in damp old books, between the leaves, and there commits great ravages; and many a black-letter rarity, which in these days of Bibliomania would have been valued at its weight in gold, has been snatched by these destroyers from the hands of book-collectors. The little wood-boring beetles before mentioned (_Anobium pertinax_ and _striatum_) also attack books, and will even bore through several volumes. M. Peignot mentions an instance where, in a public library but little frequented, _twenty-seven_ folio volumes were perforated in a straight line by the same insect, (probably one of these species,) in such a manner that on passing a cord through the perfectly round hole made by it, these twenty-seven volumes could be raised at once[444]. The animals last mentioned also destroy prints and drawings, whether framed, or preserved in a porte-feuille. Our collections of quadrupeds, birds, insects and plants have likewise several terrible insect enemies, which without pity or remorse often destroy or mutilate our most highly prized specimens. _Ptinus Fur_ and _Anthrenus Musæorum_, two minute beetles, are amongst the worst, especially the latter, whose singular gliding larva, when once it gets amongst them, makes astonishing havoc, the birds soon shedding their feathers, and the insects falling to pieces. Mr. W. S. MacLeay informs me that at the Havana it is exceedingly difficult to preserve insects, &c., as the _ants_ devour every thing.--One of the worst plagues of the entomologist is a mite (_Acarus Destructor_, Schrank): this, if his specimens be at all damp, eats up all the muscular parts, (_Cantharis vesicatoria_ being almost the only insect that is not to its taste,) and thus entirely destroys them.--If spiders by any means get amongst them, they will do no little mischief.--Some I have observed to be devoured by a minute moth, perhaps _Tinea Insectella_; and in the posterior thighs of a species of _Locusta_ from China, I once found, one in each thigh, a small beetle congenerous with _Antherophagus pallens_, that had devoured the interior. It is, I believe, either _Acarus Destructor_ or _Cheyletus eruditus_ that eats the gum employed to fasten down dried plants.

There are other insects which do not confine themselves to one or two articles, but make a general and indiscriminate attack upon our dead stock. Ulloa mentions one peculiar to Carthagena, called there the _comegen_, which he describes as a kind of moth or maggot so minute as to be scarcely visible to the naked eye[445]. This destroys, says he, the furniture of houses, particularly all kinds of hangings, whether of cloth, linen, or silk, gold or silver stuffs or lace; in short, every thing except solid metal. It will in a single night ruin all the goods of a warehouse in which it has got footing, reducing bales of merchandize to dust without altering their appearance, so that the mischief is not perceived till they come to be handled[446]. If we make some deduction from this account for exaggeration, still the amount of damage will be very considerable.

There are three kinds of insects better known, to whose ravages, as most prominent and celebrated, I shall last call your attention. The insects I mean are the cock-roach (_Blatta orientalis_), the house-cricket (_Gryllus domesticus_), and the various species of white ants (_Termes_). The last of these, most fortunately for us, are not yet naturalized.

The cock-roaches hate the light, at least the kind that is most abundant in Britain, (for _B. germanica_, which abounds in some houses, is bolder, making its appearance in the day, and running up the walls and over the tables, to the great annoyance of the inhabitants,) and never come forth from their hiding-places till the lights are removed or extinguished. In the London houses, especially on the ground-floor, they are most abundant, and consume every thing they can find, flour, bread, meat, clothes, and even shoes[447]. As soon as light, natural or artificial, re-appears, they all scamper off as fast as they can, and vanish in an instant. These pests are not indigenous here, and perhaps no where in Europe, but are one of the evils which commerce has imported: and we may think ourselves well off that others of the larger species of the genus have not been introduced in the same way--as, for instance, _Blatta gigantea_, a native of Asia, Africa, and America, many times the size of the common one,--which, not content with devouring meat, clothes and books, even attacks persons in their sleep, and the extremities of the dead and dying[448].

The house-cricket may perhaps be deemed a still more annoying insect than the common cock-roach, adding an incessant noise to its ravages; since, although, for a short time, it may not be unpleasant to hear

"the cricket chirrup in the hearth,"

so constant a din every evening must very much interrupt comfort and conversation. These garrulous animals, which live in a kind of artificial torrid zone, are very thirsty souls, and are frequently found drowned in pans of water, milk, broth, and the like. Whatever is moist, even stockings or linen hung out to dry, is to them a _bonne bouche_; they will eat the scummings of pots, yeast, crumbs of bread, and even salt, or any thing within their reach. Sometimes they are so abundant in houses as to become absolute pests, flying into the candles and into people's faces.

