One night when this din
was so great that conversation was almost impossible, I was astonished
to find that the insect was on the table, only a few inches away from
my book, and I was able to see his method of making this sound. He was
vibrating his horny wing-cases with marvellous rapidity, producing
such an amount of noise that, unless one had seen it in process of
production, it would have seemed impossible that it could arise from
such a humble source.

At certain seasons, and especially when it is warm and damp, the
evening meal in the country is attended with difficulty because of the
quantity of insects, especially beetles, which are attracted by the
lamp, and they appear to make a specialty of falling into any dish
which may be at hand. When camping out the difficulty is intensified,
and the only thing to be done is to put the lamp at a distance and to
dine in comparative darkness. Such a variety of insects come that an
entomologist might make quite a respectable collection in the course
of one night. One of these evening visitors after the rains is a long,
slim beetle, green, or sometimes buff in colour, with a small head
which fits loosely into his body. He twists his head about as if his
collar was uncomfortable. When alarmed he exudes a strong acid which
at once raises a blister. He is the more dangerous because, flying in
rapidly, he often alights on your collar or neck, and the action of
brushing him off causes the emission of the acid, and the blister
follows.

In the daytime, bees, black and hairy, immense in size, and making a
noise like a threshing-machine, come banging in at the open windows.
They are not as formidable as they look, except in their own domains,
and they quickly depart in response to indications that they are not
wanted. They know their way out without difficulty, which is contrary
to the experience of most intruding animals.

A solitary wasp is apt to select inconvenient places in which to build
a mud-cell wherein to deposit its egg, and the store of live
caterpillars destined to be the food of its young when hatched. You
find a keyhole, or the tap of a filter, filled with mud as the result
of this wasp's labours. It works so rapidly that it generally
completes its job in the course of a day. An even more inconvenient
site for its nest is the sleeve of a garment left hanging on a peg,
especially if you put the garment on while the wasp is at work. A
small colony of social wasps b