v. All the differences I have hitherto noticed between the sexes

of insects occur in their _bodily_ structure; but there are others of a somewhat higher description observable in their _character_. You may smile at the idea of character in beings so minute; but if you recollect what I formerly related to you when treating upon the societies of insects, you will allow that something of this kind does take place amongst them. In general the males are more fitted for locomotion and more locomotive; and the females, on the contrary, are necessarily more stationary. And this for an obvious reason:--the law is, that the male shall seek the female, and therefore he is peculiarly gifted for this purpose, both in his organs of sensation and motion: while his partner in many cases has very simple antennæ, he has very complex ones; and while she has either no wings or only rudiments of them, he is amply provided with them. Again: amongst the insects that suck the blood of man or beast, such as the gnat (_Culex_) or horse-flies (_Tabanidæ_), it is the female alone that is bloodthirsty, the males contenting themselves with the nectar of flowers[890]. But the difference of character in the sexes is most conspicuous, at least it has been more noticed, in those that live in societies, and is quite the reverse of what takes place in the human species. While the females and workers (which are now generally considered as sterile females, in which the ovaries are not developed) are laborious and active, diligent and skilful, wise and prudent, courageous and warlike;--the males, on the contrary, take no part in promoting the common weal, except merely a sexual one. Though till a certain period they are supported at the expense of the community, they take no part in its labours, either in collecting and forming the public stores, or in feeding and attending the young. They are idle, cowardly, and inactive; have neither art nor skill of any kind, and are unprovided with the usual offensive weapons of their species. These observations in their full force apply particularly to the hive-bee, and partially to the other social insects; amongst which, if you consult my former communications, there are some exceptions to this slothful character in the males[891].

II. _Age._ There is less diversity in the duration of the lives of insects in their perfect than in their larva or pupa state. Some, like several species of _Ephemeræ_, live only a few hours; some never even see the sun[892]: others, as flies, moths, and butterflies, and indeed the majority of insects, a few days or weeks; and a comparatively small number, such as some of the larger _Coleoptera_, _Orthoptera_, &c., six, nine, twelve, or fifteen months--a period beyond which the life of perfect insects rarely extends. Some, however, certainly enjoy a longer existence in the perfect state. Mr. Baker kept one of the darkling beetles (_Blaps Mortisaga_) alive under a glass upwards of three years. The rose-beetle (_Cetonia aurata_), Rösel informs us he fed with fruit and moist white bread for as long a period[893]. Esper kept our most common water-beetle (_Dytiscus marginalis_) in water in a large glass vessel, feeding it with meat, for three years and a half[894]. With regard to the _Arachnida_, from the very slow growth of _Scorpio europæus_, Rösel suspects that it must live two or three years; and Audebert is stated to have kept a spider for several[895]. In this respect insects follow a law very different from that which obtains amongst vertebrate animals. In these the duration of their life is in proportion to the term of their growth: those which attain to maturity the latest, in almost every case living the longest. In insects, on the contrary, we often meet with the very reverse of this rule. Thus the larva of the great goat-moth (_Cossus ligniperda_) is three years, that of the cabbage-butterfly (_Pieris Brassicæ_) not three months, in attaining maturity; yet the perfect insects live equally long. _Melolontha vulgaris_, which in its first state lives four years, as a beetle lives only eight or ten days[896]. And some _Ephemeræ_, whose larvæ have been two years in acquiring their full size, live only an hour; while the flesh-fly, whose larva has attained to maturity in three or four days, will exist several weeks.

There is yet another anomaly in the duration of the life of perfect insects. This is not, as in larger animals, a fixed period liable to be shortened only by accident or disease, and incapable of being prolonged; but an indeterminate one, whose duration is dependent on the earlier or later fulfilment of a particular animal function--that of propagation. The general law is, that a few days, or at most weeks, after the union of the sexes, both perish, the female having first deposited her eggs. If, therefore, this union takes place immediately after the disclosure of the insect from the pupa, their existence in the perfect state will not exceed a few _days_ or _weeks_, or in some cases _hours_, as in that of the _Ephemera_, and likewise of the _Phalænæ Attaci_ L. &c., which fall down dead immediately after oviposition[897]. But if by any means it be put off or prevented, their life may be protracted to three or four times that period. Gleditsch asserts, that by keeping apart the sexes of a grasshopper, their lives were prolonged to eight or nine weeks, instead of two or three, their ordinary length; and under similar circumstances _Ephemeræ_, which usually perish in a day, have been kept alive seven or eight. It is in consequence of this very curious fact, which has not received from physiologists the attention that it merits, that many butterflies and other insects, which, when excluded from the pupa in summer, perish in less than a month, live through the winter, if excluded late in the autumn, and the union of the sexes does not ensue. It is probable that the great age to which Baker's _Blaps_, Rösel's _Cetonia_, and Esper's _Dytiscus_ attained, was owing to their being virgins when taken, and subsequently kept from any sexual intercourse. A parallel case happens in the vegetable kingdom:--if annual plants are kept from seeding, they will become biennial; as, likewise, if they are sown too late in the year to produce seeds.

