Insect transformations / [Anon].

  • James Rennie
Date:
1830
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Insect transformations / [Anon]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    430/442 (page 414)
    John Hunter, whose authority stands as hi^h as any on record, found a hive to grow lighter in a cold than in a warm week of winter, and that a hive, from November 10th till February 9th, lost more than four pounds in weight*, a loss which could not well be ascribed to evaporation. These discrepancies among naturalists so distin- guished as both shrewd and faithful observers, forbid us, we think, to come to any decided conclusion on the subject, till further researches and experiments have been made. It is not improbable, however, that the truth lies in the middle between the two extremes,— for it is quite accordant with what we know both of insects and other animals, that a high degree of cold should render them torpid, while they may continue active if there should.be a certain degree of warmth. The following observations by the ingenious Mr. Gough, of Manchester, form an interesting illustra- tion of this curious subject with respect to another insect. “ Those,” says he, “ who have attended to the manners of the hearth cricket {Acheta domestica) know that it passes the hottest part of the summer in sunny situations, concealed in the crevices of walls and heaps of rubbish. It quits its summer abode about the end of August, and fixes its residence by the fireside of kitchens or cottages, where it mul- tiplies its species, and is as merry at Christmas as other insects in the dog-days. Thus do the comforts of a warm hearth aflbrd the cricket a safe refuge, not from death, but from temporary torpidity, which it can support for a long time, when deprived by accident of artificial warmth.—I came to the know- ledge of this fact,” continues Mr. Gough, “ by plant- ing a colony of these insects in a kitchen, where a constant fire was kept through the summer, but * Phil. Trans, for 17i)0, p. IGl.