ONE thing is their fingular providence for their young, in making or finding out fuch proper receptacles and places for their eggs and feed, as that they may receive the advantage of a sufficient incubation, and that the young when produced, may have the benefit of proper and fufficient food for their nurture and education, till they are able to fhift for themfelves. It is admirable to fee with what diligence and care the several species of infects lay up their eggs, or fperm, in their feveral proper places; not all in the waters, in wood, or vegetables; but those whose fubfiftence is in the waters f, in the water; thofe to whom flesh is a proper food, in flesh; thofe to whom the fruits or leaves of vege f It would be endless to specify the various fpecies of infects, that have their generation in the waters; and therefore I shall only observe of them, 1. That their eggs are always laid up with great care, and in good order. And alfo, 2. Where proper and fufficient food is. 3. That in their nympha-ftate in the waters, they have parts proper for food and motion; and in many, or most of them, very different from what they have in their mature state; a manifeft argument of the Creator's wifdom and providence. * As Seigneur Redi was one of the first that made it his business to difcard anomalous generation, fo he tried more experiments relating to the vermination of ferpents, fieth, fish, putrified vegetables; and in fhort, whatever was commonly known to be the nursery of maggots, more, Ifay, probably, than any one hath done fince. And in all his obfervations, he conftantly found the maggots to turn to aurelæ, and the fe into flies. But then, faith he, Dubitare cœpi F 2 6 utrum utrum omne hoc vermium in carne genus, ex folo muscarum femine, an ex ipfis putrefactis carnibus oriretur, tantoque magis, "confirmabar in hoc meo dubio, quanto in omnibus generationibus -fæpius videram, in carnibus, antequam verminare inciperent, refediffe ejufdem fpeciei mufcas, cujus propago poftea nafcebatur.' Upon this he tells us, he put fish, flesh, &c. into pots, which he covered close from the flies with paper, and afterwards, for the free air-fake, with lawn, whilft other pots were left open, with fuch like flesh, &c. in them; that the flies were very eager to get into the covered pots; and that they produced not one maggot, when the open ones had many, Fr. Redi de Gener. Infect. Among the infects that come from the maggots he mentions, he names culices. Now, from the most critical obfervations I have made, I never obferved any fort of gnat to come from putrified flesh, vegetables, or any other thing he taxeth them with. So that either he means by culex, fome fly that we call not by the name of gnat; or elfe their gnats in Italy vary in their generation from ours in England. For among above thirty, near forty, diftinct fpecies of gnats that I have obferved about the place where I live, I never found any to lay their eggs in flesh, fish, &c. but the largest fort, called, by Aldrovand, culices maximi, by Swammerdam, tipulæ terreftres, lay their eggs in meadows, &c. under the grafs; one of the larger middle fort, in dead beer, yeast, &c. lying on the tops, or in the Jeaks of bear-barrels, &c. and all the reft, as far as ever I have obferved, lay and hatch in the waters. The generation of the second of thefe being akin to some of the foregoing inftances, and a little out of the way, may deserve a place here. This gnat lays its eggs commonly in dead beer, &c. as I faid, and probably in vinegar, and other fuch liquors. Some time after which, the maggots are fo numerous, that the whole liquor ftirreth as if it was alive; being full of maggots, fome larger, fome smaller; the larger are the offspring of our gnat, the fmaller, of a small dark coloured fly, tending to reddish, frequent in celiars, and fuch obfcure places. All thofe maggots turn to aureliæ, the larger of which, of a tan-colour, turn to our gnat. This gnat is of the unarmed kind, having no spear in its mouth : its head is larger than that of the common gnats, a longer neck, fhort-jointed antennæ, spotted vegetables are food, are accordingly repofited, wings, reaching beyond its flender alvus; it is throughout of a brown colour, tending to red, effecially in the female the chief difference between the male and female is, as in other gnats, yea, moft infects, the male is less than the female, and hath a flender belly, and its podex not fo fharp. as the female's is. The infects that infeft fruits, are either of the ichneumon-fly kind, or phalænæ. Plumbs, reafe, nuts, &c. produce fome other ichneumon fly. That generated in the plumb is black, of a middle fize, its body near three tenths of an inch long, its tail not much lefs, confifting of three briftles, wherewith it conveys its eggs into fruits: its antennæ, or horns, long, flender, recurved; its belly longish, tapering, fmall towards the thorax; legs reddish; wings membranaceous, thin, and