In the case, however, of the earlier or later exclusion of the imago, another agent has probably some influence. Buffon found that, other circumstances being alike, the silkworm-moths placed in a _northern_, lived longer than those exposed to a _southern_ aspect: whence it appears that the stimulus of heat shortens the lives of insects, and consequently that cold tends to lengthen them.

It must be observed too, that as the death of the female insect does not take place until all the eggs are excluded, the term of her life, though usually short in the majority of species, which lay their whole number at once, is proportionably long in those which, like the queen-bee, have a longer period assigned them for this important office. Huber affirms, that he had certain proofs that she was engaged for two years in laying eggs, all impregnated by a single sexual union[898]; and in the females of most insects that live in society, several months are required to mature the last eggs that are in the ovary. There is one tribe of insects, however, the females of which are affirmed to survive this operation: I mean _Dorthesia_ Bosc; after which they even moult, though not so often as before[899].

I formerly related to you the singular fact, that the drones in a beehive at a certain period are without mercy slaughtered by the workers[900]. A fact the reverse of this is recorded by Morier with respect to the locusts: he affirms that the female, when she has done laying her eggs, is surrounded and killed by the males. He says that he never himself witnessed this extraordinary circumstance; but that he heard it from such authority that he gave full credit to it[901]. It is a fact, however, that seems to require further evidence to entitle it to such credit. These are instances in which, by a law of nature, the life of these insects is shortened by violence. It does not appear to have been ascertained how long those drones live that, under particular circumstances, as stated in a former letter[902], are exempted from the usual slaughter.

I am, &c.

FOOTNOTES:

[683] See above, VOL. II. p. 346.

[684] Reaum. i. _Mem. ult._ De Geer i. 73. Swamm. _Bibl. Nat._ i. 184.

[685] Swamm. _Ibid._

[686] Jurine _Hymenopt._ 16.

[687] iv. 342. Herold also attributes the rapid expansion of the wing to the flow of an aqueous fluid, which he calls _blood_, into the nervures, the orifices of which open into the breast. _Entwickelungs. der Schmetterl._ 101. sect. 106.--M. Chabrier, in his admirable _Essai sur le Vol des Insectes_ (_Mém. du Mus._ 4ieme, ann. 325), having observed a fluid in the interior of the nervures of the wings of insects, thinks it probable that they can introduce it into them and withdraw it at their pleasure: the object of which, he conjectures, is either to strengthen them and facilitate their unfolding, or to vary the centre of gravity in flight, and increase the intensity of the centrifugal force.

[688] _Ibid._ 340.

[689] Brahm. _Insek._ ii. 423.

[690] Reaum. vi. 505--. _t._ xlvi. _f._ 9. Comp. De Geer ii. 627--.

[691] Reaum. iii. 378.

[692] Ibid. 385.

[693] Insects of the beetle tribe, especially such as undergo their metamorphosis under ground, in the trunks of trees, &c., are often a considerable time after quitting the puparium before their organs acquire the requisite hardness to enable them to make their way to the surface. Thus, the newly-disclosed imago of _Cetonia aurata_ remains a fortnight under the earth, and that of _Lucanus Cervus_, according to Rösel, not less than three weeks.

[694] See above, VOL. I. p. 34--.

[695] Jurine _Hymenopt._ 9. Note 1.

[696] Oliv. N. i. _t._ i. _f._ 1. _c. f._ N. 3. _t._ iii. _f._ 22. _a b c._ _t._ v. _f._ 33. _t._ vi. _f._ 5. _t._ xiii. _f._ 124. _a b._

[697] Reaum. vi. 423.

[698] Kirby Mon. _Ap. Angl._ ii. _t._ xvi. _f._ 12, 13. _t._ xvii. _f._ 10-12.

[699] Reaum. iv. 393.

[700] See above, VOL. I. 473--.

[701] De Geer vii. 304.

