for insects, where they find an abundance of food. They dwell, l. in the
roots; 2. in the wood; 3. in the leaves, and in the galls which grow
upon them and the branches; 4. in the flowers; 5. in the fruits and
grains. To enumerate the various species of these inhabitants would be
endless; many particulars have been already noticed; it has also
appeared that some inhabit the most fœtid substances they can find,
while others dwell with and live on the larger animals; so that it only
remains just to mention some of those in whom industry and art is more
strongly marked to our eyes than in others.
Among the solitary bees there are so many curious circumstances to be
described, that a single volume would not suffice to contain the
particulars; we shall here only relate such as concern their
habitations. One of these forms its nest under ground, which is composed
of several cells artfully let into each other, but not covered with a
common inclosure; each cell consists of two or three membranes,
inexpressibly fine, and placed over each other. The cavity, in which the
nest is placed, is smeared over with a layer of matter, like that of
which the cells are formed, and apparently similar to the viscous humour
which snails spread in their passage from one place to another, and it
is probable that they are formed of the same materials; this substance,
though of so delicate a nature, gives them such a degree of consistency,
that they may be handled without altering their form. An egg is
deposited at the bottom of each cell, where, after it is hatched, the
worm finds itself in the midst of a plentiful stock of provision; for in
each cell there is placed a quantity of paste, or a kind of wax, which
is to serve as food for the worm, and support the wall of the cell. The
worm is also instructed so to conduct itself, and eat this food, as to
leave sufficient props for supporting the walls of its apartment. Many
species of these bees content themselves with penetrating into the
earth, scooping out hollow cavities therein, polishing the walls, then
depositing an egg and a sufficient quantity of provisions.
There is another species, that forms its nest under ground with
remarkable industry; this bee generally makes a perpendicular hole in
the earth about three inches deep, and cylindrical, till within about
three-fourths of an inch of the bottom, when it begins to enlarge; as
soon as the bee has given it the suitable proportions, it proceeds to
line not only the whole inside of its dwelling, but round the entrance;
the substance with which it is lined is of a crimson colour, and looks
like satin. From this circumstance Reaumur[95] terms it the tapestry
bee. This tapestry or lining is formed of fragments of the flowers of
the wild poppy, which she cuts out curiously, and then seizing them with
her legs, conveys them to her nest. If the pieces are wrinkled, she
first straightens and then affixes them to her walls with wonderous art;
she generally applies two layers of these fragments one over the other.
If the piece she has cut and transported be too large for the place she
intends it for, she clips off the superfluous parts and conveys the
shreds out of the apartment. After the bee has lined her cell, she fills
it nearly half an inch deep with a paste proper to nourish the larva
when hatched from the egg; when the bee has amassed a sufficient
quantity of paste, she then takes her tapestry, and folds it over the
paste and egg, which are by these means inclosed as it were in a bag of
paste; this done, she fills up with earth the empty space that is above
the bag. There is another bee which does the same with rose-leaves, and
in the substance of a thick post. A friend of mine had a piece of wood
cut from a strong post that supported the roof of a cart-house, full of
these cells or round holes, three-eighths of an inch in diameter, and
about three-fourths deep, each of which was filled with these rose-leaf
cases finely covered in at top and bottom.
[95] Reaumur Memoires pour l’Histoire des Insectes, edit. 8vo. tom. 6,
partie 1, p. 170.
The mason bee is so called by Reaumur from the manner of its building
its nest. These bees collect with their jaws small parcels of earth and
sand, which they glue together with a strong cement furnished from the
proboscis; and of this they form a simple but commodious habitation,
which is generally placed along walls that are exposed to the south.
Each nest resembles a lump of rude earth, of about six or seven inches
diameter, thrown against the wall; the labour of constructing so large
an edifice must be very great, as the bee can only carry a few grains at
a time. The exterior form is rude and irregular, but the construction
and art exhibited in the interior parts make up for this seeming defect;
it is generally divided into twelve or fifteen cells, separated from
each other by a thick wall; in each of these an egg is deposited by the
parent bee. The cells are not constructed all at once, for when one is
finished, she places an egg therein, with a sufficient quantity of honey
to nourish the larva; she then builds another. When the insect is
arrived at a proper state, it penetrates through its inclosures by means
of its strong jaws. When all the bees have quitted the nest, there are
as many holes on the surface thereof as there are cells within. We find
no neutral bees among this species, or at least we do not know of any
being yet discovered.
Another species of the solitary bee (apis centuncularis, Linn.)
constructs her nest in pieces of rotten wood, and has therefore been
called the carpenter bee.[96] She divides it into stages, disposing them
sometimes in three rows, with partitions curiously left between each; in
these she deposits her eggs, with the food necessary for the young ones
when hatched. They separate the wood in a very expeditious manner, by
dividing its ligneous fibres or threads, till they have made a proper
sized hole.
