Some catch insects by running after them, and others by leaping on them,
while those which spin webs are also very dissimilar in their habits and in
their abodes. The brown HOUSE-SPIDERS spin webs in any room left
undisturbed long enough to allow them to construct them. On the other hand,
the ORB-SPINNERS, or GARDEN-SPIDERS, construct elaborate webs out of doors.
One of the most beautiful of these is the DIADEM-SPIDER, which is nearly an
inch long, and of a green or reddish colour, with a white cross bordered
with black on the back. The web is very regularly constructed, the
principal threads radiating in all directions from a common centre, where
the spider generally sits in fine weather, ready to rush out upon any
insect which may become entangled in the web.
The GOSSAMER-SPIDERS spin light webs, which are easily carried up into the
air, and upon which the spiders are borne from one place to another.
Sometimes on an autumn morning the air may be seen to be full of these
floating webs, which also cover the grass and bushes where they have
settled. The WATER-SPIDERS, again, construct a habitation of water-tight
silk under water, like a diving-bell, and inflate it by carrying down
bubbles of air from the surface, entangled in the hairs of the body.
The nesting-habits of many spiders are very curious. The eggs are usually
laid in a silken case, and the RUNNING-SPIDERS may often be seen with the
egg-cases attached to the end of the body, as in the female cockroach.
The males of many spiders are much smaller than the females, and are very
liable to be devoured by their partners.
[Illustration: _Photo by B. H. Bentley_] [_Sheffield._
GARDEN-SPIDER IN WEB.
A beautiful example of the structure of the web.]
Among the most curious of the group are the SPINY SPIDERS, strange, horny,
semicircular creatures, studded with strong spines. They are allied to the
Garden-spiders, but confined to the tropics.
The SPOTTED SPIDER is a very beautiful species, often seen among cases of
mixed insects, etc., sent from India, It is black, with brown abdomen and
numerous yellow spots, and about 1½ inch long; the body is much longer than
broad, and the legs are about twice as long as the body.
Attempts have been made to turn spider-silk to commercial purposes, but the
great difficulty is that spiders are so voracious and cannibalistic in
their propensities that they cannot be kept in captivity, for they will
kill and eat each other as long as there are any left, to the very last
spider. The silk of some of the large tropical spiders is sometimes strong
enough to cause a man much annoyance when riding through the woods,
striking up against his face, and sometimes knocking off his hat.
[Illustration: _Photo by Highley._
SPANISH TARANTULA.
So called because the bite of an Italian species was supposed to produce a
fit of melancholia, which could only be cured by the tune known as the
"tarentella."]
The last section includes the MITES and TICKS, most of which are small or
microscopic. The whole body forms one round or oval mass, with scattered
hairs, and eight legs, though most mites have only six legs when young,
while the PLANT-MITES have only four. The largest mites are those called
TICKS. There are one or two small British species which are sometimes
sufficiently troublesome; but in many warm countries they are a far more
serious nuisance, lurking on the herbage, and fixing their proboscis in the
skin of any passing man or animal, and retaining their hold till they are
gorged with blood, and allow themselves to drop off by their own weight.
Among the smaller mites some species are parasitic on warm-blooded animals,
causing itch, mange, and other diseases; while many infest insects,
especially bumble-bees and dung-beetles. These are of considerable size for
mites; and there are other bright scarlet species which are sometimes found
on saw-flies, dragon-flies, etc. Many feed on decaying animal or vegetable
matter, such as the CHEESE-MITE and the SUGAR-MITE, the former being a very
familiar and interesting microscopic object; and others, again, are very
destructive to plants, like the small scarlet mite known in greenhouses as
the RED SPIDER.
Among the plant-feeding mites are the four-legged GALL-MITES, which produce
galls or other excrescences on the plants which they infest.
Mites are probably almost as varied in their forms and habits and as
interesting objects of study as insects or spiders; but the group is
somewhat neglected by naturalists, owing to the small size of most of the
species, and the consequent difficulty of collecting and preserving them.
CENTIPEDES AND MILLIPEDES.
These are creatures with long, worm-like bodies, composed of a number of
rings or segments, each provided with one or two pairs of legs. They have
one pair of antennæ, like insects, but they pass through no metamorphoses,
nor do they moult. Instead of this, they begin their existence, on quitting
the egg, without legs, or with only three pairs of legs, and continue to
add to the number of their segments and legs until they have attained their
full growth. They are called Centipedes, or Hundred-legs, and Millipedes,
or Thousand-legs; but in the majority of species the number of legs is
considerably below 100, though in some few it may exceed 300.
The CENTIPEDES have only one pair of legs attached to each segment of the
body, and are carnivorous, being armed with a pair of strong mandibles,
which are perforated poison-fangs. The British species are all small and
harmless, but the bite of the large tropical centipedes is more painful and
almost as dangerous as that of a snake. Centipedes are long, broad,
flattened creatures, with about twenty-one pairs of legs, and sometimes
measure more than a foot in length. A reddish centipede, belonging to an
allied family, is common in England under stones and in loose mould. It has
long antennæ and fifteen pairs of legs, and feeds chiefly on worms. It is
about an inch long.
[Illustration: _Photo by W. P. Dando, F.Z.S._] [_Regent's Park._
GIANT CENTIPEDE.
Most centipedes have considerably fewer than a hundred legs.]
The ELECTRIC CENTIPEDES are much longer and more slender than the others in
proportion to their length, with rather short antennæ, and short and very
numerous legs. They are of a white or yellow colour, and 2 or 3 inches
long. All are nocturnal in their habits, and feed on decaying animal or
vegetable matter, and are fond of ripe fruit. They emit a pale
phosphorescence, visible in the dark along the track over which they have
crawled.
MILLIPEDES are not venomous, and feed chiefly on soft vegetable matter.
Except the first three behind the head, which are provided with only one
pair each, every segment bears two pairs instead of one pair of legs. The
COMMON SNAKE-MILLIPEDE is about an inch and a half long, and is brown, with
yellow rings and ninety-nine pairs of short white legs. It is nearly as
destructive as the Wire-worms, which it resembles in its habits, and may
often be seen clinging to a partly eaten potato. Millipedes are able to
roll themselves up into a spiral. Many foreign kinds grow to a much larger
size, measuring nearly a foot in length. They are more frequently sent to
Europe from foreign countries than centipedes, probably because they are
sluggish, harmless creatures which do not bite.
The members of one family of millipedes, called PILL-MILLIPEDES, are so
similar to wood-lice in shape and appearance that they might easily be
mistaken for them, and they exhibit the same habit of rolling themselves up
into a ball. One species is not uncommon in England.
[Illustration: Photo by W. P. Dando, F.Z.S.] [_Regent's Park._
GIANT MILLIPEDE.
Shows the absence of jaws, which distinguishes these creatures from the
predatory centipedes.]
A curious genus, generally placed in a distinct class by itself, includes a
few species which may be called SLIMY MILLIPEDES. The species are found in
widely separated parts of the world, chiefly in the most southern regions,
such as South America, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand, though one
or two are known from Ceylon and the West Indies. They resemble slimy
caterpillars, with conspicuous antennæ, and from thirteen to forty pairs of
legs. The body is not distinctly divided into segments, and it exudes a
very viscous slime, which acts like bird-lime in capturing the small
insects which form at least a part of the food of these creatures, but
which will not adhere to their own bodies. These creatures are found among
decaying vegetable matter.
INJURIOUS CREATURES.