[702] Reaum. iv. 30.

[703] Ibid. _t._ iv. _f._ 15.

[704] See above, VOL. II. 36.

[705] De Geer iii. 25.

[706] _Linn. Trans._ iv. 54--.

[707] ix. 65. _n._ 110.

[708] vi. 423.

[709] _Entomologische_, &c. 224.

[710] De Geer ii. 847. 850. Jurine _Hymenopt._ 100.

[711] Kirby _Mon. Ap. Angl._ ii. 296. 264.

[712] _Ibid._ ii. 142--. 144, 147, 148, &c.

[713] A remarkable anomalous exception to this rule sometimes occurs in the female of _D. marginalis_, which has smooth elytra like the male (Gyll. _Ins. Suec._ i. 467-). I have this variety from the Rev. Mr. Dalton, of Copgrove, Yorkshire.

[714] De Geer i. _t._ vii. _f._ 11.

[715] See above, VOL. II. 125, Note^b.

[716] _Melitta_ ** c. Kirby _Mon. Ap. Angl._ i. 140.

[717] _Ibid._ _t._ iv. _f._ 10. _a. b. f._ 14.

[718] _Ibid._ _t._ xiii. _f._ 20. _a._

[719] Kirby _Mon. Ap. Angl._ i. _t._ xi. Apis **. d. 2. α. β. _f._ 18 _a. b. c. d._

[720] Coquebert _Illustr. Icon._ i. _t._ vi. _f._ 6.

[721] Kirby _Mon. Ap. Angl._ i. _Apis_ **. _c._ 1. α. **. c. 1. β. **. c. 2. α. **. c. 2. β. **. c. 2. γ. **. c. 2. δ.

[722] _Ibid._ _t._ viii. _f._ 28. _f. g._

[723] Christ. _Hymenopt._ _t._ iv. _f._ 3. _b._

[724] Kirby _Mon. Ap. Angl._ i. _t._ iv. _Melitta_ **. c. _f._ 1. _a._

[725] Scheven _Naturfors._ stk. xx. 65. _t._ ii. _f._ 4. Compare _Ibid._ x. 101.

[726] Reaum. iii. _t._ xv. _f._ 18, 19.

[727] Oliv. no. 84. _Brentus_, _t._ i. _f._ 1. _b. c. t._ ii. _f._ 17. _a. b._

[728] Oliv. no. 3. _Scarabæus_, _t._ xviii. _f._ 169.

[729] Oliv. _Scarabæus_, _t._ xii. _f._ 114. _t._ xv. _f._ 138. _a._

[730] _Ibid._ _t._ v. _f._ 33.

[731] _Ibid._ _t._ xii. _f._ 112.

[732] _Linn. Trans._ vi. _t._ xix. _f._ 12. _t._ xx. _f._ 2.

[733] Oliv. no. 57. _Tenebrio_, _t._ i. _f._ 2.

[734] Oliv. _ubi supr._ No. 3. _t._ i. _f._ 1.

[735] Oliv. no. 3. _t._ iii. _f._ 20. _a._

[736] Ibid. no. 55. _Diaperis_, _t._ i. _f._ 3.

[737] Oliv. _Scarabæus_, _t._ xx. _f._ 185.

[738] As _Dynastes Actæon_, _Elephas_, _Typhon_, &c. differ from _D. Hercules_, &c., not only in their general habits, horns, &c., but also in their maxillæ and labium,--the former in _D. Actæon_ being simple, and in _D. Hercules_ toothed, and the labium of the first bilobed at the apex, and in the last entire and acute,--according to the modern system they ought, therefore, to be considered as distinct genera. I would restrict the name _Dynastes_ to _D. Hercules_ and its affinities: _D. Actæon_, &c. I would call _Megasoma_.

[739] Oliv. _Scarabæus_, _t._ xvii. _f._ 156.

[740] _Ibid._ _t._ viii. _f._ 63.

[741] This insect is beautifully figured in M. Latreille's _Insectes sacres des Egyptiens_, _f._ 11. See Luke xi. 15. Heb. בעלןבול _Dominus stercoris_.

[742] Oliv. no. 83. 160. _t._ vi. _f._ 60. ♂. _t._ v. _f._ 45. ♀?

[743] _Ibid._ no. 36. _t._ ii. _f._ 12.

[744] _Ibid._ no. 6. _t._ vii. _f._ 61.

[745] See above, VOL. II. 224--.

[746] Coquebert _Illustr. Icon._ iii. _t._ xxi. _f._ 2.