[96] Geoffroy Hist. abregee des Insectes, tom. 2, p. 401.
The art and sagacity displayed by another bee,[97] whose nest is
constructed of single pieces of leaves, is truly wonderful. The nest
itself is cylindrical, formed of several cells, placed one within the
other, as thimbles are in a hard-ware shop. The cells consist of several
pieces cut from one leaf, of forms and proportions proper to coincide
with the place each is intended to occupy. The outer case or cover is
formed with equal care and exactness. In a word, says Bonnet, there is
so much exactness, symmetry, uniformity, and skill, in this little
master-piece, that we should not believe it to be the work of a fly, if
we did not know at what school she learnt the art of constructing it. In
each cell the mother deposits an almost liquid substance, and yet so
nicely are the cells formed, as not to suffer any of this substance to
be lost. But for a minute account of the works of this bee, and the
curious mechanism of its cells, we must refer the reader to Reaumur’s
admirable history of insects.
[97] Reaumur Memoires pour l’Histoire des Insectes, tom. 6, par. 1, p.
122.
The proceedings of the mason ichneumon wasp,[98] sphex, Linn. are
totally different from those of the common wasp, though equally curious.
It generally begins its work in May, and continues it for the greatest
part of June. The true object of her labour seems to be the digging of a
hole a few inches deep in the ground; yet in the constructing of this,
she forms a hollow tube above ground, the base of which is the aperture
of the hole, and which is raised as high above ground as the hole is
deep below; it is formed with a great deal of care, resembling a gross
kind of fillagree work, consisting of the sand drawn from the hole. The
sand out of which she excavates her cell, is nearly as hard as a common
stone; this it readily softens with a penetrating liquor with which she
is well provided; a drop or two of it is imbibed immediately by the sand
on which it falls, which is instantly rendered so soft, that she can
separate and knead it with her teeth and fore feet, forming it into a
small ball, which she places on the edge of the hole as the foundation
stone of the pillar she is going to erect; the whole of it is formed of
such balls, ranged circularly, and then placed one above the other. She
leaves her work at intervals, probably in order to renew her stock of
that liquor which is so necessary for her operations. These intervals
are of short duration; she soon returns, and labours with so much
activity and ardour, that in a few hours she will dig a hole two or
three inches deep, and raise a hollow pillar two inches high. After the
column has been raised a certain height perpendicular from the ground,
it begins to curve a little, which curvature increases till it is
finished, though the cylindrical form is maintained: she constructs
several of these holes all of the same form, and for the same purpose.
It is easy to see why the hole was dug in the ground; that it was
destined to receive an egg; but it is not so easy to perceive why the
tube of sand was formed. By attending to the labours of the wasp, one
end, however, may be discovered; it will be found to serve the purpose
of a scaffold, and that the balls are as useful to the wasp, as
materials, &c. to the mason; and are therefore placed as much within her
reach as possible. She uses them to stop and fill up the hole after she
has deposited an egg therein, so that the pillar is then destroyed, and
not the least remains left in the nest. The parent wasp generally leaves
ten or twelve worms as provision necessary and proper for the growth of
the young larva: no purveyor could take better precautions than our
wasp, for she has received her instructions from HIM who provides for
the necessities of all his creatures. In selecting the worms, she
chooses those of a proper size, that they may be sufficient in quantity,
and of an age that will not be in danger of perishing with hunger, in
which case they would have been corrupted; she therefore selects them
when they have their full growth. It is also observed, that if she
choose a larger sort, she gives a less number of them, and so
reciprocally.
[98] Reaumur Mem. pour l’Histoire des Insectes, tom. xi. par. 2, p. 9.
From a retrospect view of this chapter, we may observe a striking
difference between man and the lower orders of animal creation. Man is
born totally ignorant; so much so, that he has no knowledge even of the
mother’s breast, till he has been brought acquainted with it by repeated
trials; he has no innate ideas, is unable to choose what is proper for
his food; he cannot form his voice to any articulate pronunciation, or
to express the affections of love; whereas the quadruped, the bird, and
the insect, are born to all that knowledge which is necessary for the
gratification of those desires or that love which forms their life; and,
consequently, in the knowledge of every thing relating to their
well-being, their food, their habitations, the commerce of the sexes,
their provision for their young, &c. from the impulse of the pleasure
arising from these innate desires and affections, the larva is also
prompted to seek and aspire after a change of its earthly state. If it
were not foreign to the subject in hand, it might be easy to shew, by a
variety of reasons, that this imperfection of man at his nativity
constitutes his real perfection, and places him infinitely, if I may so
speak, above the brute creation; for man is not created relatively
perfect, but formed a recipient of all perfection.
OF THE TERMITES, GENERALLY CALLED WHITE ANTS.