We are sometimes inclined to complain of our English climate, but we have
cause to congratulate ourselves that it is far less prolific of noxious
creatures than many others. We have no venomous scorpions or centipedes,
and are not obliged to shake such intruders out of our boots before we can
venture to put them on. Since the country has been so well drained, we are
very little troubled with gnats, which breed in standing water, and are
equally troublesome in cold countries like Lapland, and warm countries like
South America. Nevertheless, several very troublesome creatures, not native
to this country, have taken up their abode with us permanently, and more
care should perhaps be exercised in preventing the possible introduction of
others. Among the most troublesome of our household insects are bugs,
cockroaches, and house-ants, all of which have been introduced from abroad.
Among field- and garden-pests, the American Blight (which destroys our
apple- and pear-trees) and the Hessian Fly are probably invaders from
abroad; but the latter does not seem to have committed great ravages in
this country. Among pests which have not succeeded in establishing
themselves here, but which we should be specially on our guard against, are
the White Ants, which are found as far north as Bordeaux, and are terribly
destructive to woodwork, wherever they are met with; the Gypsy-moth, very
destructive on the Continent and in North America, but extinct as a British
species, perhaps because there is something inimical to its constitution in
our climate; and the Colorado Potato-beetle, which is only kept out of
Europe by incessant vigilance. But apart from actually injurious insects,
it is remarkable how many species which are common everywhere on the
Continent are either absent from Britain, or are only met with in very
restricted localities. Let us hope that we may long enjoy our comparative
immunity from noxious insects in Britain.
----
CHAPTER II.
_INSECTS._
Insects are easily distinguished from the other jointed animals by many
salient characters. They have one pair of antennæ, two large compound eyes,
composed of a great number of facets, and sometimes one, two, or three
simple eyes placed on the crown or front of the head. In its adult
condition an insect is composed of three different parts, which can be most
readily noticed in a wasp. There is the head, with the antennæ and
mouth-parts; the thorax, to which one or two pairs of wings are attached
above, and three pairs of legs below; and the abdomen. Insects breathe
through openings, called "stigmata," in the sides of the thorax and
abdomen. They never possess more than six legs in the perfect state, the
abdominal legs present in caterpillars, etc., disappearing in the adult
condition. They generally pass through what is called a
"metamorphosis,"--four different stages of life, called respectively egg;
larva or caterpillar; pupa, nymph, or chrysalis; and imago, or perfect
insect.
Insects are divided into several large sections, of which the following
seven are the most important, and many entomologists prefer to include all
insects under them:--
Sheath-winged Insects, or Beetles; Straight-winged Insects, or Earwigs,
Cockroaches, Soothsayers, Stick-insects, Crickets, Grasshoppers, and
Locusts; Nerve-winged or Lace-winged Insects, or Dragon-flies and their
relatives; Stinging Four-winged Insects, or Ants, Bees and Wasps, and their
allies; Scale-winged Insects, or Butterflies and Moths; Half-winged
Insects, or Bugs and Frog-hoppers; Two-winged Insects, or Flies.
We proceed to notice these orders separately.
SHEATH-WINGED INSECTS, OR BEETLES.
BY THE REV. THEODORE WOOD, F.E.S.
Beetles are distinguished from most other insects by the fact that the
front wings are not employed in flight, but are modified into horny
sheaths, which cover and protect the lower pair while not in use. This
arrangement, however, is also found in the Earwigs as well as in the
so-called "Black-beetle" and its allies, and it is to be noted that the
wing-cases of beetles lie evenly side by side together when the wings are
folded, while the folding of the wings themselves is transverse as well as
longitudinal. The number of species is very great, upwards of 100,000
having already been described, of which about 3,400 have been taken in the
British Islands.
The order is again divided into several smaller groups, first among which
stand the predaceous beetles of the land. Of these the common English
TIGER-BEETLE is a familiar example. It is found on sandy and peaty heaths,
and may be known at once by its bright green wing-cases, marked with white
spots, and the metallic blue of the abdomen. The legs are coppery. It flies
with great swiftness in the hot sunshine, taking to wing as readily as a
blue-bottle fly, and feeds entirely upon other insects.
Another representative of the group is rich golden green in colour, with
coppery reflections. It is only an occasional visitor to Britain, but
abounds in France and Germany, where it feeds upon the caterpillars of the
famous Processionary Moth, and is largely instrumental in checking their
ravages in the great oak forests.
[Illustration: _Photo by W. P. Dando, F.Z.S., Regent's Park._
TIGER-BEETLE.
The colouring of this insect is bright green with white markings and
coppery legs.]
Familiar to almost all is the PURPLE GROUND-BEETLE, so plentiful in
gardens, and easily recognisable by the violet margin to the black
wing-cases. It pours out an evil-smelling liquid from the end of the body
when handled.
The curious red-and-blue BOMBARDIER, which, when interfered with,
discharges a little puff of bluish-white smoke from the tip of the abdomen,
accompanied by a distinct report, is also a member of this group. It is
found under stones on river-banks, and also on the coast.
Next come the predaceous beetles of the water, of which we have a
well-known British representative in the GREAT BROWN WATER-BEETLE. This
insect, which is plentiful in weedy ponds, swims by means of its hind
limbs, which are modified into broad, flat oars, with a mechanical
arrangement for "feathering" as they are drawn back after making each
stroke. It flies by night, often travelling for a long distance from one
pond to another, and regains the water by suddenly folding its wings and
allowing itself to fall from a height. In the female insect the wing-cases
are grooved for about two-thirds of their length.
[Illustration: _Photo by W. P. Dando, F.Z.S., Regent's Park._
GROUND-BEETLE.
The beetles of this group are generally of a black or bronzy colour, some
species being beautifully metallic.]
[Illustration: _Photo by W. P. Dando, F.Z.S., Regent's Park._
GREAT BROWN WATER-BEETLE (MALE).
A large olive-brown species, about an inch in length, and nearly half as
broad. The wing-cases of the female are grooved.]
This beetle must not be confounded with the still larger BLACK
WATER-BEETLE, which belongs to another group. This fine insect, which is
not predaceous in the perfect state, is locally plentiful in ditches, and
is in great request as an inmate of the freshwater aquarium. The hind limbs
are not modified for swimming purposes.
Next in order come the COCKTAILS, so called from their curious habit of
turning up the end of the body when alarmed. To this group belong most of
the tiny "flies" which cause such severe pain when they find their way into
the eyes. Some species, however, attain to a considerable size, the
well-known DEVIL'S COACH-HORSE being fully an inch in length. The great
majority are scavengers, being found in carrion, manure, and decaying
vegetable matter. A few, however, are lodgers in the nests of ants, by whom
they appear to be regarded as pets and treated with the utmost kindness.
[Illustration: _Photo by W. P. Dando, F.Z.S., Regent's Park._
BLACK WATER-BEETLE.
A shining black species, longer, narrower, and more convex than the Great
Brown Water-beetle.]
The next group includes the curious insects popularly known as
BURYING-BEETLES, which inter the bodies of small animals in the ground,
scooping out the earth from underneath them by means of their broad and
powerful heads, and shovelling it back when the carcases have sunk to a
sufficient depth. The eggs are laid in the carrion thus buried. Most of
these beetles are distinguished by broad blotches or bars of orange on the
wing-cases, but one common British species is entirely black.
Allied to these, and very similar in habits, are the FLAT BURYING-BEETLES,
of which there are about a dozen British species. In the best known of
these the thorax is dull red in colour, and the black wing-cases are
curiously wrinkled. Another species is reddish yellow in colour, with two
round black spots on each wing-case. It is found on oak-trees, and feeds
upon caterpillars.
The LEAF-HORNED BEETLES are distinguished by the fact that the terminal
joints of the antennæ lie one upon another like the leaves of a book. In
many cases they can be expanded at will into a broad fan-like club. The
well-known STAG-BEETLE of Great Britain is a representative of this group.
