Goldsmith's Natural history : with notes from all the popular treatises that have been issued since the time of Goldsmith ... / [edited] by Henry Innes, with a life of Oliver Goldsmith by George Moir Bussey.

Oliver Goldsmith

Date:: [18??]

Credit: Goldsmith's Natural history : with notes from all the popular treatises that have been issued since the time of Goldsmith ... / [edited] by Henry Innes, with a life of Oliver Goldsmith by George Moir Bussey. Source: Wellcome Collection.

820/860 page 444

$cauti /ti aeema denied them ; the treasures tliey lay up are no lonjrcr supposed intended for future provision, and the choice they make in their stores seems no way dictated by wisdom. It is, indeed, somewhat surprising, tliat almost e>ery writer of antiquity should describe this insect as labouring in the summer, and feasting upon the produce during the winter.* Perhaps, in some of the warmer climates, where the winter is mild and of short continuance, this may lake place; hut in France and England these animals can have no manner of occasion for a ■apply of winter prorisions, as they are actually in a state ol torpidity during that season.*]* • WucTEB PaoviBioH OF THH Am'.—^Ths younger Huber has given an interesting ac- count of the hybernation of ants, which dif- fers in some particulars from what we have observerl of the wood-ant; but he speaks of ants in general. The subject, indeed, derives importance from the popular opinion, that they amass wheat and other grain as a winter store, having been refuted by the experiments of Gould and other accurate observers. “We have endeavoua'<l,” says M. Hulrer, “ to ex- plain their preservation, by sup])Osing them to fall into a state of torpor at this i)eriod. They, in fact, become torpid during the in- tense cold, but when the season is not very severe, the depth of their nest guards them from the effects of the frost; they do not be- come torpid unless the temjHjrature is reduced to the second degree of Reaumur under the freezing i>oiut {*^7° Fahrenheit). I have oc- citsionally seen them walking upon the snow, engaged in their customary avocations. In so !e<iiiced a temiwrature, they would be ex- jiosed to the horrors of famine, were they not supplied with foo<l by the pucerons, who, by an admirable concurrence of circumstances, which we cannot attribute to chance, become lor|iid at precisely the same degree of cold as the ants, and recover from this state also at the same time: the ants, therefore, always find them when they need them. “ Those ants that do not possess the know- A'dge of the mode of assembling these insects, are, at least, acquainted with their retreat; they follow them to the feet of the trees and the branches of the shrubs they before fre- quented, and pass at the first degree of frost along the hedges, following the paths which conduct to these insects. They bring back to the republic a small quantity of honey; a very little sufficing fur their support in winter. As MHin us the ants recover from their torpid state, they venture forth to procure their loixl. The alimeni contained in their stomach is, on their return, equally distributed to their com- panions. These juices scarcely evajiorate, during this season owing to the thickness of the honey rings investing the body. I have known ants preserve, during a considerable time, their internal stuck of provisions, when they could nut impart it to their companions. When the cold increases in a gradual manner (and this is commonly what the ants expeii- «noe, who are screened IVom it by a thick wall of earth,) they collect and lie uiron each other by thousands, and apitear all hooked together. Is this done in order to jirovide themselves a little heat? 1 presume this to be the case, but our thermometers are not sufficiently delicate to indicate if this be really the fact.”—Hubkr on Ants. f Hybernation of Insects.—The torpid- ity of insects during winter, which in some of its circumstances ie analogous to sleep, will require the less to be discussed here, that we have, under our three former divisions of eggs pupse, and larvae, considered it very amply The number of insects, indeed, which hyber- nate in the perfect state are comparatively few. Of the brimstone butterfly {gonepteryx rhamni), Mr. Stephens tells us the second brood ajipears iu autumn, “ and of the latter, ’ he adds, “ many individuals of both sexes re- main throughout the winter, and make their appearance on the first sunny day in spring. 1 have seen them sometimes so early as the middle of February.” The commonly jierfect state of the wings in such cases might, we think, lead to the contrary conclusion, that the butterfly has just been evolved from iti chrysalis. Several other species, however, chiefly of the genus vanessa, do live through the winter in the perfect state; but this, as far as general observation extends, can only be affirmed of the female. Yet will insects bear almost incredible degrees ol cold with im- punity. Out of the multiplicity ot instances of this on record we shall select two. In Newfoundland, Captain Huchan saw a lake, which in the evening was entirely still and frozen over, but as soon as the sun had dis- solved the ice in the morning, it was all in a bustle of animation, in consequence, as wa* discovered, of myiiads of flies let loose, while many still rem.iined “ infixed and frozen round.” A still stronger instance is men- tioned by Kills, in which a large black mass, like coal or peat upon the hearth, dissolved, when thrown upon the fire, into a cloud of musquittoes {cnticidee'). It has been remarked by most writers upon the torjiidity of warm-blooded animals, that cold does not seem to be its only cause, and the sarre apjmrently holds in the case ot in- sects. Bees, indeid, which remain semi- torpid during the winter, may be prcinatuiely$