others conneft thefe leaves with great regularity • many ftrip
themfelves o f their hairs, and form a mixture o f hair and filk ;
others conftruft a cone o f fand, or earth, cementing the particles
with a kind o f glue; feme gnaw the wood into a kind o f faw-duft,
and glue it together ; with an innumerable variety o f modes fuited
to their prefent and future ftate, i
O p t h e B e e t l e .
T o make the reader more fully acquainted with a fubjedt which
affords fuch abundant matter for the exercife o f his microfcope,
I fhall proceed to defcribe, in as concife a manner as I am able,
the changes o f a few infefts o f different claffes, beginning with
the beetle.
The beetle is o f the firft (or coleoptrous) clafs, having four
wings. The two upper ones are cruftaceous, and form a cafe to
the lower ones ; when they are fhut, there is a longitudinal future
down the back : this formation o f the wings is neceffary, as the
beetle often lives under the furface o f the earth, in holes which
they dig by their own induflry and ftrength. Thefe cafes fave
their real wings from the damage which they might otherwife
fuflain, by rubbing or crufhing againft the fides of their abode ;
they ferve alfo to keep the wings clean, and produce a buzzing
noife when the animal rifes in the air. The ftrength o f the beetle
is aftonifhing; it has been eftimated that, bulk for bulk, their
mufcles are a thoufand times ftronger than thofe o f a man.
The beetle is only an infedl difengaged from the pupa form;
the pupa is a transformation in like manner from the worm, or
larva,
larva, and this proceeds from the e g g ; fo that here, as in the
foregoing inftances, one infefi is exhibited in four different ftates
of life, after pafiing through three o f which, and the various
miferies attendant on them, it is advanced to a more perfect ftate.
When a larva, it trains a miferable exiftence under the earth : in
the pupa form it is deprived o f motion, and as it were dead.
But the beetle itfelf lives at pleafure above and under ground,
and alfo in the air, enjoying a higher degree o f life, which it has
attained by flow progreflion, and pafling. through difficulties,
affliction, and death.
I f we judge o f the rank which the beetle holds in the fcale of
animation, from the places where they are generally found, from
the food which nourifhes them, from the difgufting and odious
forms o f many, from their antipathy to light, and their delight
in darknefs, we fhall not form great ideas o f the dignity o f their
fituation. But as alt things are rendered fubfervient to the laws
of Divine order, it is fufficient for us to contemplate the wonders
that are difplayed in this and every other organ of life, for the
reception o f which, from the fountain and source of all
life, each individual is adapted, and that in a manner corref-
ponding to the ftate of exiftence it is to enjoy, and the energies
it is called forth to reprefent; indeed the manner of it’s exiftence
entirely depends on the degree of life which it is enabled to receive,
and the ftate in which that degree is communicated in it’s
defeent through different orders of being.
“ One is the flood which univerfal flows ;
And.hence the reptile, hence the feraph glows.’
B rooke,
The