At Cuddapa, in the ceded districts to the northward of Mysore, Captain Green was much annoyed by a jumping insect, which from his description I should take for the larva of a species of cricket. They were of a dun colour, and from half to three-fourths of an inch in length. They abounded at night, and were very injurious to papers and books, which they both discoloured and devoured; leather also was eaten by them. Such was their boldness and avidity, that they attacked the exposed parts of the body when you were asleep, nibbling the ends of the fingers, particularly the skin under the nails, which was only discoverable by a slight soreness that succeeded. So great was their agility that they could seldom be caught or crushed. They were a mute insect, but probably the imago would make noise enough.

But the _white ants_, wherever they prevail, are a still worse plague than either of these insects--they are the great calamity, as Linné terms them, of both the Indies. When they find their way into houses or warehouses, nothing less hard than metal or glass escapes their ravages. Their favourite food, however, is wood of all kinds, except the teak (_Tectona grandis_) and iron-wood (_Sideroxylon_), which are the only sorts known that they will not touch[449]; and so infinite are the multitudes of the assailants, and such is the excellence of their tools, that all the timber-work of a spacious apartment is often destroyed by them in a few nights. Exteriorly, however, every thing appears as if untouched; for these wary depredators, and this is what constitutes the greatest singularity of their history, carry on all their operations by sap and mine, destroying first the inside of solid substances, and scarcely ever attacking their outside, until first they have concealed it and their operations with a coat of clay. A general similarity runs through the proceedings of the whole tribe; but the large African species, (called by Smeathman _Termes bellicosus_,) _T. fatalis_ is the most formidable. These insects live in large clay nests, from whence they excavate tunnels all round, often to the extent of several hundred feet; from these they will descend a considerable depth below the foundation of a house, and rise again through the floors; or, boring through the posts and supports of the building, enter the roof, and construct there their galleries in various directions. If a post be a convenient path to the roof, or has any weight to support, which how they discover is not easily conjectured, they will fill it with their mortar, leaving only a trackway for themselves; and thus, as it were, convert it from wood into stone as hard as many kinds of free-stone. In this manner they soon destroy houses, and sometimes even whole villages when deserted by their inhabitants, so that in two or three years not a vestige of them will remain.

These insidious insects are not less expeditious in destroying the wainscoting, shelves, and other fixtures of a house than the house itself. With the most consummate art and skill they eat away all the inside of what they attack, except a few fibres here and there which exactly suffice to keep the two sides, or top and bottom, connected, so as to retain the appearance of solidity after the reality is gone; and all the while they carefully avoid perforating the surface, unless a book or any other thing that tempts them should be standing upon it. Kæmpfer, speaking of the white ants of Japan, gives a remarkable instance of the rapidity with which these miners proceed. Upon rising one morning he observed that one of their galleries of the thickness of his little finger had been formed across his table; and, upon a further examination, he found that they had bored a passage of that thickness up one foot of the table, formed a gallery across it, and then pierced down another foot into the floor: all this was done in the few hours that intervened between his retiring to rest and his rising[450]. They make their way also with the greatest ease into trunks and boxes, even though made of mahogany, and destroy papers and every thing they contain, constructing their galleries and sometimes taking up their abode in them. Hence, as Humboldt informs us, throughout all the warmer parts of equinoctial America, where these and other destructive insects abound, it is infinitely rare to find papers which go fifty or sixty years back[451]. In one night they will devour all the boots and shoes that are left in their way; cloth, linen, or books are equally to their taste; but they will not eat cotton, as Captain Green informs me. I myself have to deplore that they entirely consumed a collection of insects made for me by a friend in India, more especially as it sickened him of the employment. In a word, scarcely any thing, as I said before, but metal or stone comes amiss to them. Mr. Smeathman relates, that a party of them once took a fancy to a pipe of fine old Madeira, not for the sake of the wine, almost the whole of which they let out, but of the staves, which however I suppose were strongly imbued with it, and perhaps on that account were not less to the taste of our epicure Termites. Having left a compound microscope in a warehouse at Tobago for a few months, on his return he found that a colony of a small species of white ant had established themselves in it, and had devoured most of the wood-work, leaving little besides the metal and glasses[452]. A shorter period sufficed for their demolition of some of Mr. Forbes's furniture. On surveying a room which had been locked up during an absence of a few weeks, he observed a number of advanced works in various directions towards some prints and drawings in English frames; the glasses appeared to be uncommonly dull, and the frames covered with dust. "On attempting," says he, "to wipe it off, I was astonished to find the glasses fixed to the wall, not suspended in frames as I left them, but completely surrounded by an incrustation cemented by the white ants, who had actually eaten up the deal frames and back-boards, and the greater part of the paper, and left the glasses upheld by the incrustation, or covered way, which they had formed during their depredation[453]." It is even asserted that the superb residence of the Governor-General at Calcutta, which cost the East India Company such immense sums, is now rapidly going to decay in consequence of the attacks of these insects[454].--But not content with the dominions they have acquired, and the cities they have laid low on Terra Firma, encouraged by success the white ants have also aimed at the sovereignty of the ocean, and once had the hardihood to attack even a British ship of the line; and, in spite of the efforts of her commander and his valiant crew, having boarded they got possession of her, and handled her so roughly, that when brought into port, being no longer fit for service, she was obliged to be broken up[455].