It is a somewhat local species, being plentiful in some parts of the
country, and entirely unknown in others. The grub lives for several years
in the trunks of elm-trees, feeding upon the solid wood. When fully grown,
it buries itself in the earth, and constructs a large cocoon, in which it
passes the chrysalis stage of its existence. The perfect beetle emerges in
November, but remains within the cocoon until the following June. In the
female the jaws are very much smaller than in the male, but are
nevertheless more formidable as weapons. The insect may often be seen
flying on warm summer evenings.
[Illustration: _Photos by W. P. Dando, F.Z.S._] [_Regent's Park._
TWO BURYING-BEETLES.
These insects are about an inch in length; many are black, but others have
orange-red bands on the wing-cases.]
A still larger insect belonging to the same group is the HERCULES BEETLE,
found in the West Indies and tropical America, a male of average size being
nearly 5 inches in length. In this beetle the thorax is prolonged into a
horn, which is curved downwards, while the head is produced into a similar
horn curved upwards, so that the two look like a pair of enormous jaws. It
has been stated that these horns, both of which are furnished with
tooth-like projections, are employed in sawing off the smaller branches of
trees, the beetle grasping a bough firmly, and flying round and round in a
circle, till the wood is completely cut through. This assertion, however,
is totally unworthy of credit. An example of the beetle--evidently
imported--was recently found crawling on a hedge near Biggleswade.
One of the largest of all known beetles is DRURY'S GOLIATH BEETLE, a native
of the Gaboon, whose body is almost as big as the closed fist of a man. It
appears to feed, while a grub, on the wood of decaying trees, and undergoes
its transformation to the chrysalis state in an earthen cocoon, the
peculiarity of which is that a thick belt, or ridge, runs round the middle.
How this belt is formed is a mystery, as it lies upon the outside, while
the grub necessarily constructs the cocoon from the inside. Several living
examples of this beetle were exhibited in the summer of 1898 in the
Insect-house of the Zoological Gardens in the Regent's Park, where they
remained for five or six weeks, feeding on the flesh of melons. A
photograph of this beetle will be found in the Coloured Plate.
The common COCKCHAFER belongs to another division of the same group. This
insect is extremely injurious, as the grub lives for three years or more
underground, feeding on the roots of various cultivated plants. The perfect
beetle appears in May and June, and is only too plentiful almost
everywhere. A month or so later its place is taken by the SUMMER CHAFER, or
JUNE BUG, which may often be seen flying in hundreds round the tops of low
trees soon after sunset, while the smaller COCH-Y-BONDDHU--the
"Cockerbundy" of the angler--often appears about the same time in hundreds
of thousands. The beautiful ROSE-BEETLE, too, with its bright golden-green
wing-cases marked with wavy whitish lines, may often be seen sunning itself
in roses or on the blossoms of pinks.
[Illustration: _Photo by W. P. Dando, F.Z.S._] [_Regent's Park._
MALE STAG-BEETLE.
The males are often 2 inches long; the females have comparatively small
jaws.]
[Illustration: _Photo by W. P. Dando, F.Z.S., Regent's Park._
SKIPJACK BEETLE.
The larvæ of this family are known as Wire-worms.]
[Illustration: _Photo by L. H. Joutel_] [_New York._
HERCULES BEETLE FLYING.
The most remarkable feature about this insect is its huge horn-like
projection from the thorax, which is nearly as long as the rest of its
body.]
The famous EGYPTIAN SCARABÆUS is also a member of this group. It is
remarkable not only for the sacred character attributed to it by the
ancient Egyptians, but also for its curious habit of rolling along balls of
dung until it can find a soft spot in which to bury them. When the egg
hatches, the grub feeds upon the dung, the quantity provided being exactly
sufficient for its requirements. The common DOR BEETLE of Great Britain is
allied to this insect; it tunnels down to a depth of 14 or 15 inches
beneath a patch of excrement, and lays its egg at the bottom of the burrow.
The SKIPJACK BEETLES, parents of the well-known Wire- worms, which cause so
much mischief by feeding upon the roots of cultivated crops, represent
another group. These beetles owe their popular title to their singular
method of regaining their feet when they happen to roll over upon their
backs. Their bodies being very smooth and polished, and their legs very
short, they cannot recover their footing in the ordinary manner. On the
lower part of the body, however, is a highly elastic spine, known as the
"mucro," which lies in a sheath. When the beetle falls over, it arches its
body into the form of a bow, resting only upon the head and the extreme tip
of the abdomen, removes the spine from its sheath, and then drives it
sharply back again. The result is that the central part of the body strikes
the ground with such force that the insect springs into the air to a height
of 2 or 3 inches. Then, turning half over as it falls, it alights on its
feet.
[Illustration: _Photo by B. H. Bentley_] [_Sheffield._
COCKCHAFER ON DAISY.
A very destructive insect which feeds on the leaves of trees. The larva
devours the roots of plants, and is often so plentiful as to cause very
serious mischief.]
The FIRE-FLY of the tropics belongs to the same group. The luminosity of
this insect proceeds from two different parts of the body, a brilliant
yellowish-green light shining out through two transparent window-like spots
on the thorax, while an orange glow is visible on the lower surface of the
abdomen. The exact cause of the light is unknown, as is also the manner of
its control by the insect.
The same may be said of the common English GLOWWORM, in which the light
proceeds from the lower surface of the hind part of the body. The male of
this insect is winged; the female is grub-like in appearance and wingless.
The grub itself, which may be found in autumn, is also luminous, and feeds
upon snails.
Another group includes a very large number of beetles of very varying
character and appearance. Among these are the OIL-BEETLES, so called from
their habit of exuding small drops of an oily liquid from the joints of
their limbs when handled. The eggs are laid in batches of several thousand
in holes in the ground, and the little long-legged grubs, on emerging,
clamber up the stems of flowers, and hide themselves among the petals to
await the coming of a bee. When one of the latter appears, two or three of
the grubs cling to its hairy body, and are carried back to the nest, in
which they live as parasites. One of these beetles may be seen commonly
upon grassy banks in early spring.
Allied to these insects is the BLISTER-BEETLE, or SPANISH FLY, so well
known from its use in medicine. It is a very handsome species, of a bright
golden-green colour, occasionally found in Great Britain on the foliage of
ash-trees. In many parts of Southern Europe it is extremely abundant.
The beetles belonging to the large and important group of WEEVILS are
characterised, as a rule, by the fact that the head is prolonged into a
more or less long and slender snout, or "rostrum," at the end of which the
jaws are situated. The number of species already known is above 20,000.
[Illustration: _Photo by L. H. Joutel_] [_New York._
HARLEQUIN BEETLE.
Notice the enormous length of the front legs.]
One of the largest and most famous of these insects is the DIAMOND-BEETLE
of Brazil, the scales from whose wing-cases are so frequently mounted as
microscopic objects. When viewed through a good instrument under a powerful
light, the beauty of these scales is simply indescribable. All that one can
say of them is that they seem to be composed of diamonds, rubies, topazes,
and emeralds massed together in rich profusion, while diamonds are
transformed into rubies, rubies into topazes, and topazes into emeralds at
every change of light.
The OSIER-WEEVIL, a black-and-white species about three-eighths of an inch
long, is found on osiers in Great Britain, the grub boring galleries in the
stems, and often causing considerable damage. The well-known CORN-WEEVIL is
still more destructive in granaries, the walls of which are often
completely blackened by its crawling multitudes. The grub lives inside the
grain, eating out the whole of the interior, and a single pair of the
weevils are said to be capable of producing a family of more than 6,000
individuals in the course of a single season. The RICE-WEEVIL is equally
destructive to rice, and may be recognised by the two red spots on each
wing-case.