transparent, in Numb. 4. which, is one characteristic of the ichneumon-fly. The peafe ichneumon-fly is very fmall, wings large, reaching beyond the podex; antennælong; alvus fhort, fhaped like an heart, with the point towards the anus; it walketh and flieth flowly no tail appears as in the former; but they have one lieth hidden under the belly, which they can at pleasure bend back to pierce pease when they are young and tender, and other things also, as I have reafon to fufpect, having met with this, as indeed the former two, in divers vegetables. Pears and apples I could never difcover any thing to breed in, but only the leffer phalana, about four tenths of an inch long, whitish underneath, greyish-brown above, dappled with brown spots, inclining to a dirty red, all but about a third part at the end of the wings, which is not grey, but brown, elegantly ftriped with wavey lines, of a gold colour, as if gilt; its head is fmall, with a tuft of whitish brown in the forehead; antennæ fmooth, moderately long. The aurelia of ths moth is fmall, of a yellowish brown. I know not what time they require for their generation out of boxes; but thofe I laid up in Auguft, did not become moths before June fulJowing. fome in this fruit, fome on this tree i fome on that plant, fome on another, and another; but conftantly the fame family on the fame tree or plant, the most agrecable to that family. And as for others that require a conftant and greater degree of warmth, they are accordingly provided by the parent-animal with fome place in or about the body of other animals; fome in the There are many of the phalanx, and ichneumon-fly tribes, that have their generation on the leaves, or other parts of trees and shrubs, too many to be here reckoned up. The oak hath many very beautiful phalanx, bred in its convolved leaves, white, green, yellow, brown, fpotted prettily, and neatly dappled, and many more befides; and its buds afford a place for cafes, and balls of various forts, as shall be shewn hereafter; its leaves expanded, minister to the germination of globular, and other spheroidical balls, and flat thecæ, fome like hats, fome like buttons excavated in the middle; and divers other fuch like repofitories, all belonging to the ichneumon-fly kind. And not only the oak, but the maple alfo, the white-thorn, the brier, privet, and indeed almost every tree and fhrub. And as trees and shrubs, so plants have their peculiar infect. The white butterfly lays its voracious offspring on cabbage-leaves; a very beautiful reddifh ocellated one; its no lefs voracious black offspring, of an horrid afpect, on the leaves of nettles; as alfo doth a very beautiful, fmall greenish ichneumon-fly, in cafes on the leaves of the fame plant and to name no more, because it would be endless, the beautiful ragwort-moth, whofe upper wings are brown, elegantly fpotted with red, and under wings edged with brown; thefe, I fay, provide for their golden-ringed erucæ upon the ragwort-plant. feathers feathers of birds; fome in the hair of beafts m; fome in the very fcales of fifhes"; fome in the nofe; 1 Many, if not most forts of birds, are infefted with a distinct kind of lice, very different from one another in fhape, fize, &c. For figures and descriptions of them, I fhall refer to Signeur Redi of Infects. Sec alfo Mouffet, 1. 2. c. 23. These lice lay their nits among the feathers of the respective birds, where they are hatched and nourished; and, as Ariftotle faith, would deftroy the birds, particularly pheasants, if they did not duft their feathers, Loco infra citat. And as birds, fo the feveral forts of beafts have their peculiar forts of lice; all diftinct from the two forts infefting man: only the afs, they fay, is free, because our Saviour rode upon one, as fome think; but I prefume it is rather from the paffage in Pliny, 1. 11. c. 33. or rather Arist. Hist. Animal I. 3. c. 31. who faith, Quibus pilus eft, non carent eodem [pediculo] excepto afino, qui non pediculo tantum, verum etiam redivio immunis eft.' And a little before, speaking of thofe in men, he fhews what conftitutions are moft fubject to them, and inftanceth in Alcman the poet, and Pherecydes Syrius, that died of the pthiriafis, or lowfy difcafe. For which foul diftemper, if medicines are defired, Mouffet de Infect. p. 262. may be confulted; who, in the fame page, hath this obfervation, Animadverterunt noftrates-ubi Alores infulas a tergo reliquerint, pediculos confeftim omnes tabefcere: atque ubi cos reviferint, iterum innumeros alios fubito oriri.' Which obferva tion is confirmed by Dr. Stubs. Vide Lowth. Abridgm. vol. 3. P. 558. And many feamen have told me the fame. n Fishes, one would think, should be free from lice, by reafon they live in the waters, and are perpetually moving in, and brushing through them; but yet they have their forts too. Befides which, I have frequently found great numbers of long fender worms in the stomach, and other parts of fish, particularly |