And here, I think, I see you throw aside my papers, and hear you exclaim--"Will this enumeration of scourges, plagues, and torments never be finished? Was the whole insect race created merely with punitive views, and to mar the fair face of universal nature? Are they all, as our Saviour said figuratively of one genus, the scorpion, the powerful agents and instruments of the great enemy of mankind[456]?" If you view the subject in another light, you will soon, my friend, be convinced that, instead of this, insects generally answer the most beneficial ends, and promote in various ways, and in an extraordinary degree, the welfare of man and animals; and that the series of evils I have been engaged in enumerating mostly occur partially, and where they exceed their natural limits; God permitting this occasionally to take place, not merely with punitive views, but also to show us what mighty effects he can produce by instruments seemingly the most insignificant: thus calling upon us to glorify his power, wisdom, and goodness, so evidently manifested whether he relaxes or draws tight the reins by which he guides insects in their course, and regulates their progress; and more particularly to acknowledge his overruling Providence so conspicuously exhibited by his measuring them, as it were, and weighing them, and telling them out, so that, their numbers, forces and powers being annually proportioned to the work he has prescribed to them, they may neither exceed his purpose nor fall short of it.

From the picture I have drawn, and I assure you it is not overcharged, you will be disposed to admit, however, the empire of insects over the works of creation, and to own that our prosperity, comfort and happiness are intimately connected with them; and consequently that the knowledge and study of them may be extremely useful and necessary to promote these desirable ends, since the knowledge of the cause of any evil is always a principal, if not an indispensable, step towards a remedy.

I shall now bid adieu to this unpromising subject, which has so long occupied my pen, and I fear wearied your attention, and in my next bring before you a more agreeable scene, in which you will behold the _benefits_ we receive by the ministry of insects.

I am, &c.

FOOTNOTES:

[405] _Amœn. Acad._ iii. 345.

[406] Sparrman, i. 103. This insect, by Swedish entomologists, is supposed to be a species of _Anobium_, F., (_Ptinus_, L.,) but the specimen preserved in the Linnean cabinet is _Silpha rosea_ of Mr. Marsham (_Cacidula pectoralis_, Meg.). A small beetle of the first family of _Cryptophagus_ of Major Gyllenhal swarms often in the ship biscuit, and may probably be the insect Sparrman here complains of under the name of _Dermestes paniceus_.

[407] See above, p. 172.

[408] De Geer, v. 46. This insect appears nearly related to Mr. Marsham's _Corticaria pulla_ (_E. B._ i. 11. 14. _Latridius porcatus_, Herbst), if it be not the same insect.

[409] _Amœn. Acad._ iii. 345.

[410] This name has long been given to this insect, and the Characters of the genus were drawn by Mr. Curtis before the publication of Meigen's fifth volume (in which the genus is called _Piophila_); it is therefore retained. See Curtis _Brit. Ent. t._ 126.

[411] Reaum. iii. 276.

[412] Leeuwenh. _Epist._ 99.

[413] _Ceylon_, 307.

[414] _Voyage_, &c. 72.

[415] Williamson's _East India Vade Mecum_.

[416] _Calcutta, a Poem_, 85.

[417] _Ptinus piceus_, Marsh.

[418] On examining ninety-two chests of _opium_, part of the cargo saved from the Charlton, previously to reshipping them from Chittagong for China, thirteen were found to be full of white ants, which had almost wholly devoured the opium. _Article from Chittagong, Nov._ 1812, _in one of the Newspapers, July_ 31, 1813.

[419] _Ptinus rubellus_, Marsh.

[420] _Bibl. Nat._ i. 125. b. 126. a.

