more than a year from coming forth in winter and thus perifhing for want of food. This could not fail to happen were their life and their changes fixed to a number of stated days whereas a degree more or lefs of cold being capable not only to retard their operations but even to fufpend the whole effect of them for a very long time, they are thus prevented from coming forth at a time when they could not find food.

Some a whole year.

PAGE 69, l. 11.

And even much longer. A caterpillar of a large fize which feeds on the alder, and produces

Tenthredo, did not appear in its perfect ftate till two ces

twenty months after it had inclosed itself in its cone, altho' in order not to retard its transformation I kept it in a pretty warm place.

PAGE 69, 1. 17.

Some have this remarkable property. It must not be fuppofed from this that the fame winged infect iffues twice ayear from the chryfalis; this never happens: it is to be underftood of thofe infects which breed twice a year.

PAGE 69, 1. 23.

Plants and leaves. That is, fuch as have occafion for fuch fubftances. Many winged infects do not eat at all. Some fpecies of this kind iflue from their chryfalis at the end of Autumn, and even in the middle of winter.

PAGE 71, 1. 22.

With knobs. These knobs are more remarkable than they appear to be. Perhaps I fhall hardly be believed when I affirm that they are the male organs of generation. I am however certain of the fact, as I have more than once feen certain fpecies of fpiders use them in this way. The males of this genus have their body more flender and their limbs longer than the females. It is a laughable enough scene to fee them making love. Both mounted on their web, approach each other with circumfpection and measured step. They extend their legs, fhake the web a little, and pat each other with their foot as if they durft not approach. After this contact, fear often feizes them, they let themfelves fall with precipitation, and remain for fome time fufpended by

Xx

their

their thread. Afterwards they take courage again, afcend and pursue their former courle. After having patted each other for a long time with equal diftruft on both fides, they begin to draw nearer, and to become more familiar. Now the mutual patting becomes more frequent and bolder; all fear ceafes, and at laft from this introductory dalliance, the male finds himself in a condition to terminate the business. One of the knobs of his antennæ opens fuddenly as if by a spring, and there appears a white body; the antenna folds itself under the belly of the female, and the white body attaches itfelf to that part a little lower than the breast, and performs the function for which nature hath deftined it.

If we did not know that spiders hate one another so naturally that they never meet, except at the seafon of engendring, without killing one another, we could not but be furprized at the strange manner in which they make love but when we are acquainted with the reafon of their cautious behaviour nothing appears ftrange; and, we cannot but admire their circumfpection and care, not to deliver themselves up blindly to a paffion, which if imprudently yielded to, might prove fatal to them. This is a leffon which they give the Reader.

PAGE 71. 1. penult.

Thofe of the male are smaller, shorter, &c. As the antennæ of the male are generally larger than those of the female, it would not have been amifs had the author given us fome inftance of the contrary.

PAGE. 72. 1. 3.

*In fome fpecies the male only has wings. This is the cafe with aphides. The author, on the authority of Frisch. This is a circumftance which ought to be examined; for thofe who have studied the aphides have found that thofe with wings, as well as the others brought forth young. In the mean time other examples may be given of the author's affertion. The males of the glow-worm, thofe of two forts of caterpillars with horns, thofe of feveral fpecies of Geometræ have wings, but the females want them. Lyonet.

PAGE 72, 1.4.

*The female of the great black corn beetle, has on ly two fmall membranes inftead of wings. The Author.

The

The female butterflies of fome fpecies of Geometræ have likewise very fmall ends of wings.

PAGE 72, 1. 12.

A tube lenger or shorter. Fknow fome fpecies of ichneumons whofe tube is nearly two inches long. The large tail which fome fpecies of gratshoppers have, efpecially thofe of the larger fize, and which the common people fuppofe to be the male organ, is really that of the female who makes ufe of it for laying her eggs in the earth.

PAGE 75, 1. first.

Which would perish in fresh water. This is a fingularity as remarkable as that mentioned by Swammerdam in his Biblia Naturæ; that the larva of the Afilus lives equally well in falt water as in fresh it is not however without example among other animals. We know that the falmon and the fhad come to freth waters to depofit their spawn: and perches are found in fea-water; but what perhaps will appear unexampled, is the worm which M. Reaumur found could live four and twenty hours in fpirit of wine.