The famous "GRU-GRU" of the West Indies, which is regarded as so great a
dainty both by the negroes and by many of the white colonists, is the grub
of the PALM-WEEVIL. It lives in the stems of palm-trees, and also in those
of sugar-canes, causing a great deal of mischief by its burrowings. When
fully fed, it constructs a cocoon by tearing off strips of bark and weaving
them neatly together. The SUGAR-WEEVIL is still more troublesome, feeding
upon the juice of the sugar-cane, and affecting the entire plant in such a
manner that sugar can no longer be manufactured from it.
"Bad" nuts are also due to one of these insects, the common NUT-WEEVIL.
which introduces its egg into the kernel during the earlier stages of its
development. When the grub hatches, it proceeds to devour the kernel,
leaving a quantity of bad-flavoured "frass" behind it, while the shell is
left untouched until the perfect insect emerges. An allied species attacks
acorns in a similar manner.
[Illustration: _Photo by J. Edwards_] [_Colesborne._
JUMPING-BEETLE. ALLIED TO THE TURNIP-FLEA.
It is about one-tenth of an inch in length.]
Among the finest and largest of all beetles are many of those belonging to
the great Long-horn group, of which the common BRITISH MUSK-BEETLE is a
familiar example. This insect owes both its popular and scientific titles
to its powerful odour, which perhaps resembles that of sweetbriar rather
than musk, and can often be detected at a distance of twenty or thirty
yards. The beetle, which is rich metallic green in colour, with long,
slender antennæ, may be found in July sunning itself on the trunks or
foliage of willow-trees. It varies considerably in size.
Still more plentiful is the WASP-BEETLE, with its black wing-cases banded
with bright yellow. While flying, it may easily be mistaken for the insect
whose name it bears. The grub lives in old posts, rails, hop-poles, etc.,
feeding upon the solid wood.
The TIMBERMAN is remarkable for the extreme length of the antennæ, which,
in the male insect, are three or four times as long as the body, and trail
out far behind it during flight. It is found, not uncommonly, in fir woods
in Scotland.
The beautiful HARLEQUIN BEETLE of tropical America is one of the largest
members of the group, and is remarkable for the great length of the front
legs as well as for the singular colouring of the wing-cases. It lives
almost entirely in the trees, swinging itself from branch to branch
somewhat after the manner of a spider-monkey. When it ventures into the
air, it is greatly incommoded by the size of its limbs and the length of
its antennæ, and seems to have but little power of directing its course.
[Illustration: _Photo by J. Edwards, Colesborne._
REED-BEETLE.
Among the group to which this insect belongs are many of the most
brilliantly coloured British beetles.]
Another great group of beetles is that of the PLANT-EATERS, many of which
are exceedingly beautiful. The REED-BEETLES of Britain, for example, are
resplendent in crimson and green and purple and blue, while the metallic
radiance of others has gained for them the title of GOLDEN APPLES.
The notorious COLORADO BEETLE is a member of this group. It may be
recognised at once by the five black streaks running down each of the
yellow wing-cases. On the havoc which it causes among potato-plants in
North America it is unnecessary to dilate. On a smaller scale, the
TURNIP-FLEA is very mischievous in Britain, perforating the leaves of
turnip-plants, or--worse still--eating off the seed-leaves as soon as they
appear above the surface of the ground. Of only too many of these exquisite
beetles, in fact, it must be said that their beauty is only equalled by
their destructiveness.
The LADYBIRDS include a very large number of species. Some of these, such
as the common TWO-SPOT LADYBIRD, are exceedingly variable, a long series
being easily obtained in which no two specimens resemble one another. Both
as grubs and as perfect insects they feed upon the "Green Fly" of the
farmer, combining with the grubs of the Lace-wing and Hoverer Flies to keep
its numbers within due limits.
Almost equally common is the SEVEN-SPOT LADYBIRD, a considerably larger
insect, with seven round black spots on its scarlet wing-cases, which may
be seen on almost any grassy bank in spring. Both this and the preceding
species sometimes visit the Kentish coast in vast swarms, the beach being
reddened by their bodies for miles. The last immigration of this
description took place in 1886, in the summer of which year the hops in
East Kent were almost destroyed by blight, and the ladybirds made their way
at once to the hop-fields and cleared them of the pest in a wonderfully
short space of time. A much smaller species, known as the TWENTY-TWO SPOT,
is yellow in colour and has eleven black spots on each wing-case. It is
generally found crawling about on nettle-leaves in the early part of the
summer.
Allied to the Ladybirds are the very curious TORTOISE-BEETLES. In these
insects the wing-cases project to a considerable distance beyond the sides
of the body, and the legs are so short that only the feet can be seen from
above, so that the appearance is very much like that of a tortoise with the
limbs partly withdrawn into the shell. Many different species are known, in
some of which the wing-cases are streaked with brilliant metallic silver,
which, however, fades away very shortly after death. The commonest of the
British tortoise-beetles is found on thistles.
[Illustration: _Photo by W. P. Dando, F.Z.S._] [_Regent's Park._
MUSK-BEETLE.
The odour of this beetle may often be detected at a distance of twenty or
thirty yards.]
Another very large group of beetles is represented by the CELLAR-BEETLE,
which is generally very common in old houses. This insect must not be
confused with the so-called "Black-beetle," from which it may easily be
distinguished by its deep black colour, its very much shorter feelers, and
the curious point into which the end of its body is produced. It hides away
in dark corners by day, and crawls slowly about by night. Related to it is
the MEAL-WORM, so much in request for the food of cage-birds, which is
usually very plentiful in granaries.
Very different, in appearance, yet belonging to the same group, is the
handsome CARDINAL BEETLE, a bright scarlet insect which is not uncommon in
summer. It may sometimes be found lurking behind pieces of loose bark, and
is also fond of resting upon the flowers of umbelliferous plants in the hot
sunshine. A second species, which is not nearly so plentiful, may be
distinguished by the fact that the head is entirely black.
Still more curious is the RHIPIPHORUS BEETLE, which is parasitic within the
nests of wasps. Where the egg is laid, or how the grub first finds its way
into the nest, no one has yet succeeded in discovering; but having made its
entry, the insect proceeds to burrow into the body of a wasp-grub, and
lives within it for several days, feeding upon its flesh meanwhile. After
increasing considerably in size, it creeps out of the carcase of its victim
and changes its skin, after which it resumes its interrupted meal, and
continues to feed until the last vestige of the wasp-grub has been
devoured. It then changes to a chrysalis in the cell, and the perfect
insect appears a few days later. Oddly enough, the wasps appear to take no
notice of its presence, and never attempt to molest it. The two sexes of
this beetle are quite unlike one another, the male having the wing-cases
yellow and the feelers heavily plumed, while the female is black, with the
feelers only slightly toothed.
Most singular of all the insects belonging to this order, however, is the
strange little STALK-EYED BEETLE, which spends the greater part of its life
half buried in the body of a bee. In this insect the feelers are branched,
somewhat like the antennules, or lesser feelers, of a lobster, and the
eyes, which are comparatively few in number, are set at the ends of short
foot-stalks. The male has very narrow wing-cases, but extremely large
wings, which have a milky appearance during flight that can hardly be
mistaken. The female has no wings at all, and in general aspect is nothing
more than a grub. In early spring a great number of solitary bees are
infested by this extraordinary parasite, which burrows into their bodies
under cover of the projecting edges of the segments, and there remains
feeding upon their internal juices for several weeks, with only just the
tip of its tail protruding. When fully fed, it emerges from the body of its
involuntary host, leaving a large round hole behind it, which frequently
closes up and heals. In any case, strange to say, the ravages of the
parasite appear to have but little effect upon the health of the bee.
STRAIGHT-WINGED INSECTS, OR EARWIGS, COCKROACHES, SOOTHSAYERS,
STICK-INSECTS, CRICKETS, GRASSHOPPERS, AND LOCUSTS.