[747] Stoll _Cigales_, _t._ xviii. _f._ A B C. _Grillons_ _t._ iv. _f._ 16-18. This singular animal, which was found by Mr. Patterson at the Cape of Good Hope, is stated to be an _aquatic_; and affords the only known instance of an _Orthopterous_ insect inhabiting the waters. The _Gryllotalpa_ loves the vicinity of water.

[748] _Mon. Ap. Angl._ i. _Melitta_ **. b. 139. _t._ ii. _f._ 4-6.

[749] _Ibid._ **. a. _f._ 4, 5.

[750] _Ibid. Apis_ *. b. 190--. _t._ v. _f._ 18 _b._

[751] By Rösel, by a friend of De Geer's, and by M. Marechal. De Geer iv. 331--. _Nouv. Dict. d'Hist. Nat._ xviii. 225.

[752] Oliv. no. i. _Lucanus_, _t._ ii. _f._ 3.

[753] _Ibid._ _t._ iii. _f._ 7.

[754] _Linn. Trans._ xii. 410. _t._ xxi. _f._ 12.

[755] _Ibid._ vi. 185. _t._ xx. _f._ 1.

[756] Oliv. _ubi supr._ _t._ ii. _f._ 4.

[757] _Regne Animal_, iii. _t._ xiii. _f._ 3.

[758] See VOL. I. PLATE I. FIG. 3.

[759] Christ. _Hymenopt._ _t._ xviii. _f._ 2.

[760] _Mon. Ap. Angl._ i. _Melitta_ *. a. _t._ i. _f._ 5. ♀. 7. ♂.

[761] _Ibid._ _Melitta_ **. a. _t._ ii. _f._ 6. ♀. 7. ♂. and **. b. _t._ iii. _f._ 3. ♀. 4. ♂.

[762] _Ibid._ _t._ viii. _f._ 11. ♀. 12. ♂.

[763] _Ibid._ i. _t._ viii. _f._ 9. ♀. 10. ♂.

[764] _Ibid._ _Apis_ **. c. 2. β. _t._ ix. _f._ 6. ♀. 7. ♂.

[765] See above, VOL. II. 125. Note^b.

[766] _Mon. Ap. Angl_. ubi supr. _t._ xiii. _f._ 13. ♀. 14. ♂.

[767] MacLeay _Hor. Entomolog._ 4--.

[768] _N. Dict. d'Hist. Nat._ xxii. 488.

[769] _Linn. Trans._ xii. 425--. _t._ xxii. _f._ 6.

[770] PLATE XXVI. FIG. 2.

[771] _Ibid._ FIG. 3.

[772] Oliv. no. xxv. _Lymexylon_, _t._ 1. _f._ 1.

[773] De Geer vii. 249--. _t._ xiv. _f._ 20, 21. Treviranus _Arachnid._ 36--. _t._ ii. _f._ 16. _a b c._ _t._ iv. _f._ 35-37.

[774] _Mon. Ap. Angl._ i. Apis **. c. 2. γ. _t._ ix. _f._ 7. ♀. 9. ♂.

[775] _Ibid._ _Melitta_ **. a. _t._ ii. _f._ 8. ♀. 9. ♂. and **. b. _t._ iii. _f._ 6. ♀. 7. ♂. **. c. _t._ iv. _f._ 11. ♀. 12. ♂.

[776] Jurine _Hymenopt._ _t._ 11. _f._ 2.

[777] _Mon. Ap. Angl._ i. Apis **. d. 1. _t._ x. _f._ 7.

[778] Oliv. no. 80. _Macrocephalus_, _t._ i. _f._ 2.

[779] Latr. _Gen. Crust. et Ins._ iv. 156.

[780] Jurine _Hymenopt._ 61. _t._ vi. _f._ 8.

[781] Ibid. 289.

[782] _Mon. Ap. Angl._ i. _t._ ix. Apis **. c. 2. γ. _f._ 9.

[783] PLATE XI. FIG. 19.

[784] PLATE V. FIG. 3.

[785] PLATE XI. FIG. 18.

[786] Ibid. FIG. 17.

[787] PLATE XXV. FIG. 11. _Linn. Trans._ xii. _t._ xxi. _f._ 4. _a._

[788] _Ibid._ _f._ 3.

[789] PLATE XXV. FIG. 22.

[790] De Geer i. _t._ xix. _f._ 11, 12.

[791] Jurine _Hymenopt._ _t._ vi. _f._ 8.

