morphoses which the insect tribes undergo, definitions and illustrations have been judiciously given: we see no reason that the same should not have been done in explanation of the orders; to which a meagre note of barely half a page is devoted, (p. 69.) The terms Lepidoptera, Neuroptera, &c. perpetually occur, although their meaning has not been pointed out. In the note just alluded to, we are told, indeed, that the order Coleoptera consists of Beetles, Diptera, of Flies, &c. And this, though a very imperfect account, is language sufficiently popular. But what information has the elementary student obtained, when the only explanation he meets with of the term Strepsiptera, is, It consists of the Genera Xenos and Stylops? We are more particular in pointing out this deficiency, because it appears so glaringly inconsistent with the general merit of the volume, and because we are convinced that its Authors will receive with candour, and will readily adopt any hints offered in the spirit of liberal criticism for the improvement of a subsequent edition.

The wonderful transformations which insects undergo, are so little analogous to the changes of other animated beings, that the most superficial observer cannot fail to be struck with them. 1. The Egg is deposited. 2. The Larva, caterpillar, or grub, proceeds from it. In this state the animal is exceedingly voracious, and often devours many times its own weight of food in the course of a few hours. A further development takes place its skin bursts and discloses-3. the Pupa, chrysalis, nympha, or aurelia; a spindle-shaped or oviform mass, without mouth, eyes, or limbs. In this state it exists without food, in a state of torpor, exhibiting no symptom of life, except by a slight contortion when touched. Again it bursts the walls of its prisou, and comes forth-4. an Imago, a word now generally adopted to denote the last state of the animal, the complete image of its species, frequently exhibiting the most elegant construction, and painted with the most brilliant colours of nature. Destined, probably, to live but a few hours, it ensures the continuation of its species. Though, in most cases, it never bebolds its progeny, it has provided for their future maintenance by depositing its eggs in a situation suitable to their being hatched at the proper period, and in which the young Larvæ shall be abundantly supplied with food. Its prolific powers, also, are such as to afford a greater probability of the continuance of the race unimpaired, than among any other animated beings. A single pair of the Calandra granaria F. (the Corn weevil,) may produce in one year above 6000 descendants; the Noctua Gamma, may in one season send forth 80,000 depredators into our gardens; and Reaumur has proved that, in five generations, one Aphis may be the pro

1

genitor of 5,904,900,000 of its kind, and it is supposed that in one year there may be twenty generations!

Such an incalculable progression in the numbers of the insect tribe, would soon, it is evident, amount to a formidable accumulation of these little depredators, were not the balance of animal life preserved by powerful and effectual checks. There can be no doubt, indeed, that not only all the other races of animated beings, but that even the fair vegetable creation, would speedily be swept away by the destructive operations of these countless myriads, were there no counteracting causes to keep down their overwhelming numbers. Millions are destined to become daily the prey of birds, of fishes, and of one another. Notwithstanding this reduction of their numbers, by those voracious hunters which derive from them their only or principal subsistence, a truly terrific host is still left to ravage, in their turn, the dominions of organized nature. A considerable and highly interesting portion of this volume, is occupied in pointing out the injuries caused by insects. They penetrate the cuticle of the human body, giving rise to the most loathsome diseases. They destroy our clothing, pilfer our food, and spoil our furniture. Nay, even the Museum itself is not secure from their attacks painful experience will enable every naturalist to testify to the truth of the following detail.

