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their bill, and one at the same time in each of their claws.

The Bee collects the honey by means of its proboscis, or trunk, which is a most astonishing piece of mechanism, consisting of more than twenty parts. Entering the hive, the insect disgorges the honey into cells, for winter subsistence; or else presents it to the labouring Bees. A Bee can collect, in one day, more honey than a hundred chymists could extract in a hundred years.

When they begin to form their hive, they divide into four parties: one is deputed to the fields to collect materials, another ordered to work on these materials, a third is left to polish the rough work of the cells, and the fourth allotted to provide food for the labourers. There are waiters always attending to serve the artisan with immediate refreshments, lest he should be too long absent from his work, by going to gather it himself.

So expert are the Bees, that a honeycomb, composed of a double range of cells, backed one against another, and which is a foot long, and six inches broad, is completed in one day, so as to contain three thousand Bees. The cells are most curiously composed of little triangular sides, which unite in a point, and exactly conform to the like extremities of the opposite cells respectively. At every cell the entrance of them forms a ledge, which fortifies the aperture, and prevents the injuries it might receive from the frequent ingress and return of the Bees.

How grateful ought we to be for the creation of this admirable insect! To its toil and wisdom we are indebted for one of the most agreeable and wholesome substances afforded by Nature. Were it not for the Bee, these flowery sweets would be lost in the " desert air," or die with the fading flower.

In the following cut are given a very accurate

representation of, first, the Queen Bee, placed on the left hand side; and, on the right side of her, the Drone; below them both is represented the Working Bee.

2. THE WASP

Is a very fierce, dangerous, and rapacious insect; it is much larger than the Bee, and furnished with a powerful sting. The belly is striped with yellow and black. They make a curious nest, which they sometimes hang at the top of a barn or other place, or in the hollow of a large tree, but more commonly construct in a hole in the ground. They live there nearly under the same regulations as the bees do, and the building of the interior of their nests is admirable, being composed of pillars, galleries, and cells, where they educate their young to swarm at the appointed time. Like the male honey-bees the male Wasps are destitute of stings; but the females and neuters have stings, the poisonous liquor of which, when introduced into the human body, excites inflammation, and creates very considerable pain.

3. THE LADY-COW, OR LADY-BUG.

It would be curious to find the real etymology of the name of this small insect; it is well known, and often comes into our houses, and sits upon the hands and work of our ladies. It is perfectly harmless, and there are several species of them. They have a very small head and a corselet, both black. The body and cases of the wings vary according to the different species; yet, in general, they are red, with seven black spots strewed upon them; some even present nearly a perfect representation of a death-head. It is very serviceable in destroying the aphides, or plant lice, with which vegetables are apt to be infested.

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THE species of Aphis, the egg and winged insect of which are represented above, lives upon the sweetbriar. In the first state the creature resembles the lady-bug in figure, but in colour it is a bright green, and is much smaller. The second metamorphosis does not alter much the pristine form; the insect seems only heavier

and swoln, and the green is changed into gray-the last transmutation produces a curious being, an exact but much magnified figure of which is here given. The principal object of admiration, in the natural history of this creature, is the curious manner in which the female secures her eggs against other insects crawling in search of food on the branches of the briar. Not unlike the spider, when he begins his web, she fixes on the bark a certain glue contained in her body, and which consolidates immediately at the first contact with the atmospheric air; drawing that sort of thread with her, she proceeds to the distance of about half an inch, and then expels the egg at the end of the thread. Immediately, that elastic substance restores itself from the bent occasioned by the recession of the insect, and rising, assumes the form of the club-headed moss. The eggs are hardly perceptible to the naked eye, and set together to the number of ten or twelve, waving at the top of the stalk, and presenting the most perfect appearance of the moss above mentioned.

The Aphides are sometimes viviparous, and at other times oviparous, according to the season of the year. Those of the rose-tree have been particularly noticed, and of ten generations produced in one spring, summer, and autumn, the first generation was oviparous, the eight following viviparous, and the last oviparous. The first nine generations consisted of females only; but in the tenth there were some males.

After a mild spring, most of the species of Aphis become so numerous as to do considerable injury to the plants on which they are found. The best mode of remedying this evil is to lop off the infected shoots before the insects are greatly multiplied, repeating the same operation before the time the eggs are deposited. By the first pruning, a very numerous present increase will be prevented; and by the second, the following year's supply may, in a great measure, be cut off.

THE LOUSE AND FLEA.

1. THE LOUSE

Is an insect of the order aptera, that is to say, those that have no wings. Several animals are pestered by this or similar kind of vermin, and every one is different according to the substance upon which it feeds. The human Louse deserves a particular notice. Its skin is very transparent, so that, when examined by a powerful microscope, you can see its blood and intestines in motion. The body is divided into three parts; the head, the corselet, and the belly. In the head are two black eyes, and over each a horn or antenna, composed of five joints, and surrounded with hairs; and instead of a mouth, this teasing insect is armed with an instrument enclosing a piercer and a sucker, which it thrusts into the skin, and through which it draws the blood and humours that constitute its principal support. This piercer is supposed to be seven hundred times smaller than a common hair! and is capable of being retracted or protracted. The breast is also transparent, and to it are joined the six legs, consisting of five joints each, and covered with a skin resembling shagreen. At the extremity of each foot are two claws of unequal size, covered with hairs; the skin of the belly is also like shagreen, and at the extremity are small prominences, as may be observed in

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