[792] PLATE XXV. FIG. 25, 26.

[793] Ibid. FIG. 4.

[794] Reaum. iv. _t._ xl. _f._ 2. _a a._ ♂. _t._ xxxix. _f._ 3. ♀. In the last the hairs are too conspicuous.

[795] PLATE XII. FIG. 24.

[796] Jurine _Hymenopt._ _t._ vi. _f._ 3.

[797] PLATE XII. FIG. 25, 26. XXV. FIG. 17, 32.

[798] Ibid. FIG. 12.

[799] PLATE XI. FIG. 22.

[800] _N. Dict. d'Hist. Nat._ xiv. 395.

[801] PLATE XII. FIG. 7.

[802] PLATE XXV. FIG. 1.

[803] Ibid. FIG. 21.

[804] _Linn. Trans_. xii. _t._ xxii. _f._ 8. _e._ ♂. _f._ ♀.

[805] _Hist. Nat. des Fourmis_, 195--. 270--.

[806] De Geer ii. 1094.

[807] Ibid. 650. _Mon. Ap. Angl._ i. _t._ xi. _Apis_ xx. _c._ 1. _f._ 2. ♂. _t._ xii. _f._ 3. ♀.

[808] PLATE XXVI. FIG. 39. De Geer ii. 651. 659.

[809] Voet _Coleopt._ i. _t._ xxxix. _f._ 47, 48. ♂. 46. ♀.

[810] Oliv. no. 3. _t._ vi. _f._ 46. _a._ ♂. _b._ ♀.

[811] Ibid. _t._ i. _f._ 1. iv. x. _f._ 31. xi. _f._ 102. xii. _f._ 114.

[812] Ibid. _t._ xxvi. _f._ 219.

[813] Ibid. _t._ i. _f._ 2.

[814] Ibid. _t._ xxiii. _f._ 35.

[815] Ibid. _t._ ii. _f._ 7.

[816] Ibid. _t._ v. _f._ 40.

[817] Ibid. xix. _f._ 175.

[818] Ibid. _t._ xii. _f._ 115.

[819] _Copris floriger_ Kirby in _Linn. Trans._ xii. 396.

[820] Oliv. no. 3. _t._ ii. _f._ 18.

[821] Ibid. _t._ xxii. _f._ 32.

[822] Ibid. _t._ ix. _f._ 85.

[823] Ibid. _t._ iii. _f._ 22.

[824] Ibid. _t._ xiii. _f._ 124. _a._

[825] Ibid. _t._ v. _f._ 38.

[826] Ibid. _t._ xxviii. _f._ 242. _t._ xviii. _f._ 169.

[827] Ibid. _t._ xvi. _f._ 152.

[828] Ibid. _t._ xxviii. _f._ 247.

[829] Ibid. _t._ xv. _f._ 138. _a. t._ v. _f._ 33.

[830] Samouelle's _Compend._ _t._ i. _f._ 1.

[831] Oliv. no. 3. _t._ v. _f._ 36. _a._

[832] _Schon. Synon._ i. _t._ 1.

[833] Oliv. no. 3. _t._ xxiv. _f._ 208.

[834] Ibid _t._ x. _f._ 88.

[835] Ibid. _f._ 87.

[836] Ibid. _t._ xx. _f._ 185.

[837] Ibid. _t._ vi. _f._ 42. _a._

[838] Ibid. n. 83. _Curculio_ _t._ xxii. _f._ 295.

[839] Oliv. no. 81. _Attelabus_ _t._ ii. _f._ 27. _b._ 28.

[840] De Geer ii. _t._ xxxi. _f._ 18-22.

[841] Ibid. iii. 21.

[842] Lesser L. i. 185.

[843] De Geer iii. 308.

[844] See above, VOL. II. 394--.

[845] _Linn. Trans._ i. 145. 135--.

[846] _Ibid._ _t._ xiii. _f._ 1. 2. ♂. 3. ♀.

[847] _Mon. Ap. Angl._ i. _t._ xi. Apis **, a. 2. α. β. _f._ 18.

[848] Oliv. no. 68. _Saperda_ _t._ i. _f._ 8.

[849] _Mon. Ap. Angl._ i. _t._ viii. _f._ 28. _c._

[850] _Ibid._ _t._ ix. Apis **. c. 2. β. _f._ 12.

[851] Clairv. _Ent. Helv._ ii. _t._ xii. _f._ B.

[852] Oliv. _Ins._ no. 66. _t._ iii. iv. _f._ 12.

