as this virulency is various, according to the difference of its animal, fo is the form and texture of the cafes and balls excited thereby; fome being hard fhells, fome tender ballsh, fome fcaly faith, Non fat fuit naturæ tam miro artificio terebram feu limam condidiffe; fed inflicto vulnere, vel excitato foramine infundendum ⚫ exinde liquorem intra terebram condidit: quare fracta per tranfverfam mufcarum terebra frequentiffime, vivente animali, guttæ • aliquot diaphani humoris effluunt.' And a little after, he confirms by ocular obfervation, what he imagined before, viz. Semel prope Junii finem vidi mufcam, qualem fuperius delineavi, infidentem quercinæ gemmæ, adhuc germinanti; hærebat etenim * foliolo stabili ab apice hiantis gemmæ erumpenti: et convulfo in arcum corpore, terebram evaginabat, ipfamque tenfam immitte→ ་ bat; et tumefacto ventre circa terebræ radicem tumorem excitabat, • mufca interpolatis vicibus remittebat. In folio igitur, avulfa ⚫ minima et diaphana reperi ejecta ova, fimillima iis, quæ adhuc in tubis fupererant. Non licuit iterum idem admirari spectaculum, &c. Some what like this, which Malpighi faw, I had the good fortune to lee myself once, fome years ago: and that was the beautiful, fhining oak-ball ichneumon strike its terebra into an oak-apple divers times, no doubt to lay its eggs therein. And hence I apprehend we see many vermicules towards the outside of many of the oak apples, which I guess were not what the primitive infects laid up in the gem, from which the oak-apple had its rise, but fome other fupervenient, additional infects, laid in after the apple was grown, and whilft it was tender and foft. The Aleppo-galls, wherewith we make ink, may be reckoned of this number, being hard, and no other than cafes of infects which are bred in them; who, when come to maturity, gnaw their way out of them; which is the cause of those little holes obfervable in them. Of the infects bred in them, fee Philof. Tranf. No. 245. Of this number alfo are thofe little fmooth cafes, as big as large pepper-corns, growing close to the ribs under oaken leaves, globous, but flattish; at first touched with a blushing red, afterwards growing brown, hollow within, and an hard thin fhell without. In this lieth commonly a rough, white maggot, which becomes a little long-winged, black ichneumon-fly, that cats a little hole in the fide of the gall, and fo gets out. For a fample of the tender balls, I fhall chufe the globous ball, as round, and fome as big as fmail mufket-bullets, growing clofe to the ribs, under oaken-leaves, of a greenish yellowish colour, with a blush of red; their fkin fmooth, with frequent rifings therein. Inwardly they are very foft and fpungy; and in the very centre is a cafe with a white maggot therein, which becomes an ichneumonfly, not much unlike the laft. As to this gall, there is one thing I have obferved fomewhat peculiar, and I may fay providential, and that is, that the fly lies all the winter in thefe balls in its infantineftate, and coines not to its maturity till the following spring. In the autumn, and winter, thefe balls fall down with their leaves to the ground, and the infect inclofed in them is there fenced against the winter frofts, partly by other leaves falling pretty thick upon them, and especially by the thick parenchymous, fpongy walls, afforded by the galls themselves. Another fample fhall be the large oak-balls, called oak-apples, growing in the place of the buds, whofe generation, vegetation and figure, may be seen in Malpig. de Gallis, p. 24. and Tab. 10. fig. 33, &c. Out of thefe galls, he faith, various fpecies of flies come, but he names only two, and they are the only two I ever faw come out of them: Frequenter, faith he, fubnigræ funt mufcæ brevi munite terebra. Inter has aliquæ obfervantur aureæ, levi viridis tinctura fuffufæ, oblonga pollentes terebra.' Thefe two differently coloured flies I take to be no other than male and female of the fame fpecies. I have not obferved tails, which are their terebræ, in all, as Malpighi feems to intimate: perhaps they were hid in their thecæ, and I could not discover them: but I rather think there were none, and that those were the males: but in others, I have obferved long, recurvous tails, longer than their whole bodies; and thefe I take to be the females. And in the oak apples fcaly, some smooth, fome hairy 1, fome long, fome apples themselves, I have feen the aureliæ, fome with, fome without tails. And I must confefs, it was not without admiration, as well as pleasure, that I have feen with what exact neatnefs and artifice, the tail hath been wrapt about the aurelia, whereby it is fecured from either annoying the infect, or being hurt itself. • See before, note 4, p. 98: * Ibid. 'Of the rough or hairy excrefcences, thofe on the briar, or dogrofe, are a good inftance. These spongiolæ villofæ, as Mr. Ray, gallæ ftrumofæ, as Dr. Malpighi calls them, are thus accounted for by the latter; Ex copiofis relictis ovis ita turbatur affluens (rubi) fuccus, ut ftrumofa fiant complura tubercula fimul confule congefta, quæ utriculorum feribus, et fibrarum implicatione contexta, ramofas propagines germinant, ita ut minima quafi fylva appareat. "Quælibet propago ramos, hinc inde villofos edit. Hinc inde pilæ pariter erumpunt,' &c. Thefe balls are a fafe repofitory to the infect all the winter in its vermicular-ftate. For the eggs laid up, and hatched the fummer before, do not come to mature infects until the spring following, as Mr. Ray rightly obferves in Cat. Cantab. As to the infects themselves, they are manifeftly ichneumonflies, having four wings, their alvus thick and large towards the tail; and tapering up till it is fmall and flender at its fetting on to the thorax. But the alvi, or bellies, are not alike in all, though coloured alike. In fome they are as is now defcribed, and longer, without terebræ, or tails; in some shorter, with tails; and in fome yet shorter, and thick, like the belly of the ant, or the heart of animals, as in those before (note ", p. 98.) But for a farther defcription of them, I fhall refer to Mr. Ray, Cat. Plant. circa Cantab. under Rofa fylveft. fome round, fome conical, &c. m. And, in the laft place, let us add, that thofe fpecies of infects are all endued with peculiar and exactly made parts for this fervice, to bore and pierce the vegetable, and to reach and inject their eggs and juice into the tender parts thereof. m It being an inftance fomewhat out of the way, I shall pitch upon it for an example here, viz. the gouty fwellings in the body, and the branches of the blackberry buth; of which Malpighi hath given us two good cuts in Tab. 17. fig. 62. The cause of thefe is manifeftly from the eggs of infects laid in, whilst the shoot is young and tender, as far as the pith, and in fome places not so deep which, for the reafons before mentioned, makes the young fhoots tumify, and grow knotty and gouty. The infect that comes from hence is of the former tribe, a small fhining, black ichneumon-fly, about a tenth of an inch long, with jointed, red, capillary horns, four long wings, reaching beyond the body, a large thorax, red legs, and a fhort heart-like belly. They hop like fleas. The males are less than the females; are very venereous, endeavouring a coitus in the very box in which they are hatched getting up on the females, and tickling and thumping them with their breeches and horns to excite them to venery. THE THE CONCLUSION. ΑΝ ND now, these things being curiously confidered, what lefs can be concluded, than that there is manifeft defign and forecast in this cafe, and that there muft needs be fome wife artist, fome careful, prudent confervator, that from the very beginning of the existence of this fpecies of animals, hath, with great dexterity and forecaft, provided for its prefervation and good! For what elfe could contrive and make such a set of curious parts, exactly fitted up for that special purpose; and withal implant in the body fuch peculiar impregnations, as should have such a strange uncouth power on a quite different rank of creatures? And lastly, what fhould make the infect aware of this its ftrange faculty and power, and teach it fo cunningly and dexterously to employ it for its own service and good! BOOK |