five, than that of the author, mentioned in the foregoing note, to establish it. For, fuppofing that his experiment fhould fucceed, we might ftill fay, that, if the fly, whofe eyes were laid over with turpentine, found out the putrescent substance, it was, because the turpentine, which is a tranfparent liquor, did not prevent its feeing it; and if it did not alight on the putrefcent fubftance, when its probofcis was laid over with the fame liquor, what does that prove with regard to the antenna? Befides, it is not eafy to conceive, how the ftrong and penetrating fmell of the turpentine, which in this experiment, muft have furrounded and covered almost the whole head of the fly, could allow it to diftinguish the fmell of a carcafe, at a confiderable diftance. PAGE 148, 1. 34. The eyes of fame mufca, like gold. I do not know what fpecies of mufca the author here means; but there are fome fpecies of fmall dragon-flies, whofe eyes are more than hemifpherical, and which have the colour and all the bril liancy of the pureft gold. PAGE 149, 1. first. As a diamond, expofed to the rays of the fun. I have never yet found an infect, whofe eyes in bright day, were fo bril liant; but I know fome, whofe eyes in the night, fhine brighter than thofe of cats. PAGE 149, 1. 3. Totally disappear, after the death of the infect. This is not furprising; the cornea of the eyes of infects is hard, and tranfparent as glass; it is only the coloured humours, under that cornea, which give them the colours which we admire in them. Thefe humours, corrupting after the death of the infect, and being dried up, lofe their colour, and give the whole eye that faded appearance which they affume. That infects of different fpecies fhould have eyes differently coloured, is not at all furprifing; but, that the fame infect fhould have eyes of various colours, is what perhaps, we would not expect to find. An ephemera, however, furnifhes an example of this; it has four reticular eyes, while infects, in general, have only two; and of these reticular eyes, two are brown, and the two others of a citron-colour. See Reaumur, Vol. IV. Part I. Mem. 6. PAGE PAGE 149, 1. 14. *Some infects have five eyes. The Abbé Catalan, in his obfervations on the eyes of flies, has remarked, that befides the two large reticular eyes; which they have at the fides of the head, and which have the red colour of morocco leather, they have befides three others on the forehead. To try whether these faw equally well with both these forts of eyes, he covered the reticular eyes of a fly with fluid pitch, leaving the three other eyes open; he put it then under a glafs, where it ran up and down, without ftriking against any object, and when he lifted the glafs, it flew away towards the window. He took another fly, and covered with pitch, the three eyes on the forehead, leaving the reticular eyes open, and he found, that this likewife faw equally well. Laftly, he took a third fly, covered both the reticular and the forehead-eyes with the pitch; but this fly feemed to be quite blind, it walked flowly under the glafs, and when that was removed, it groped its way, like a perfon blind, and did not venture to fly.-See Act. Erudit. anno 1682. PAGE 149, 1. 17. Spiders generally have eight eyes. Tarantulas, that dangerous fort of spider, have likewife eight eyes: but differ from the generality of spiders, which, according to M. Homberg, Mem. de l'Acad. R. des Scien. 1707, have black eyes, thefe having them white, approaching to a yellow gold colour, and fhining in the dark. And what is still much more fingular, that academician affirms, that the cornea is moift and tender, and fhrivels up after their death; a circumftance, of which I do not know another inftance among infects with feet, the cornea of these being always hard and horny. PAGE 149, 1. 23. Confifting of a vast number of small hexagons. Thefe eyes are generally called reticular eyes. I have always found them, in every fort of winged infect which I have exami ned, but I have never, or very rarely found them in fuch infects, as had not undergone their last change. PAGE 150, l. 17. Palpi, by which they examine their food. I have already, in the preceeding chapter, given my reafons, for thinking, that these palpi may be the organs of finell, in infects. PAGE 151, 1. 22. It is with the mandibule they feize their prey. Among the different uses of thefe pincers, that of ferving as a mouth to infects, which have none, is the most fingular. See what I have faid above, on this fubject, page 372, under the words, Have received a fort of pump. PAGE 151, 1. 28. Have at the mouth, a fort of claws. See the Note on the words, It is found at the mouth, page 326, where we have given the defcription of a fingular mafk, which fome infects have before the mouth, and which they use as claws or talons, for feizing their prey. PAGE 152, 1. first. *Some that can extend or draw it in. The trunk of common flies can be thruft out, or drawn in at pleasure. It very much resembles the probofcis of an elephant, except, that it is thicker at the extremity, than in the middle, has a fort of rim round it, and is garnished with hairs. PAGE 152, 1. 