that infects refpire, great numbers refpire by the fides. The orifices, by which they receive the external air, vary in number, according to the different fpecies: they are generally from two to eighteen. The orifice is generally marked on the fkin of the animal, by a little fcaly plate, open in the middle, and furnished with membranes or threads, to prevent the ingrefs of improper fubftances. These plates are called ftigmata, for want of a better name..

*This is what I have observed in the long and flender water bugs. These have at the extremity, a tail as long as their whole body. This cannot be the tube by which their eggs are depofited; for the males have it, as well as the females. Befides, it is evidently the organ of refpiration, for after they have been fometime under water, they fuddenly rife to the furface, and thrufting out their tail, take in the air, which they repeat as often as they have occafion.

Frifch likewife obferved fomething fimilar in an aquatic larva, which changes into a fly, (the Mufca, chamælion,) This animal has two apertures at the tail, which resemble two noftrils, by which it breathes.

PAGE 55, 1. 29.

*Air too thick. This is obfervable in the great water beetle, dytifcus. It lives in the water, but the air which it finds there, is not fufficient for it, but it is obliged to raise the extremity of its body out of the water, for the purpose of refpiration. "The obfervation," fays Lyonet," with regard to this beetle, is common to a great number of "water beetles.". We may add, probably to them all.

66

PAGE 55, 1. penult.

*Infects can live without air for four-and-twenty hours.We know, that, upon pouring water on pepper, a great number of animalcules are difcovered in the liquor. Derham relates, that he put a quantity of thefe into an exhausted receiver, for four-and-twenty hours. He expofed them afterwards to the air for a day or two, when he found that fome of them were dead, and others still alive.

PAGE 56, 1. 7.

Or of lethargy. It is certain, that, among those insects which outlive the winter, there are many that pafs it witheut much motion; but this reft does not become lethargic, except

T

except in confequence of extreme cold. A moderate froft does not prevent them from moving, when they are touched; their heart or great artery, still continues to beat; but it beats much more flowly than in fummer. It is therefore to be prefumed, that they likewise breathe in winter, but at longer intervals than in other feafons. All infects, however, do not pass the winter in such repose; there are some, for which that feason is a feafon of activity. I know many which move, eat, and grow, at that time, and do not undergo their changes till the fpring. Infects of this kind, it is obvious, muft refpire in winter, that being their proper feafon.

PAGE 57, 1. 14.

Couple with the females. See on this head, p. 290, in the rmarks on the words, They multiply by generation.

PAGE 57, 1. 26.

*The most common figures. The eggs of fpiders, and many butterflies, are round. Thefe eggs, though round, are however, diftinguifhed by a variety of appearance. They are not all smooth, but fome of them carved in many different ways, as may be feen in thofe of many phalanæ. The eggs of many beetles are oval, and thofe of the Chryfomela alparagi are of a conical form.

PAGE 58, 1. 8.

*The matter of thefe eggs. The greater part of infects are oviparous. I fay the greater part, because fome fpecies are viviparous, fuch as the aphides.-Author. The aphides, or at least many species of them, are both oviparous and viviparous. An aphis, that, during fummer, has brought forth live young, lays eggs at the approach of winter, and thefe eggs are not hatched, till the following fpring. Lyonet.

PAGE 59, 1. 3.

*A great number of eggs. There are fome infects, however, which lay but few eggs: the dor-beetle (Scarabæus ftercorarius) lays but one; the Caffida nebulofa, only fix or feven. Frifch.

The author's affertions in this note are not accurate. He refers to Frifch as his authority, who fays only, that the Scarabæus lays but one egg in one hole; and that the eggs

of

of the Caffida, which he found on the under fide of the leaf of an Atriplex, were in patches of fix or feven together.

Some hundreds.

PAGE 59, 1. 4.

And even fome thousands; as for ex

ample, the mother or queen bee.

PAGE 60, 1. 3.

Which afterwards becomes the infect. If we believe Swamimerdam, this obfcure point is by no means the infect itself, but only its head, which first acquires its consistence and colour.

PAGE 60, 1. 7.

As in a matrix. Would it not be more natural, to coma pare this pellicle to the chorion and amnion, which enclose the fœtus, than to a matrix?

PAGE 60, l. 15.

Till having become larger. Swammerdam likewife maintains, that the infect does not increase in the egg; but, that its parts are there merely formed, and acquire confistence.

PAGE 60, 1. 18.