How dear are their books, their cabinets of the various produc tions of nature, and their collections of prints and other works of art and science, to the learned, the scientific, and the virtuosi ! Even these precious treasures have their insect enemies. The larva of Crambus pinguinalis, will establish itself upon the binding of a book, and spinning a robe, which it covers with its own excrement, will do it no little injury. Aarus eruditus eats the paste that fastens the paper over the edges of the binding, and so loosens it. Many a black-letter rarity, which in these days of Bibliomania, would have been valued at its weight in gold, has been snatched by these destroyers from the hands of book-collectors. Anobium striatum will bore through an entire volume. Our collections of quadrupeds, birds, insects, and plants, have likewise several terrible insect enemies, which, without pity or remorse, often destroy or mutilate our most highly prized specimens. Ptinus Fur L., and Byrrhus Musæorum L., are among the worst, especially the latter, whose singular gliding larva, when once it gets among them, makes astonishing havoc, the birds soon shedding their feathers, and the insects falling to pieces. One of the worst plagues of the entomolo gist, are the mites, (Acarus destructor, Schrank:) these, if his specimens be at all damp, eat up all the muscular part, (Lytta vesicatoria being almost the only insect that is not to their taste,) and thus entirely destroy them.-If spiders by any means get among them, they will do little mischief.-Some I have observed to be devoured by a minute moth, perhaps Tinea insectella F.; and in the posterior thighs

of a species of Gryllus F. from China, I once found, one in each thigh, a small beetle congenerous with Tenebrio pallens L that had devoured the interior It is, I believe, either Acarus destructor or eruditus, that eats the gum employed to fasten down dried plants.' p. 234, 235.

One of the most curious instances of the depredations committed by Insect Bibliomaniacs, is that recorded by M. Peignot, who says that, in a damp and little frequented library, twenty seven folio volumes were so completely drilled through by Ptinus Fur L., that a cord was passed through the hole, and all the volumes lifted up by it! The Ptinus mollis L. Anobium F.,) mines on a different plan, making sinuous furrows instead of driving cylindrical pipes.

Destruction, upon a more tremendous scale, is produced by innumerable insects, among which the Formica saccharivora of Linneus may be selected as a striking example. About 70 years since, these insects appeared in so desolating a phalanx, as to put a stop to the cultivation of the sugar cane.

They descended from the hills like torrents, and the plantations, as well as every path and road for miles, were filled with them. Many domestic quadrupeds perished in consequence of this plague. Streams of water opposed only a temporary obstacle to their progress, the foremost rushing on to certain death, and fresh armies instantly following, till a bank was formed of the carcases of those that were drowned. sufficient to dam up the waters, and allow the main body to pass over in safety below. Even the all-devouring element of fire was tried in vain. When lighted to arrest their route, they rushed into the blaze in such myriads of millions as to extinguish it. The entire crops of standing canes were burnt down, and the earth dug up in every part of the plantations. But vain was every attempt of man to effect their destruction, till in 1780 it pleased Providence at length to annihilate them by the torrents of rain which accompanied a hurricane most fatal to the other West Indian Islands.' pp. 182, 183.

The ravages of the Locust, (Gryllus igratorius L.) are too popularly known to be particularly noticed here. Some interesting details will be found in this work: we shall content ourselves with a very short extract.

. One of the swarms which entered Transylvania in August, (1748) was several hundred fathoms in width, (at Vienna the breadth of one of them was three miles,) and extended to so great a length as to be four hours in passing over the Red Tower; and such was its density that it totally intercepted the solar light, so that when they flew low one person could not see another at the distance of twenty paces..... The account of Mr. Barrow of their ravages in the Southern parts of Africa is still more striking. An area of nearly 2000 square miles might be said to be literally covered by them. When

driven into the sea by a N. W. wind, they formed upon the shore for 50 miles a bank three or four feet high, and when the wind was S. E. the stench was so powerful as to be smelt at the distance of 150 miles. . . . The noise the Locusts make when engaged in their work of destruction has been compared to the sound of a flame of fire driven by the wind, and the effect of their bite to that of fire.' pp. 214, 215, 217.

In this happy country we have seldom the misfortune to witness such desolating armies. Injuries, however, are often experienced from the more minute tribes which are so fatal to the labours of the agriculturist. They are generally spoken of by our farmers, under the names of the grub, and the fly; and still more loosely, the blight-a disease often incorrectly attributed to the parasitical Fungi, which, in most cases at least, are the comparatively innocent inhabitants of decaying vegetable matter, the organization of which has been previously destroyed by insect depredators.