To this obfervation of Reaumur's, though not immediately connected with the fubject of the Note, we thall here take occafion to add a very fingular inftance of tenacity of life in a fpecies of infect, the Tenebrlo mortifagus Lin. madę by Mr Henry Baker, and recorded in the Philofophical Tranfactions, Numb. 457. P. 441

"I chofe one of the largest of thefe beetles, (fays Mr Baker,) and threw it into a cup full of common lamp fpirits, and in a few minutes it appeared to be quite dead. Whereupon I fhut it up in a round pill-box of about an inch and half diameter, and carried it in my pocket next day to London, where I toffed it into a drawer, and thought no more of it for above two months after; when opening the box I found it, to my great furprize, alive and vigorous. Having however no intention of keeping it alive, I agait plunged it into fpirit of wine, and let it lie confiderably longer than the first time, till fuppofing it dead beyond any poffibility of recovery I put it into the box again, and locked it in my drawers without looking any more at it for a month at least, when I found it again alive. And now I began to imagine there must be fomewhat extraordinary in this creature fince it could survive the force of fpirit of wine, which foon kils moft

other infects, and live for three months without getting any fustenance.

A few days before this, a friend had fent me three or four cock-roaches (Blatta orientalis) brought alive from the West Indies. These I had placed under a large glass of fix or seven inches diameter, made on purpofe to obferve the transformation of caterpillars; and now I put my beetle amongst them, that he might enjoy a greater fhare of liberty than he had done for three months before. I fed them with green ginger, moiftened in water, and they eat it greedily; but I could not find, nor do I believe that the beetle ever tasted it during the whole five weeks they lived under the glafs together. Perceiving the Coch-roaches begin to decline in vigour, I was afraid they would lofe much of their beauty, if I permitted them to die of fickncf:; wherefore I put them into fpirit of wine, and the beetle their companion with them. They appeared dead in a few iminutes, and I believe were really fo; the beetle feemed likewife in the fame condition; whereupon, after they had lain in fpirits about an hour, I took them out, and whelmed the glafs over them, till I fhould have leifure to difpofe of them as I intended. This was about ten o'clock in the morning, and I faw them no more till evening, but found the beetle then creeping about as Itrong and vigorous as ever; and therefore I refolved to put him to a trial I imagined he could not poffibly furvive, which was to let him remain a whole night in fpirits; but here too 1 found myself mistaken; for after he had been taken out a day, he appeared as lively as if nothing had happened to him.

Since that time I have put him no more in fpirits, but have kept him under the glafs afore-mentioned, where he is alive at prefent: though during the two years and half he has been in my poffeffion, I have never been able to discover, that he has drank or eaten any thing. In the exhausted receiver, where I have kept him fometimes for half an hour, he feems perfectly unconcerned, walking about in vacuo, as brifkly as in the open air; but upon admiflion of the air, he fhrinks his legs together, and appears in a furprise for near a minute.",

It is added in a Poftfcript, that this beetle (after being kept half a-year longer) was permitted to get away by the

carelessness

carelessness of a fervant, who took down the glafs to wipe

it:

PAGE 75, 1. 3.

Cannot live but in fresh waters. There are found in the Saltze, a fimali rivulet near Nordhaufen, brown infects with fix legs, which live in cafes hardly half an inch in length. Thefe cafes end in a point, and are not fo grofs as a straw: they feem to be constructed of all sorts of rubbish glued together, fomething like the nefts of fwallows. The Author.

There are many infects of this kind, and each species has its own particular way of fabricating their cafes. Some conftruct them with an art and regularity that cannot be enough admired. Of this kind are all the different fpecies of Phryganeas. Lyonet.

i

PAGE 75, 1. 30.

Food to the animals of both elements. The infects which may be confidered as amphibious, are not all fo in the fame way. There are fome which after having been aquatic under one form, fo change their nature upon quitting the water, that if they fhould afterwards fall into it, they would be drowned. Others grow, live and undergo their transformations in the water; after which they live in both elements. Some, af er having been produced in the air, plunge into the water, and remain there till they acquire wings, when they become again inhabitants of the air. Many fpecies are produced, and grow in the water, change into nymphs in the earth, and pass their perfect ftate in the water, and in the air, but chiefly in the former. Laftly there are fome which pafs their larva ftate under the water, without being aquatic except in the head; the reft of the body is never wet; it is always furrounded with a volume of air confiderable enough to permit a free refpiration. Thefe infects after their laft change live only in the air. What a diverfity!

PAGE 75, 1. 35.

Protection against the rigours of winter. All infects which retire into the earth are not induced to do so merely to avoid the cold. The greater part enter the earth in order to undergo their transformations there, and others to lay their eggs.

PAGE 76.