As no insects exceed the termites in their wonderful œconomy, wise
contrivances, and stupendous buildings, it will be proper to give the
reader some account of them; which I am enabled to do from the excellent
paper written by the late Mr. Smeathman, and published in the
Philosophical Transactions for the year 1781, part 1.
The termites are represented by Linnæus as the greatest plagues of both
Indies, and are indeed justly deemed so every where between the
tropics, on account of the vast damages sustained through them in
consequence of their eating and perforating wooden buildings, utensils,
furniture, &c. which are totally destroyed by them if not timely
prevented; for no substance less hard than metal or stone can escape
their most destructive jaws.
These insects have been noticed by various travellers in different parts
of the torrid zone; where numerous, as is the case with all equinoctial
continents, and islands not fully cultivated, many persons have been
excited by curiosity to observe them; and, indeed, those devoid of that
disposition must have been very fortunate, if, after a short residence,
they were not compelled to pay them attention for the preservation of
their property. They make their approaches chiefly under ground,
descending below the foundations of houses and stores, at several feet
from the surface, and rising again either in the floors, or entering at
the bottoms of the posts of which the sides of the buildings are
composed, boring quite through them, following the course of the fibres
to the top, or making lateral perforations and cavities here and there
as they proceed.
While some are employed in gutting the posts, others ascend from them,
entering a rafter, or some other part of the roof. If they once find the
thatch, which seems to be a favourite food, they soon bring up wet clay,
and build their pipes or galleries through the roof in various
directions, as long as it will support them; sometimes eating the
palm-tree leaves and branches of which it is composed, and perhaps, for
variety seems very pleasing to them, the rattan, or other running plant,
which is used as a cord to tie the various parts of the roof together,
and that to the posts which support it. Thus, with the assistance of the
rats, who during the rainy season are apt to shelter themselves there,
and to burrow through it, they very soon ruin the house, by weakening
the fastenings, and exposing it to the wet. In the mean time the posts
will be perforated in every direction as full of holes as that timber in
the bottoms of ships, which has been bored by the worms; the fibrous and
knotty parts, which are the hardest, being left to the last.
These insects are not less expeditious in destroying the shelves,
wainscotting, and other fixtures of an house, than the house itself.
They are continually piercing and boring in all directions, and
sometimes go out of the broadside of one post into that of another
adjoining to it; but they prefer and always destroy the softer
substances the first, and are particularly fond of pine and fir boards,
which they excavate and carry away with wonderful dispatch and
astonishing cunning; for, except a shelf has something standing upon it,
as a book, or any thing else which may tempt them, they will not
perforate the surface, but artfully preserve it quite whole, and eat
away all the inside, except a few fibres which barely keep the two sides
connected together; so that a piece of an inch-board, which appears
solid to the eye, will not weigh much more than two sheets of pasteboard
of equal dimensions, after these animals have been a little while in
possession of it. In short, the termites are so insidious in their
attacks, that we cannot be too much upon our guard against them: they
will sometimes begin and raise their works, especially in new houses,
through the floor. If you destroy the work so begun, and make a fire
upon the spot, the next night they will attempt to rise through another
part; and if they happen to emerge under a chest or trunk, early in the
night will pierce the bottom, and destroy or spoil every thing in it
before the morning. On these accounts the inhabitants set all their
chests or boxes upon stones or bricks, so as to leave the bottoms of
such furniture some inches above the ground, which not only prevents
these insects finding them out so readily, but preserves the bottoms
from a corrosive damp, which would strike from the earth through, and
rot every thing therein: a vast deal of vermin also would harbour under,
such as cockroaches, centipedes, millepedes, scorpions, ants, and
various other noisome insects.
It may be presumed that they have obtained the name of ants from the
similarity in their manner of living with those insects, which is in
large communities, that erect very extraordinary nests, for the most
part on the surface of the ground; from whence their excursions are made
through subterraneous passages or covered galleries, which they build
whenever necessity obliges, or plunder induces them to march above
ground, and at a great distance from their habitations, carry on a
business of depredation and destruction scarce credible but to those who
have seen it; but, notwithstanding they live in communities, and are,
like the ants, omnivorous; though, like them, at a certain period they
are furnished with four wings, and emigrate or colonize at the same
season, they are by no means the same kind of insects, nor does their
form correspond with that of ants in any one state of their existence.
The termites resemble the ants, indeed, in their provident and diligent
labour, but surpass them, as well as the bees, wasps, beavers, and all
other animals, in the art of building, as much as Europeans excel the
most uncultivated savages. They shew more substantial instances of
ingenuity and industry than any other animals; and do, in fact, lay up
vast magazines of provisions and other stores; a degree of prudence
which has of late years been denied, perhaps without reason, to the
ants.
The communities consist of one male and one female, which are generally
the common parents of the whole or greater part of the rest, and of
three orders of insects, apparently very different species, but really
the same, which together compose great commonwealths or rather
monarchies.