2. The lepidoptera roll it up. See a curious and particular defcription of the tongues of the lepidopteræ, in Reaumur, Vol. I. Part I. Mem 5. and of the trunks of gnats, in Vol. IV. Part II. Mem. 13. *This member in butterflies, has fomething wonderful in it, and we may venture to lay, that it is one of the mafterpieces of the Creator. When it is extended, its length exceeds that of the animal itself, and it rolls and unrolls it, with inconceivable velocity. Nature has perhaps given it fo long a tongue, that it might the more easily penetrate to the bottom of flowers, and extract their honey. If it were obliged to thrust down its head, it might injure its eyes, which are not provided with eye-lids. *It has been obferved, that when the tongue of lepidopterous infects is cut off, it retains a degree of irritability, for a confiderable time afterwards. PAGE 152, 1. 25. There follows the thorax, On the fubject of this part of the the body of infects, I cannot help remarking, that, though winged infects generally have but one thorax, and that it appears as fingular to fay, that an animal has two, as it would be to fay, that it had two heads, or two bodies, the cafe, however, of an infect having two thoraxes, is not without example. M. de Reaumur has given us one inftance in the fly that comes from the Formicaleo (Myrmeleon Formicarium): a fly, otherwife of a very fingular kind, will afford us another. This animal, which I have never found, but in its laft and perfect form, has really two thoraxes, very diftinct, and feparated from each other, by a very vifible interfection. From its head, to the extremity of its abdomen, it is a full inch in length; its head, thoraxes, and almost its whole body, are black; its antennæ, which have ten articulations, and its feet, are of a greyish brown colour, except, that its laft pair have an incraffated part, which is black; this pair, as well as the fecond, is attached to the fecond thorax, and the firft fupports the first pair of feet. One would take this infect at first, for a large ichneumon, which it resembles, in the form of its head, its feet and body.But, it is effentially different, in having but two wings, which are larger, broader, and stronger, than thofe of the common ichneumons. But, what ftill more diftinguishes it, and even renders its clafs very doubtful, is, that its fecond thorax is covered with a cafe of two pieces, hard, and of a dirty brown colour, like those which cover the wings of beetles. This cafe is only two lines long, and ends where the abdomen begins. It does not appear, that it can ferve as in beetles, to enclose the wings, for these are four times longer than the cafes, and there are no folds to be feen at their nerves nor articulations, by which they can be folded, fo as to be concealed below thefe cafes. Befides, it is under the cafes that the wings are attached to the fecond thorax. Such is the figure of this animal, whofe uncommon fhape, and its being perhaps unknown, appeared to me, to deferve a particular description. * It is very probable, that Lyonet has deceived himself with regard to this infect, which appears from his defcription, to be nothing but a Staphilinus or Necydalis, except in the circumftance of the wings never being folded up within the elytra; and here fome accident must have occurred, to lead him into the mistake. PAGE PAGE 153, 1. 11. Furnished with a margin. One of the most effential diftinctions between thefe articulations, is, that fome are placed end to end, while others inclofe the extremity of the one next them, and flip into one another, as in a groove. PAGE 153, 1. 15, All caterpillars have ten. They have twelve, counting the posterior extremity, and the first articulation, which the author feems to take for the neck. It is not fo easy to explain how M. Andri was led into the mistake, as he counts only feven articulations in the filk worm, fixteen, and even more in other caterpillars, and twelve in the ant. One would not have expected to find fuch an affertion in a book written exprefsly on insects. If his obfervations on the worms which infeft the human intestines, were all in the fame tafte, his work would little deferve thofe encomiums which fill the first pages of his book.See Andri de la Gener. des vers, dans le corps de l'homme. A larva of a Tenthredo. Thofe which we have called pfeudo-caterpillars, as I think I have already faid, have properly but twelve articulations, like true caterpillars. But there are fome of thofe pfeudo-caterpillars, which have their articulations fubdivided into others, and thefe M. Leffer feems to have counted as diftinct fegments. PAGE 154, 1. 4. The infect called Hippocampus. I have fhewn elfewhere, that this animal is not an infect, but a true fish. PAGE 154, 1. 7. Furnished with a Jmall bag. This has the appearance of a bag only on paper. Frifch gives the name of bag to the extremity of the abdomen, in the infects of the Genus, Sphex, Lin. which have that part of a different colour from the reft and this, because the colour which diftinguishes it, makes it appear, as if it were inclosed in a bag. He gives thefe infects the name of fack-wefpen, or wafps with a bag, to diftinguish them from other wafps. It is from him that Leffer 3 D |