The reader of this volume will turn with delight to that part which treats of the benefits derived from Insects.' Innumerable, no doubt, are the advantages derived from animals which form so large a portion of the living creation. Not a few of these may be distinctly traced, and many exist of which, from the imperfection of our knowledge, we are unconscious. The injuries we sustain, are more easily pointed out, than the benefits we derive, because the former force themselves upon our attention, while the latter are generally less palpable to the mass of mankind. In the natural, as in the moral world, what we pronounce evil, is easily perceived, because for the most part our view is confined to the immediate and insulated effect; but in tracing the instances of Divine goodness, we must take a more general view of its operations; we must disentangle complicated causes, we must watch the motions of wheels within wheels, if we would ascertain the ultimate effect of any particular part of the machine. In studying the wonderful works of nature, with what exquisite delight does the heart of a pious man expand, when pursuing such interesting trains of philosophical investigation. How delightful, for example, (to take a very familiar instance,) is it to observe that the very insect which appears to lurk about the petals of a flower, in some cases simply to rob it of its honey, in others to prey upon its lovely blossom, is, in innumerable instances, the unconscious instrument of a function essential to its fructification. While the little animal is revelling in the cowslip's bell, or the tube of the honeysuckle, it brushes the farina from the authers, disperses it over the stigmas, and thus promotes the fructification of the plant, which may probably, in the succeeding year, be multiplied a hundred or a thousand fold! We shall select, for an extract, a passage which may be contrast

ed with the appalling increase of the Aphides, above mentioned.

From none of the insectivorous larvæ do we derive more advantage, than from those which devour the destructive Aphides. A great variety of species are employed to keep them within due limits. There is a beautiful genus of four-winged flies, whose wings resemble the finest lace, and whose eyes are often as brilliant as burnished metals, (Hemerobius L.) the larvæ of which Reaumur, from their being insatiable devourers of them, has named the lions of the Aphides. The larvæ are furnished with a pair of long crooked mandibles, resembling horns, which terminate in a sharp point, serving the insect instead of a mouth; for through this orifice the nutriment passes down into the stomach. When among the Aphides, like wolves in a sheep fold, they make dreadful havoc : half a minute suffices them to suck the largest of them; and the individuals of one species clothe themselves, like Hercules, with the spoils of their hapless victims. Next in importance to these come the Aphidivorous Muscide, (many species of Syrphus F.) whose grubs are armed with a singular mandible, furnished like a trident with three points, with which they transfix their prey. When disposed to feed, he fixes himself by his tail, and, being blind, gropes about on every side, as the Cyclop did for Ulysses and his companions, till he touches one which he immediately transfixes with his trident, elevates into the air, that he may not be disturbed by its struggles, and soon devours. The Lady-bird, or Lady-cow (Coccinella L.) the favourite of our childhood, in its larva state feeds entirely on Aphides. In 1807, the shore at Brighton, and all the watering places on the south coast, were literally covered with them, to the great surprise and even alarm of the inhabitants, who were ignorant that their little visitors were emigrants from the neighbouring hop-grounds, where in their larva state each had slain its thousands and ten thousands of the Aphis, It is fortunate that in most countries the children have taken these friendly Coccinelle under their protection. In France they regard them as sacred to the Virgin, and call them Vaches à Dieu, Bêtes de la Vierge, &c.; and with us, commiseration for the hard fate of a mother, whose "house is on fire and her children at home," ensures them kind treatment and liberty.'-pp. 256-258.

Few, perhaps, have ever imagined, that among the more direct benefits' derived from insects, their utility, as articles of food, deserves a prominent place; and yet they are of more importance, even in this respect, than might at first be conceived. We think, however, that this topic is expanded to a rather ridiculous extent by our Authors; sometimes in a tone of irony, it is true, but with a greater mixture of gravity than most of their readers will be able to sustain. A slight specimen shall suffice.

Many larvæ that belong to the order Coleoptera, are eaten in different parts of the world. The grub of the palm-weevil (Calandra palmarum) which is the size of the thumb, has long been in request