BY W. F. KIRBY, F.L.S.
The insects of this order are less numerous in species than those of any
other but the next, and are easily recognised. The fore wings are usually
of a leathery consistency, and the hind wings are folded beneath them like
a fan in the more typical families, though in the Earwigs and Cockroaches a
somewhat different arrangement prevails. In the Earwigs, indeed, the wings
are doubled back at the ends, and in the Cockroaches the wing-cases, or
"tegmina," as they are technically called, overlap. As a rule these insects
feed entirely on vegetable substances. The "Soothsayers" form an exception,
being carnivorous, though they are not parasitic, like the Ichneumon-flies,
but feed on fresh food; and several species of Earwigs, Cockroaches, and
Crickets, especially those which are semi-domesticated, are omnivorous, and
will eat animal as well as vegetable food. These insects have an imperfect
metamorphosis--that is, there is no inactive pupa-state; but, the young, on
emerging from the egg, already possess a recognisable resemblance to their
full-grown parents, and their metamorphosis consists of a series of moults,
before the last of which rudimentary wings appear in those species which
ultimately acquire these appendages. A considerable number of species never
have wings, a circumstance which frequently renders it difficult to
determine whether a specimen is fully developed. The antennæ are usually
long, and the joints distinctly separated, but are very rarely feathered.
At the other end of the body we often find two long jointed organs, called
"cerci." The jaws are always furnished with strong mandibles. Many
Grasshoppers and Locusts have a curious arrangement on the shank of the
front leg, consisting either of a round or an oval cavity on each side,
closed by a membrane, or of two long parallel slits in front. These are
considered to be organs of hearing. The largest known insects belong to
this order; the proportion of large or moderate-sized species is
considerable; and the smallest are probably considerably larger than the
smallest members of any other group. They are not numerous in temperate
climates; there are only about fifty British species, and most of the
larger of these are either naturalised species, or merely casual visitors
from abroad.
[Illustration: _Photo by W. P. Dando, F.Z.S., Regent's Park._
EARWIG. The forceps-like appendage at the end of this insect's body is said
to be used for folding and unfolding the wings.]
[Illustration: _Photo by W. P. Dando, F.Z.S._] [_Regent's Park._
AMERICAN COCKROACH.
Common in many warehouses in England, and now found in most parts of the
world.]
The EARWIGS form the first family. Some are wingless, but most have very
short wing-cases, under which very large wings, forming the most beautiful
feature of these otherwise unattractive insects, are doubled and folded
into a very small compass. Some of the smaller species fly readily; but
others, such as the COMMON EARWIG, though furnished with ample wings, are
rarely seen to use them. The most conspicuous organ of the earwigs is the
curious forceps at the extremity of the body, the use of which does not
seem to be well made out, though it has been suggested that it is used for
folding and unfolding the wings. The forceps differs very much in size and
shape in different species; it is always larger in the male than in the
female, and often differently shaped. In the common earwig the male forceps
is flattened and contiguous at the base, and rounded and incurved at the
extremity. There are two varieties, in one of which the forceps is twice as
long as in the other; but intermediate gradations do not seem to be met
with. In the female the forceps is narrow, nearly straight, and
approximating. The earwig is a nocturnal insect, and hides itself during
the day in large-headed flowers, like dahlias, to which it is very
destructive, or in any convenient dark and narrow crevice, especially among
decaying vegetable matter. It derives its name from its occasionally
entering the human ear, but it may be easily driven out by dropping in a
little olive oil. In most books it is denied that earwigs enter the ear at
all, but it is, nevertheless, an undoubted fact; and the fanciful
derivation that has been suggested of _earwing_ in the place of _earwig_
cannot be entertained respecting an insect which seldom shows its wings at
all. It should be noted that the female earwig is said to tend her young
very much as a hen tends her chickens--an uncommon habit in insects.
[Illustration: _Photo by Highley._
STICK-INSECT.
The largest insect known is a species of stick-insect; it is a native of
Borneo, and measures 13 inches.]
[Illustration: _Photo by Scholastic Photo Co._] [_Parson's Green._
WALKING LEAF-INSECTS.
Natives of the East Indies, and remarkable for their resemblance to green
leaves.]
The COMMON COCKROACH is too well known to need description. The individuals
with half-developed wings are the perfect females; but there are other
species in which the wings are fully developed in both sexes, others in
which the male is winged and the female wingless, and others again in which
both sexes are wingless. In warm countries and on ship-board cockroaches
are far more troublesome than in cold climes; and the large brown ones,
with a mark on the back of the thorax resembling a crown, and very broad
wing-cases and wings, are called DRUMMERS in the West Indies, from the loud
noise they keep up during the night.
Lady Burton has given an amusing account of her introduction to cockroaches
abroad: "After two days we were given a very pleasant suite of
rooms--bedroom, dining- and drawing-room--with wide windows overlooking the
Tagus and a great part of Lisbon. These quarters were, however, not without
drawbacks, for here occurred an incident which gave me a foretaste of the
sort of thing I was to expect in Brazil. Our bedroom was a large
whitewashed place; there were three holes in the wall, one at the bedside
bristling with horns, and these were cockroaches some three inches long.
The drawing-room was gorgeous with yellow satin, and the magnificent yellow
curtains were sprinkled with these crawling things. The consequence was
that I used to stand on a chair and scream. This annoyed Richard very much.
'A nice sort of traveller and companion _you_ are going to make,' he said;
'I suppose you think you look very pretty and interesting standing on that
chair and howling at those innocent creatures.' This hurt me so much that,
without descending from the chair, I stopped screaming, and made a
meditation like St. Simon Stylites on his pillar; and it was, 'That if I
was going to live in a country always in contact with these and worse
things, though I had a perfect horror of anything black and crawling, it
would never do to go on like that.' So I got down, fetched a basin of water
and a slipper, and in two hours by the watch I had knocked ninety-seven of
them into it. It cured me. From that day I had no more fear of vermin and
reptiles, which is just as well in a country where Nature is
over-luxuriant. A little while after we changed our rooms we were succeeded
by Lord and Lady Lytton, and, to my infinite delight, I heard the same
screams coming from the same room a little while after. 'There,' I said in
triumph, 'you see I am not the _only_ woman who does not like
cockroaches.'"
[Illustration: _Photo by W. P. Dando, F.Z.S., Regent's Park._
HOUSE-CRICKET.
Very similar in its habits to the cockroach.]
The dimensions of the insects are not so much exaggerated; for I believe
this story refers to the large reddish American cockroach, which is common
in many English cities, although only in warehouses. It does not usually
much exceed an inch in length; but the antennæ are very long, and the
wing-cases expand nearly 3 inches. (See photograph on page 689.)
[Illustration: _Photo by W. P. Dando, F.Z.S., Regent's Park._
MOLE-CRICKET.
A brown insect about 2 inches long. The very broad and flat front legs are
used for burrowing.]
The SOOTHSAYERS, or PRAYING-INSECTS, are not British, though one or two
species are found in the south of Europe. They have long fore legs, the
shanks of which are set with a double row of long, curving, sabre-like
spines, and when at rest they hold them up as if in the attitude of prayer;
but they are really on the look-out for prey, and the long spines are
admirably adapted for wounding or grasping the insects which form their
food. They also fight fiercely among themselves, and it is no uncommon
occurrence for a female to tear to pieces and devour her mate, either
during or after their courtship. The soothsayers are often of a green
colour, so as to match the grass and leaves among which they live, and thus
conceal them from their prey.
The STICK-INSECTS. or SPECTRE-INSECTS, have some resemblance to the
Soothsayers, but are exclusively vegetable-feeders, and have long,
sprawling legs, or shorter ones, sometimes more or less lobate; but they
never possess prehensile fore legs for seizing prey. The wing-cases are
generally quite small; but some species have beautiful large green or pink
wings, folded fan-wise, and covered by the stout front border of the wing.