The little care. It is true, that most infects feem to be no otherwife concerned for their eggs, than to depofite them in places, where the young when hatched, may find a fufficient quantity of the food that is proper for them. And this, indeed, is all the care that is neceffary for thefe eggs, or which, for the most part, the mothers can take of them, as many female infects die immediately, after having excluded their eggs. This care, however, does not always ftop there; for it is often accompanied with other precautions. Many enclose their eggs in a very close filken web, others cover them with a coat of hairs, torn from their own bodies. Some fpecies glue them together, with a mafs of vifcid liquor, which hardening in the air, fecures them from injuries. Some make oblique incifions in a leaf, and hide an egg in each of thefe incifions. We find fome placing their eggs within the bark of trees, and in places where they are entirely protected from the rain, from wind, and from the too great heat of the fun. Some have the art of opening the nerves of leaves, and there laying their eggs, in fuch a manner, that

an excrescence is formed round them, which serves at once for a shelter, and for food to the young infect. Some envelope their eggs with a foft fubftance, which forms the first aliment of the young, before they are able to use more solid food, and to procure it. Laftly, others make a hole in the earth, and after having carried thither a sufficient quan◄ tity of proper food, depofite their eggs. But, if a great number of infects, after having thus laid their eggs in convenient places, and used the precautions I have mentioned, abandon them to Providence, there are fome that never leave them at all. Such, for example, are fome fpecies of spiders, that never move a step, without carrying along with them, in a kind of bag, all the eggs they have produced. Their attachment to thefe eggs is fo great, that they expofe themfelves to the greatest dangers, rather than quit them. Such, likewife, are bees, wafps, hornets, and many other forts of fimilar infects. It is well known, with what art they construct the cells for their eggs, and with what care they feed their young, till the time when they are ready to change into nymphis: these are facts known to every body, and on which it would be fuperfluous to enlarge. The care which ants take of their young, is carried still further. They are not contented with depofiting their eggs in places prepared for them on purpose, and of feeding their young, till the time when they are to pafs into the nymph state; even then they continue to take most wonderful care of them. With what labour do they not transport them in fine weather, from the bottom of their abode to the surface of the ground, that they may receive the benign influence of the fun! With what attention do they not carry them back to the bottom of their dwellings, when that luminary retires, or when the air begins to grow cold! What diftrefs do they not teftify, when an accident hath disturbed their neft, and scattered the nymphs! No danger can frighten them from the places where thefe nymphs are thrown. They feek them every where with anxiety, and every one is employed in collecting thofe which are found, and placing them under fome cover till their first abode is repaired, whither they are immediately tranfported. Thefe different inftances are fufficient, I imagine, to fhew, that all infects do not abandon their eggs to chance; that there are some, which take as great, if not greater care of their young, than many of the larger animals, and that even thofe that do a

bandon

bandon their eggs, never do fo, till after having fufficiently provided for their prefervation, and for the fuftenance of the young to be excluded from them. This, indeed, the author does not pretend to deny, as appears from the 13th chapter, which treats of the parental care which infects have of their eggs and young.

PAGE 60, 1. laft.

Without the affiftance of their parents. It would be a fin gular circumftance, if Nature had devolved on infects, the care of hatching the eggs of fishes. This, however, is an opinion adopted by M. des Landes, with regard to the eggs of the fole, as appears by the Hiftory of the Royal Academy of Sciences for 1722, p. m. 27. It is generally believed, on the coafts of France and England, that foles are produced from a fpecies of fmall fea-crab, named chevrette or crevette. M. des Landes caufed a confiderable quantity of these to be fifhed up, and put them into a veffel of fea water. In twelve or thirteen days, he found in it eight or ten finall foles. He repeated the experiment often, and always with the fame fuccefs. He afterwards put the foles alone, into a veffel of fea water, and though they depofited their spawn, there appeared no young foles. He found be fides, that when the chevrettes were newly fifhed up, feveral small veficles were found among their feet, unequal in fize and number, and firmly glued to their breast, by a vis cid liquor. Having examined thefe veficles with a microfcope, he there faw a fort of embrio, having the appearance of a fole, whence he concludes, that the eggs of the fole," in order to be hatched, must attach themselves to the chev rette. I will not fay, that the conclufion of M. des Landes is altogether without foundation; but I think he might have rendered his experiment much more decifive, if, instead of the great quantity of chevrettes that he put into the veffel, and among which there might eafily have been mixed a few foles, without his perceiving them, he had contented himfelf with taking a few of the chevrettes loaded with the veficles he mentions, and putting them fingly into water. If he found, then, in the courfe of a few days, a fmall fole in the water, and at the fame time, a veficle lefs in thofe attached to that particular chevrette, it would have been a proof, that the fole was actually produced from that veficle: But would this have been a proof, that the affiftance of the chevrette