furprizing, therefore, that they are found fo numerous in years
which are favorable to their propagation. But the Creator o f
all things has for our fakes limited this abundant multiplication,
by raifmg up holts of enemies, who, belides ficknefs, See. deftroy
the fuperfluous quantity.
The following is a calculation o f the fecundity o f the queen
bee, by M. de Reaumur : he found that lire laid in the two
months o f March and April 12,000 eggs, fo that the fwarm which
left the hive in May eonfilied o f near 12,000 bees, all produced
from one mother ; but thefè calculations all fall Ihort. o f thole
which were made by Leeuwenhoek on a fly, whofe larva feeds
on flelh, putrid carcafes, &c. which multiply prodigioufly, and
that in a Ihort fpace o f time. One o f thefe laid 144 eggs, from
which he got as many flies in the firft month ; fo that fuppofing
one-half o f thefe to be females, in the third month we lhall have
746,456, all produced in three months from one fly.
O f the Food of Insects.
Infefts feed upon all kinds'of vegetable and animal fubftances;
I there is fcarce any production o f thefe two kingdoms which does
not ferve for food to fome kind o f infea. They may, therefore,
be conlidered under two heads, thole which live on vegetables,
and thofe which are fupported by animal food ; each infeâ knows
the food which is proper to fuftain it’s life, it knows where to
feek it, and how to procure it. It has been already obferved,
that lèverai infeas, when arrived at a Hate o f perfeaion, feed
after their transformation upon food totally different from that
which nourilhed them in their larva ftate ; yet thefe are informed
by
by the laws o f Divine order, to place their eggs on fubjeas proper
for the larva which are to proceed from them.
Among thofe which feed on vegetables, fome link themfelves
in the earth, deftroy the roots o f the plants, and do confiderable
injuries to our gardens, Sic. The food of others is dry and
hard ; they pierce the wood, reduce it to powder, and then feed
on it ; fome, as the colfus, deftroy and attack the trees, while the
food o f others more delicate is the leaves. The leaf is eat in a
different manner by different infeas ; fome eat the whole fub-
ftance, whileothers feed only on the parenchemous parts, which
are contained between it’s fuperficial membranes, forming within
fide the leaf paths and galleries. ! Thefe infects are not always
content with the leaf, but attack the flower alfo': even this food
is too grofs for many ; the bee, the butterfly, the moth, as well
as feveral fpecies of flies, feed only on the honey, or finer juices,
which they colleft from flowers. Fruits, grains, and corn, are
not free from them ; they divide them with us, and often deprive
us of large quantities. We are continually finding the larva of
fome infeâ in pears, plumbs, peaches, and other fruit ; there is,
indeed, no part o f a plant which does not ferve as food to
different infeâs ; fome have one kind of plant marked out for
them to inhabit and feed on, others have another afligned to
them, on which, and no other, they will feed ; each has it’s appropriate
food, and though the parent animal eats not at all, or
lives upon food entirely diffèrent, yet fhe is guided, as we have
already obferved, to depofit her eggs on that peculiar fhrup or
plant that will be food for her young ; 'while- fome, more voracious
than the reft, feed upon all with equal avidity. The grylus
migratorius, a few years finCe, poured out o f Tartary in fucli
L 1 quantities,