[421] Sir Geo. Staunton's _Voy._ 8vo. 189.

[422] Kerr in _Philos. Trans._ 1781.

[423] Reaum. iii. 266.

[424] Ibid. 59.

[425] Reaum. iii. 42.

[426] Ibid. 257.

[427] _Amœn. Acad._ iii. 346.

[428] Kirby in _Linn. Trans._ v. 250.

[429] _Curculio lignarius_, Marsh. _Rhinosimus ruficollis_, Latr.

[430] The species of the genus _Dorcadion_ separated from _Lamia_ are discovered to live upon the roots of grass.

[431] The _larva_ of a _Callidium_ (which Dr. Leach has discovered to be _C. Bajulus_) sometimes does material injury to the wood-work of the roofs of houses in London, piercing in every direction the fir-rafters, and, when arrived at the perfect state, making its way out even through sheets of lead one-sixth of an inch thick, when they happen to have been nailed upon the rafter in which it has assumed its final metamorphosis. I am indebted to the kindness of Sir Joseph Banks for a specimen of such a sheet of lead, which, though only eight inches long and four broad, is thus pierced with twelve oval holes, of some of which the longest diameter is a quarter of an inch! Mr. Charles Miller first discovered lead in the stomach of the larva of this insect.

[432] P. 310.

[433] See Kirby, _ubi supr._ 253.--More than a hundred species of the Capricorn tribe, many of them nondescripts, were collected in the neighbourhood of Rio de Janeiro by Captain Hancock, of the Foudroyant.

[434] In _Linn. Trans._ x. 399.

[435] _Syst. Nat._ 565. 2.

[436] Smith's _Introduction to Botany_, Pref. xv.

[437] Afzelius in _Linn. Trans._ iv. 261.

[438] _Linn. Trans._ x. 403.

[439] Kirby, _Mon. Ap. Ang._ i. 152-194. Latreille, _Gen._ iv. 161--.

[440] In order to ascertain how far _pure_ sea water is essential to this insect, and consequently what danger exists of its being introduced into the woodwork of our docks and piers communicating with our salt-water rivers, as at Hull, Liverpool, Bristol, Ipswich, &c., where it might be far more injurious than even on the coast, I have, since December 15th 1815, when Mr. Lutwidge was so kind as to furnish me with a piece of oak full of the insects in a living state, poured a not very strong solution of common salt over the wood, every other day, so as to keep the insects constantly wet. On examining it this day (Feb. 5th 1816) I found them alive; and, what seems to prove them in as good health as in their natural habitat, numbers have established themselves in a piece of fir-wood which I nailed to the oak, and have in this short interval, and in winter too, bored many cells in it.

[441] See p. 226.

[442] Reaum. iii. 270.

[443] Schrank _Enum. Ins. Austr._ 513. 1058.

[444] Horne's _Introd. to Bibliography_, i. 311.

[445] It appears from Humboldt (_Personal Narrative_, E. T. v. 116.) that the destructive insects called by this name, are _Termites_.

[446] Ulloa, i. 67.

[447] _Amœn. Acad._ iii. 345.

[448] Drury's _Insects_, iii. Preface.

[449] It is not its hardness that protects the teak, as the Asiatic Termites attack Lignum Vitæ, but probably some essential oil disagreeable to them with which it is impregnated. This is the more likely, since they will eat it when it is old and has been long exposed to the air. _Tannin_ has been conjectured to be the protecting substance, but erroneously, as leather of every kind is devoured by them. Williamson's _East India Vade Mecum_, ii. 56. It is its hardness probably that protects the iron-wood from the African Termites. Smeathman in _Philos. Trans._ 1781. 11. 47.

[450] _Japan_, ii. 127.

[451] _Political Essay on New Spain_, iv. 135.

[452] This account of the _Termites_ is chiefly taken from Smeathman in _Philos. Trans._ 1781, and Percival's _Ceylon_, 307--.

[453] _Oriental Memoirs_, i. 362.

[454] _Morning Herald_, Dec. 31st, 1814.

[455] The ship here alluded to was the Albion, which was in such a condition from the attack of insects, supposed to be white ants, that, had not the ship been firmly lashed together, it was thought she would have foundered on her voyage home.--The late Mr. Kittoe informed me that the _Droguers_ or _Draguers_, a kind of lighter employed in the West Indies in collecting the sugar, sometimes so swarm with ants, of the common kind, that they have no other way of getting rid of these troublesome insects than by sinking the vessel in shallow water.

[456] Luke x. 19.