[853] Ibid. no. 3. _t._ iv. _f._ 27.

[854] _Punaises_, _t._ iii. _f._ 20.

[855] Mr. Marsham has made two species of this from this circumstance, viz. _Necydalis Podagrariæ_ and _simplex_.

[856] Oliv. n. 3. _t._ xxvii. _f._ 27. ♀. and _t._ iv. _f._ 27. ♂.

[857] Ibid. _t._ vii. _f._ 58. ♂. _f._ 57. ♀.

[858] Ibid. n. 95. _Hispa_ _t._ i. _f._ 4. PLATE XXVII. FIG. 24.

[859] PLATE XV. FIG. 3.

[860] De Geer i. _t._ vii. _f._ 14, 15.

[861] Coquebert _Illust. Icon._ i. _t._ vi. _f._ 6. PLATE XXVII. FIG. 32.

[862] Illig. _Mag._ iv. 214. Gyllenhal. _Insect. Suec._ i. 168.

[863] PLATE XV. FIG. 9.

[864] Ibid. FIG. 8.

[865] Christ. _Hymenopt._ 118. _t._ iv. _f._ 3.

[866] _Mon. Ap. Angl._ i. _t._ xi. _Apis_ **. e. 1. ♂. _f._ 8. _e._ and _t._ xii. **. e. 1. neut. _f._ 19. _c._

[867] _Hor. Entomolog._ 144.

[868] PLATE XXVII. FIG. 45. _a._

[869] De Geer ii. _t._ xxviii. _f._ 2.

[870] _Mon. Ap. Angl._ i. _t._ v. _Apis_ **. a. _f._ 10. ♂. 11. ♀.

[871] _Ibid._ _t._ vii. Apis **. c. 1. α. 17. ♀. 18. ♂.

[872] _Ibid._ _t._ viii. _f._ 30. ♂. 31. ♀.

[873] _Ibid._ _t._ xi. Apis **. e. 1. mas. _f._ 9. _t._ xii. Apis **. e. 1. fem. _f._ 9. and neut. _f._ 22.

[874] De Geer vi. _t._ xviii. _f._ 12, 13.

[875] De Geer v. 151--.

[876] _Mon. Ap. Angl._ i. 177. _t._ ix. Apis **. c. 2. γ. _f._ 11. _a_, _d_.

[877] _Ibid._ _f._ 13. _a._

[878] See above, VOL. II. 395.

[879] PLATE XXIX. FIG. 13. Stoll. _Spectres_, &c. _t._ xxv. _f._ 99.

[880] Sparrman. _Voyage_, i. 312--.

[881] _Coleopt. Micropt._ 16.

[882] _Mon. Ap. Angl._ i. _t._ viii. _f._ 25. De Geer iii. 255. _t._ xiv. _f._ 8.

[883] _Mon. Ap. Angl._ i. _t._ viii. _f._ 24.

[884] _Ibid._ _t._ ix. Apis xx. c. 2. γ. _f._ 12.

[885] _Ibid._ Apis **. c. 2. β. _f._ 11.

[886] _Ibid._ _t._ vii. Apis **. c. 1. α. _f._ 11, 12. ♀. 13, 14. ♂.

[887] PLATE XV. FIG. 12. De Geer ii. _t._ xxiv. _f._ 9, 10. ♀. _t._ xxv. _f._ 2, 3. ♂.

[888] Reaum. vi. 494. _t._ xliv. _f._ 3-11.

[889] De Geer ii. _t._ xvii. _f._ 5-7.

[890] _N. Dict. d'Hist. Nat._ xxxii. 443.

[891] See above, VOL. II. 110, 118.

[892] VOL. I. 283.

[893] II. i. 6.

[894] Clairville _Ent. Helvet._ ii. 214--. I have seen it asserted in some popular work on _Natural History_, (the title of which I do not recollect,) that _Mantis religiosa_ has been known to live ten years; and a _flea_, when fed and taken care of, six. But this is so contrary to experience in other cases, that the statement seems quite incredible.

[895] Rösel III. 379. _N. Dict. d'Hist. Nat._ ii. 285.

[896] Dumeril _Traité Elément._ ii. 87. n. 683.

[897] De Geer ii. 288.

[898] Huber i. 106.

[899] _N. Dict. d'Hist. Nat._ ix. 553.

[900] VOL. II. 173--.

[901] Morier's _Second Journey through Persia_, 100.

[902] VOL. II. 175.