Many species are wingless, and of a grey or brown colour, which renders
them scarcely distinguishable from dry bits of stick; and among these is
the largest living insect known, a grey stick-like species from Borneo,
measuring nearly 13 inches from head to tail. Other species have curious
excrescences on the legs and body, which make them look like bits of wood
overgrown with moss or lichen; while others possess large flat lobes
growing from the legs and body, which cause them to be almost
indistinguishable from green leaves; and, indeed, these insects are
frequently called "Walking Leaves."
[Illustration: _Photo by L. H. Joutel_] [_New York._
LONG-HORNED GRASSHOPPER.
This insect belongs to the same family as the well-known British species.
The specimen from which this photograph was taken had unfortunately (as is
often the case) broken antennæ; they should be twice as long as the wings.]
With the CRICKETS we commence the last three families of the group, which
are distinguished from the others by their power of leaping. The hind legs
are very long, with very thick thighs, and generally a double row of strong
teeth or spines on the shanks. The feet are generally three-jointed, and
there is usually a long ovipositor in the females. There are very few true
crickets in England, but three of these are very conspicuous species. The
first is the MOLE-CRICKET, a large light brown insect nearly 2 inches long,
with broad, short front legs rather like those of a mole, which it uses in
a similar way. Though common and destructive in fields and gardens, it is
not often seen: but if water be thrown on the ground overnight, and a board
laid over it, one or two mole-crickets are likely to be found underneath in
the morning. The HOUSE-CRICKET resembles this insect in colour, but is not
much more than half an inch long, and there is nothing remarkable in the
structure of its legs. It is almost the only noisy insect found in English
houses, and is very similar to the common cockroach in its habits, although
free from the disagreeable smell which adds to the disgust the latter
insect often inspires. The third species, the FIELD-CRICKET, is a smooth
black insect, larger and stouter than the house-cricket. It constructs
burrows in grassy places, but is not now a very common species in England.
In the last two species, and many others, there is a bare space on one of
the wing-cases of the male, crossed by ribs in a manner varying according
to the species, which helps to produce the loud chirping for which these
insects are remarkable.
[Illustration: _Photo by J. Edwards_] [_Colesborne._
CAPE GRASSHOPPER (FEMALE).
This insect, which is remarkable for the inflated bladder-like appearance
of the male, is an object of superstition among the Boers. Colour, bright
apple-green with white stripes.]
The LONG-HORNED GRASSHOPPERS, which form the next family, are distinguished
by having four joints to their feet, a long ovipositor in the female, and
very long, slender antennæ. The commonest species inhabiting England, and
one of the largest grasshoppers, is the GREAT GREEN GRASSHOPPER, which is
found leaping about among long grass and low bushes, especially in the
south of England. It is about 2 inches in length. Among the foreign species
of this rather extensive family, we may mention some green or reddish South
American species, with a large round spot on the hind wings, not unlike
those seen in the peacock-butterfly.
[Illustration: _Photo by Highley._
EGYPTIAN LOCUST.
A common North African species, of which specimens occasionally visit
England.]
[Illustration: _Photo by Highley._
EGYPTIAN LOCUST.
This figure shows the upper surface of the specimen represented in the
preceding photograph.]
[Illustration]
[Illustration: _Photos by W. L. H. Duckworth_] [_Cambridge._
WART-EATING GRASSHOPPER (TWO VIEWS).
Used by Swedish peasants to bite off their warts.]
The last family includes the SHORT-HORNED GRASSHOPPERS, or TRUE LOCUSTS, so
very destructive in many countries, though the real MIGRATORY LOCUSTS are
only casual visitors to England, the native British species being all small
insects, found among grass, and doing but little damage. The commonest of
the Migratory Locusts visiting Britain is the RED-LEGGED LOCUST, which
expands from 2 to 4 inches, and has grey wing-cases varied with brown, pale
green hind wings, and red hind shanks, with white black-tipped spines.
Another species, the EGYPTIAN LOCUST, more rarely met with, has brown fore
wings, and grey hind wings, crossed by a broad blackish band. Two
photographs are given on page 693 of a specimen brought to England among
vegetables in the spring of 1901. Many foreign locusts, large and small,
have beautiful red or blue hind wings, and some of these are common on the
Continent, though not in England; those found in Europe are comparatively
small, measuring only 1 or 2 inches across the wing-cases; but some of the
great South American locusts measure as much as 7 or 8 inches in expanse.
However, some of the smaller species, such as the CYPRIAN LOCUST and the
ROCKY MOUNTAIN LOCUST, which measure less than 2 inches across the
wing-cases, are much more destructive than the large species.
A real invasion of locusts is a terrible calamity, for the insects fly like
birds, but in vast flocks, and devour every scrap of vegetation where they
settle. Sometimes a flight, two or three miles broad, continues to fly
steadily over the same spot for hours together. Sometimes flocks perish at
sea, and are cast up on the beach in heaps like sand-hills, extending for a
distance of forty or fifty miles. Nor are the young locusts less
destructive before they acquire wings; for they march across a district in
such numbers as to extinguish fires, fill up trenches, and overcome all
similar obstacles placed in their way by sheer force of numbers; and it is
well said of a visitation of locusts, "The land is as the Garden of Eden
before them, and behind is a desolate wilderness."
NERVE-WINGED OR LACE-WINGED INSECTS, OR DRAGON-FLIES AND THEIR RELATIVES.
BY THE REV. THEODORE WOOD, F.E.S.
The Nerve-winged Insects owe their title to the peculiar character of their
wings, the horny veins which form the framework of those organs being
multiplied and sub-divided to such an extent that they assume the
appearance of exceedingly delicate network.
These insects fall naturally into two great groups, in one of which the
chrysalis, or pupa, is active, and continues to take food like the grub,
while in the other it is passive and helpless, like that of a butterfly or
a moth.
Prominent among the members of the first division are the Dragon-flies,
which owe their title partly to their extreme voracity, and partly to the
fact that they feed entirely upon living insects, which they pursue through
the air. They are exceedingly swift of wing, and may be seen hawking over
ponds and streams on any fine day throughout the summer and early autumn.
The earlier part of their lives is spent in the water, in which the eggs
are laid by the parent insect. The grubs are usually of a dull grey or
brownish-green colour, and are remarkable for a curious organ known as the
"mask," which partly covers the lower surface of the head. This apparatus
consists of two joints, which fold upon one another, but can be extended at
will, the one farthest from the head terminating in a pair of large and
powerful jaws. When the grub perceives an insect-victim, it swims
cautiously beneath, and seizes it by means of these jaws. The "mask" is
then folded, and the prisoner drawn down within reach of the mandibles, by
means of which it is speedily devoured.
[Illustration: _Photo by W. P. Dando, F.Z.S._] [_Regent's Park._
DRAGON-FLY.
These insects are often known as "Horse-stingers," although they do not
sting horses; in fact, they are perfectly harmless, except to insects
smaller and weaker than themselves.]
The method of swimming practised by the dragon-fly grub is also very
curious. Through the centre of the body runs a longitudinal tube,
terminating in a circular orifice, closed by means of five tightly fitting
valves. These valves, which together form a sharp spike when closed, can be
separated at will. When the insect wishes to swim, it fills the tube with
water, and then squirts the contents forcibly out, the result being that it
is driven swiftly forwards by the reaction.
The pupa of the dragon-fly is very much like the grub, with the exception
that the rudiments of the future wings may be seen on the back.