The great Linnæus having seen or heard of but two of these orders, has
classed the genus erroneously, for he has placed it among the aptera, or
insects without wings; whereas the insect in its perfect state, having
four wings without any sting, belongs to the neuroptera; in which class
it will constitute a new genus of many species.
The different species of this genus resemble each other in form, in
their manner of living, and in their good and bad qualities, but differ
as much as birds in the manner of building their habitations or nests,
and in the choice of the materials of which they compose them.
There are some species which build upon the surface of the ground, or
part above and part beneath; and one or two species, perhaps more, that
build on the stem or branches of trees.
There are of every species of termites three orders: 1. The working
insects, which for brevity we shall call labourers. 2. The fighters or
soldiers, which do not labour; and 3. The winged or perfect insects,
which are male and female, and capable of propagation. From these the
kings and queens are chosen, and nature has so ordered it, that they
emigrate within a few weeks after their elevation to this state, and
either establish new kingdoms, or perish within a day or two. Of these,
the working insects or labourers are always the most numerous; among
that species emphatically called termes bellicosus, which is the
largest, there seem to be at the least one-hundred labourers to one of
the fighting insects or soldiers. They are in this state about
one-fourth of an inch long, and twenty-five of them weigh about a grain,
so that they are not so large as some of our ants; from their external
habits and fondness for wood, they have been very expressively called
wood-lice by some people, and the whole genus has been known by that
name, particularly among the French. They resemble them, it is true,
very much at a distance; they run as fast or faster than any other
insect of their size, and are incessantly in a bustle.
The second order, or soldiers, have a very different appearance from the
labourers, and have been by some authors supposed to be the males, and
the former neuters; but they are, in fact, the same insects as the
foregoing, only they have undergone a change of form, and approached one
degree nearer to the perfect state. They are much larger, being half an
inch long, and equal in size to fifteen of the labourers. There is now,
likewise, a most remarkable circumstance in the form of the head and
mouth; for in the former state the mouth is evidently calculated for
gnawing and holding bodies; but in this state, the jaws being shaped
like two very sharp awls a little jagged, they are incapable of any
thing but piercing or wounding, for which purposes they are well
calculated, being as hard as a crab’s claw and placed in a strong horny
head larger than all the rest of the body together.
The insect in its perfect state is varied still more in its form; the
head, thorax, and abdomen, differ almost entirely from the same parts in
the labourers and soldiers; and, besides this, the animal is now
furnished with four fine large brownish transparent wings, with which it
is, at the time of emigration, to wing its way in search of a new
settlement; in short, it differs so much from its form and appearance in
the two other states, that it has never been supposed to be the same
animal, but by those who have seen it in the same nest; and some of
these have distrusted the evidence of their senses. It was so long
before Mr. Smeathman met with them in the nests, that he doubted the
information which was given him by the natives, that they belonged to
the same family: indeed, twenty nests may be opened without finding one
winged one; for those are to be found only just before the commencement
of the rainy season, when they undergo the last change, which is
preparative to their colonization. Add to this, they sometimes abandon
an outward part of their building, the community being diminished by
some accident that is unknown; sometimes different species of the real
ant, formica, possess themselves by force of a lodgment, and so are
frequently dislodged from the same nest, and taken for the same kind of
insects. This is often the case with the nests of the smaller species,
which are frequently totally abandoned by the termites, and completely
inhabited by different species of ants, cockroaches, scolopendræ,
scorpions, and other vermin fond of obscure retreats, that occupy
different parts of their roomy buildings.
In the winged state, their size as well as form is altered. Their bodies
in this state measure between six and seven-tenths of an inch in length,
their wings above two inches and an half from tip to tip, and they are
equal in bulk to about thirty labourers, or two soldiers. They are
furnished with two large eyes placed on each side of the head; if they
had any before, they are not easily to be distinguished. In this form
the animal comes abroad during or soon after the first tornado, which at
the latter end of the dry season proclaims the approach of the ensuing
rains, and seldom waits for a second or third shower; if the first, as
is generally the case, happen in the night, and bring much wet after it,
the quantities that are to be found the next morning all over the
surface of the earth, but particularly on the waters, is astonishing;
for their wings are only calculated to carry them a few hours; and after
the rising of the sun, not one in a thousand is to be found with four
wings, unless the morning continues rainy, when here and there a
solitary being is seen winging its way from one place to another, as if
solicitous to avoid its numerous enemies, particularly various species
of ants, which are hunting on every spray, on every leaf, and in every
possible place for this unhappy race, of which probably not one pair in
many millions are preserved to fulfil the first law of nature, and lay
the foundation of a new community. Not only all kinds of ants, and other
insects, but birds, and carnivorous reptiles, are upon the hunt for
them, and the inhabitants of many countries eat them.