CHAP. III.

OF SOME SINGULAR QUALITIES IN CERTAIN
INSECTS.

In the number of fingular qualities belonging to infects I put the smallness of some of them, which, not only in comparifon with other animals are ex. ceffively minute, but even in comparison with one another. There is a fpecies of fcorpion, one eight of a yard long, and Buftequius affures us that he faw in Turkey an ant from the East Indies as big as a middle fized dog. These infects are very large in comparison with :nost others, and especially with those which are no larger than a grain of millet, the point of a needle or which are even fo minute as to be imperceptible, except with the affiftance of a microf cope. What can the naked eve take in lefs than the cheele mite? And yet this infect has a head, joints, mcle, antennæ, hairs, inteftines, &c. Thofe parts of cheese which it feeds on, must be ftill more minute. How fine muft be the nutritive juice, which circulates in the veins of fo fmall an animal! From this circumftance alone we might infer the infinite divifibility of matter.

Some infects fhine in the night like fire. Nature hath produced certain bodies endowed with an innate property of giving light. This light is lively and briliant in fome, as it is feen in funfhine. In others it is weaker, and fhines only during night, the great

light of day effacing all the rays it is able to fend out. Thus the hairs of horfes and of cats especially of fuch as are black, if they are rubbed in the dark, give out fparks, or a fmall evanefcent light. The rotten wood of the willow, fish, and fome other fubstances likewise shine in the dark. Thus too certain infects, whofe light is not fenfible during the day, but when night comes they fhine like burning coals, ftars, or lighted matches. The light of fome is fo clear that it ferves instead of a candle in fome places, as in Bra zil, by the help of two or three of them the people can fee to fow, fpin, and even to read. By their affiftance alfo perfons travel by night; they are a flambeau that fhews them the way, and prevents; them from wandering.

The greater part of infects are dumb; however many have organs proper for making a kind of noife, or producing a certain found. There is as. much variety obfervable in this noife and this found, as there is in the voices of different animals. Among birds, the nightingale fings fweetly, the crow; eroaks, the fwallow twitters, the owl fhrieks, the turtle cooes, the magpie chatters, and the quail and the fnipe have each their particular note. The fame difference takes place among quadrupeds: the lion: roars, the afs brays, the horse neighs, the ox bellows, &c. the fame is obfervable among infects. Thofe which gnaw wood produce a found fimilar to that of the movement of a watch. The different strokes they give are fo juftly measured, and are heard one after another, at intervals fo equal, that one would almost take it for a clock; and fome have the tinkling found of a cymbal, or the ftroke of a bow given behind the bridge of a violin others fing, hum, give a fharp acute tone, &c. All however do not produce this found in the fame way; fome make it by rubbing the nape of the neck against the tho

rax, cthers by the clapping of their wings againsteach other, or against the back, as the Scarabæus Fullo; nature has furnished the wings with very ftrong nerves for this purpose. Lastly, fome produce a found merely by rubbing their head, and the extremities of their wings with their long legs.

This found is often very strong, especially when mary infects fly together. That however is not always neceffary; there are some insects whose voice is fo fonorcus and piercing, as not only to awaken people a-fleep, but to make itself be heard at a distance, even though they be under ground, as the Gryllotalpa, or at a pretty confiderable depth in water, as a fpecies of Dytifcus.

This faculty is beftowed on infects for different purpofes; many males ufe it as an invitation to the females and therefore, it is often a mark, by which the males may be diftinguished, as I think I have already obferved. This rule, however, is not without exception, for the females of the Cimex perfonatus, and Scarabæus Fullo, likewife utter a found. The noise which fome infects make, likewife ferves to denote anger, forrow, or pleafure. Some ufe it to inspire their enemies with terror, and to frighten them away. Lastly, it is often a mark, by which other animals difcover their enemy, who, when they hear his voice, avoid him and escape.

Many infects difcharge a fenfible fmell. This is fometimes fo offenfive, that, in approaching them, one is fometimes obliged to ftop ones nofe, but there are alfo fome whofe fmell is very agreeable. The mufk beetle takes its name from this circumftance. In fone, the fmell is natural to the infect, in others it is adventitious, and arifes from the fubftances they feed on. Some do not perpetually give out this

fmell;

fmell; to make them yield it, they must be fqueezed, and the odorous particles, as it were, forced out of them. Some lofe, at the inftant of death, the smell they had while alive.

This quality is of fpecial fervice to them at the time of pairing by it they can discover one another at a distance, and can more eafily meet. Like deer and cats, they discharge much more of the odorous effluvia, at this time, than at any other. Some use it to disgust their pursuers, in the fame manner as the Indian animal does, called Yzquiepatl, (Viverra vulpecula.)

It has been obferved, that infects ftain the leaves of trees, walls, and water. In the month of May, and other fummer months, we often perceive a fcum or green fibrous pellicle on stagnant waters. This is a fort of web, made by small maggots like eels, which the wind has driven from the fides of the pond. These small animals are exceedingly laborious, for this small pellicle is no fooner removed, than they immediately weave another. There is a fmall water infect, (Monoculus Pulex,) which multiplies during fummer, and its progeny are often fo numerous, that they make the surface of the water quite red. This obfervation is of ufe; for the vulgar imagine, that the water is then turned into blood, and that it is an omen of fome approaching calamity. There are other infects that give occafion to fimilar fuperftitions. They discharge drops of a red juice, which affume different figures, and fometimes that of a crofs. This is enough to alarm the ignorant, and to make them believe, that it has rained blood, whence they form all forts of difaftrous prefages. But perfons more attentive, and less prejudiced, have made experiments, and demonstrated that the appearance proceeds from certain fpecies of butterflies.

non.

Peirefc, if I am not mistaken, was the first who took the trouble of examining into this phenomeIn the month of July 1608, a report was fpread, that a fhower of blood had failen: this ftruck him, and determined him to neglect nothing, in order to clear up a circumftance fo extraordinary. He made the people fhow him thofe large drops of blood, and found them on the wall of the cemetery of the great church, and on thofe of the houses of the common people and peafantry of the whole diftrict, for a mile round. He confidered them attentively, heard all that was faid on the subject, and, after mature deliberation he concluded that the fhower of blood was an illufion. He had not, however, discovered the true caufe of it, but an accident foon discovered it to him. He had enclosed, in a box, a large and beautitul chryfalis, and hearing one day a noise in it, he opened the box, and there immediately flew out, a butterfly, (Papilio C. album) leaving at the bottom of the box, a pretty large red drop. There had appeared at the beginning of the month of July, a great number of thefe butterflies; whence Peiresc concluded, that the red spots, which appeared on the walls, were nothing but the excrements of thofe infects. He was confirmed in his conjecture, upon examining the holes in which that fpecies generally neftles. He obferved befides, that on the walls of the houses, in the middle of the town, where thefe butterflies never come, there were none of thofe fpots, nor on any but such as were next the country, where it is probable they might have lodged. Laftly, he remarked, that no spots were to be seen on the tops of the houses, but only from the middle ftory downwards, the height to which thefe butterflies generally rife.

Other curious enquirers have made the fame ob fervation fince his time. Among thefe is Dr Beck

man,