About forty species of these insects are found in the British Islands, of
which the GREAT DRAGON-FLY is a well-known example. The body is 3 inches in
length, while the extended wings measure about 4 inches from tip to tip. In
colour it is light rusty brown, with a few pale markings. The
"HORSE-STINGER"--which is perfectly harmless, notwithstanding its popular
title--is also common, and may be recognised at once by its flat dull
yellow body, which becomes blue in the fully developed male. In the
graceful and beautiful DEMOISELLE the male is deep blue, with black patches
on the wings, while the female is entirely green.
Allied to these insects is the COMMON MAY-FLY, popularly supposed to live
for one day only. As a matter of fact, however, it spends a couple of years
in the grub and pupa states, inhabiting burrows in the banks of ponds and
streams. These burrows are curved, and have two entrances, one above the
other, so that the insect can pass in and out with perfect ease.
The May-fly is also remarkable for the fact that the perfect insect changes
its skin shortly after reaching maturity. Before this change takes place
the female insect is the "Green Drake" of the angler; afterwards, the "Grey
Drake."
[Illustration: _Photo by W. P. Dando, F.Z.S., Regent's Park._
QUEEN TERMITE.
Her huge white body is full of eggs, of which she lays thousands every
day.]
To this group belong also the TERMITES, or "White Ants," so exceedingly
numerous in almost all the warmer parts of the world. These are social
insects, living together in vast colonies, and making most wonderful nests,
which consist of a vast and complicated series of chambers and passages,
sheltered beneath a turreted dome of clay. In the centre is the "royal
cell," inhabited by the "king" and "queen," as the perfect male and female
are called. These are winged when first they leave the pupal shell. But
after taking a single flight, they snap off their wings at the base, just
as ants do; while for the rest of their lives they are absolute prisoners
in the cell built around them by the workers.
Shortly after this strange incarceration takes place, the body of the queen
swells to a huge size, so that, to quote Professor Drummond, she becomes "a
large, loathsome, cylindrical package, 2 or 3 inches long, in shape like a
sausage, and as white as a bolster." She now begins to deposit eggs at the
rate of several thousands in a day, which are at once carried off by the
workers, to whom is entrusted the entire care of the helpless young. These
workers, which are exceedingly numerous, also enlarge the nest from time to
time, and construct tunnels of clay up the trunks and along the branches of
trees, through which they may convey to the nurseries in security the gums
and decaying wood for the nutriment of the young.
A fourth form of insect is also found in the termites' nest, known as the
"Soldier." The head is much larger and the jaws are much longer and
stronger than those of the worker, and the sole function appears to be to
defend the nest when attacked. Both soldier and worker, apparently, proceed
from the same eggs which produce the king and queen, the difference in
development being probably due--as in the hive-bee--to the character of the
food with which the young are supplied.
[Illustration: _Photo by W. P. Dando, F.Z.S._] [_Regent's Park._
TERMITES.
The perfect male and female are winged, the "worker" and the "soldier"
being more like grubs than perfect insects.]
[Illustration: _Photo by W. Saville-Kent, F.Z.S._] [_Milford-on-Sea._
TERMITES' NESTS IN QUEENSLAND.
These nests are sometimes 14 or 15 feet high.]
[Illustration: _Photo by W. Saville-Kent, F.Z.S._] [_Milford-on-Sea._
TERMITES' NEST IN QUEENSLAND.
The smaller nests, when opened and emptied, are used by the natives as
ovens.]
[Illustration: _Photo by W. Saville-Kent, F.Z.S._] [_Milford-on-Sea._
TERMITES AT WORK.
This shows one of the most destructive of wood-eating insects, nearly of
the natural size.]
In a state of nature termites are undoubtedly beneficial. They are
scavengers, in fact, whose duty it is to remove the dead and decaying wood
which would otherwise encumber the ground for many years. But in civilised
districts they are extremely mischievous, books, furniture, and all the
woodwork of houses being often completely destroyed by them before their
presence is even suspected.
The second division of the order also forms two well-marked groups--namely,
the Flat-winged Insects, in which the wings are fully spread, horizontally
or obliquely, even in repose, and the Hairy-winged Insects, in which those
organs can be folded longitudinally, like the joints of a fan.
Of the former group, the ANT-LION of Southern Europe is a familiar example.
The perfect insect is seldom seen, owing to its nocturnal habits. In
appearance it is not unlike a small and delicately built dragon-fly, with a
yellowish head, a black body, and transparent wings marbled with brownish
spots. The larva, however, is terrestrial, and lives in a funnel-shaped
pitfall which it scoops out in the sand, always working backwards in a
spiral direction, and jerking out the sand with its broad head in an almost
continuous shower. Having completed the excavation, it buries itself at the
bottom with merely the tips of its jaws appearing above the surface, and
there waits for ants or other small creatures to fall down the sloping
sides, accelerating their descent, if need be, by flinging sand upon them.
The size of the pit varies with that of the insect, the fully grown grub
digging down to the depth of about 2 inches, while the cavity is about 3
inches in diameter.
The mouth of the ant-lion grub is very curiously constructed, the jaws
lying in a groove on the inner margin of the mandibles, or jaws proper; so
that while an insect is held prisoner by the latter, the former can be
employed in sucking its juices. When the body of the victim has been
completely drained, the empty skin is thrown out of the pit by a jerk of
the head.
The chrysalis, too, is remarkable for possessing jaws, by means of which it
cuts its way out of the cocoon which it made, when a larva, by spinning
grains of sand together with silken threads.
In some South European and African insects allied to the ant-lions the hind
wings are modified into extremely long and slender shafts, slightly
expanded at the extremities. In an Indian species belonging to a related
genus these wings are scarcely more than threads, and bear a superficial
resemblance to the attenuated limbs of certain gnats. One group, of which a
Japanese species is a well-known representative, is characterised by the
long, slender, and clubbed antennæ.
[Illustration: _Photo by W. Saville-Kent, F.Z.S._] [_Milford-on-Sea._
TERMITES' NEST.
Showing one year's reconstruction to nest, of which the photographer made a
section.]
The MANTIS-FLIES are remarkable for the structure of the fore limbs, which
are almost exactly similar in character to those of the praying-mantis. The
upper segment of the leg is so lengthened as to look like an additional
joint; the lower surface of the thigh is armed with a number of long, sharp
spines; and the tibia, or lower part of the leg, folds closely down upon
it, after the manner of the blade of a clasp-knife. These limbs are used
for seizing, an insect which is once grasped being effectually prevented by
the spines from breaking away.
The larvæ of these insects are parasitic in the nests of tree-wasps and
spiders, and have the peculiarity of practically losing their limbs as they
approach maturity; so that while at first they are free and active, they
afterwards become almost as helpless as those of many beetles. One species
is found in Southern Europe, the remainder being widely distributed over
the hotter regions of the globe.
Allied to the Mantis-flies are the curious SNAKE-FLIES, or CAMEL-FLIES. In
these insects the head is very large, and is attached to the thorax, or
central division of the body, by a long and distinct neck, which allows it
great freedom of motion. The neck is usually raised and the head bent down,
giving to the insect a remarkably snake-like appearance.
These flies are predaceous in their habits, and the four British species
may be found on the banks of ponds and small streams, where they can obtain
insect-victims in plenty. The larvæ live beneath the bark of trees, and
wriggle about in a singularly serpentine fashion.
[Illustration: _Photo by W. P. Dando, F.Z.S., Regent's Park._
SCORPION-FLY.
Remarkable for the curious structure of the end of the body.]
Equally curious in a different way are the SCORPION-FLIES, in which the
body is prolonged into a slender three-jointed process, the extremity of
which, in the male, is furnished with a pair of curved forceps. In spite of
their somewhat formidable appearance these insects are perfectly harmless.
They are very plentiful almost everywhere, and may be found in numbers on
any sunny summer morning resting on the herbage on hedge-banks, or running
actively about on the leaves of low bushes. Like the Snake-flies, they are
predaceous, feeding entirely upon other insects, and often attacking those
which are bigger and apparently stronger than themselves. The eggs are laid
underground, and the grubs, which are entirely subterranean in their
habits, feed upon decomposing vegetable matter. When fully fed, they burrow
still deeper into the ground, and there change into pupæ, from which the
perfect insects emerge about a fortnight later. In the common English
species the body is shining black, and the legs are yellow, while the
transparent wings are marked with brown spots, which generally form three
broken transverse bands. The insect is about half an inch in length.
Certain allied insects have very slender bodies and long legs, and might
easily be mistaken for "daddy-long-legs" by any one who failed to notice
the presence of two pairs of wings. A species found in Southern Europe is
reddish yellow in colour, with a brown thorax and yellowish wings. It has a
curious habit of suspending itself from a twig by its fore legs, and
seizing any flying insect which may come within reach with the middle and
hinder pairs.
[Illustration: _Photo by W. P. Dando, F.Z.S._] [_Regent's Park._
ADULT FORM OF ANT-LION.
The grub of this insect lives in small pits in sandy places, and feeds upon
the ants, etc., which roll down the sloping sides.]
Allied to the foregoing is the extraordinary little snow-insect, which
makes its appearance in mid-winter, and may even be found crawling on the
surface of snow. In general appearance it is not unlike a larval
grasshopper, with very long, slender legs, and antennæ of about the same
length as the body. There is also a well-developed beak. The wings are
quite rudimentary in the female, while even in the male they are so short
as to be perfectly useless for flight. The insect is remarkably active,
nevertheless, and possesses the power of leaping, although the hinder
thighs are not developed in any great degree. In colour it is metallic
green, with the beak, antennæ, legs, wings, and ovipositor rusty red. It is
not uncommon in the north of England and Scotland.
Far more generally distributed is the LACEWING-FLY, or GOLDEN-EYE, which
may be seen almost anywhere on warm summer evenings flitting slowly to and
fro in the twilight. During the daytime it may often be found resting upon
fences, or sitting on the leaves of low plants. In colour it is pale green,
with a peculiar milky appearance, and the eyes glow as though lighted by an
inward fire. The wings are so closely and elaborately veined that they look
like a piece of the most delicate lace-work. It is not advisable to handle
the insect, for, although perfectly harmless, it possesses the power of
pouring out from its body a liquid of the most horrible odour, which clings
to the fingers in spite of repeated ablutions.
The life-history of the lacewing-fly is very curious. When the maternal
insect lays her eggs, she first deposits a drop of a highly glutinous fluid
upon a leaf or slender twig, and then, with an upward jerk of her long
body, draws it out into a slender thread. On contact with the air this
thread immediately hardens, and just as she releases her hold the fly
attaches a single egg to the tip. In this way 200 or 300 eggs are laid
together in a little cluster, which looks just like a tiny patch of moss.
In the earlier botanical manuals, indeed, it was actually named, figured,
and described as a moss.
[Illustration: Photo by W. P. Dando, F.Z.S., Regent's Park.
LARGE CADDIS-FLY.
The largest British species measures about an inch and a half across the
wings.]
The grubs which hatch out from these eggs feed upon plant-lice, of which
they devour vast numbers, draining the juices by means of their hollow
jaws, and then fastening the empty skins on their own backs, as an American
Indian might decorate himself with the scalps of his victims. Owing to this
singular habit, the grub becomes perfectly unrecognisable after the first
few days of its life, only the jaws and feet being visible beneath the pile
of dry skins. When fully fed, it changes to the pupal condition in a silken
cocoon, which it attaches to a leaf, and the perfect insect makes its
appearance in the course of a few days.
The ALDER-FLIES, in general appearance, are not unlike caddis-flies, but
may easily be distinguished by the fact that the wings are not
longitudinally folded while at rest. They are very abundant in the
neighbourhood of ponds and small streams, where they may be seen flying
slowly and heavily, or resting on low herbage or the foliage of trees and
bushes. The female insect lays her eggs in clusters of 300 or 400 on the
leaves of water-plants, and the little grubs make their way down into the
water immediately on hatching out, where they creep about on the mud at the
bottom in search of the tiny creatures on which they feed. When full-grown,
they are about an inch in length. They then leave the water and bury
themselves in the earth, where they change to pupæ, the perfect insects
emerging in June or July.
The CADDIS-FLIES, of which there are many British representatives, belong
to the Hairy-winged group. The larvæ of these insects are entirely aquatic,
and remind one of hermit-crabs, the front part of the body being clothed
with horny armour, while the hinder part is entirely unprotected. In order
to escape the attacks of predaceous insects these grubs construct cases
round their bodies, which they drag about wherever they go. In one or two
instances, however, the case is attached to the lower surface of a stone.
The materials of which these cases are made vary in accordance with the
species. In one group, for instance, they consist of pieces of twigs and
leaves, cut into short lengths, and arranged side by side in such a manner
as to form a spiral band. The larva of another kind uses entire leaves,
gluing them firmly together and living between them. A third species
employs grains of sand and tiny stones, which it arranges in the form of a
cow's horn. Most curious of all, however, is the case of a caddis-fly which
is made entirely of the shells of water-snails. As these shells are, as a
rule, still tenanted by their owners, the snails may sometimes be seen
attempting to crawl simultaneously in half a dozen different directions,
while the grub is dragging them in a seventh.
All the grubs retain tight hold of their cases by means of a pincer-like
organ at the end of the body. When fully fed, they close the aperture at
each end of the tube, and assume the chrysalis state, the perfect insects
emerging a few weeks later. Although the wings are large and broad, they
fly very slowly, and never seem to take more than a short journey through
the air. They may often be seen in numbers resting upon the herbage on the
banks of streams and ponds, or crawling down into the water in order to
deposit their eggs.
STINGING FOUR-WINGED INSECTS, OR ANTS, BEES AND WASPS, AND THEIR ALLIES
BY W. F. KIRBY, F.L.S.
The order of insects to which the Ants, Bees, and Wasps belong includes a
very large number of species. All these are provided with four membranous
wings, alike in consistency, and provided with comparatively few nervures.
The wings are usually of small size, as compared with the dimensions of the
insects, but are very powerful, owing to the fore and hind pair being
connected together during flight by a series of little links; and the
flight of the insects is usually very rapid. These insects pass through a
perfect metamorphosis, the pupa being always inactive; the jaws are
provided with mandibles, though a proboscis, or sucking-tube, is also
present, and the abdomen of the female is armed with an ovipositor, or
boring instrument, which is frequently modified into a powerful sting, used
to deposit the eggs in their proper position. One peculiarity is that
several species of ants, bees, and wasps live in large communities, in
which the bulk of the inhabitants, on whom most of the work of the nest
falls, are imperfectly developed and usually sterile females, called
neuters, or workers. This arrangement is also met with in the White Ants,
which belong to the order of Lace-winged Insects. Among both the Ants and
White Ants the neuters are unprovided with wings; but these organs are
present in the fully developed males and females, though soon cast.
[Illustration: _Photo by W. P. Dando, F.Z.S., Regent's Park._
SAW-FLY.
One of the commonest of the larger British species is a blackish hairy
insect, measuring rather more than an inch in expanse, with transparent
wings bordered with brown.]
[Illustration: _Photo by W. P. Dando, F.Z.S., Regent's Park._
MARBLE GALL-FLY AND GALL.
Found on oak, and not unlike the foreign gall used for making ink.]
A great variety of other insects also belong to this order, such as
Saw-flies, Gall-flies, and an immense number of parasitic species,
generally called Ichneumon-flies, among which are some of the smallest
insects known.
This extensive order of insects is divided into two principal
sections--those in which the ovipositor is used as a saw or an auger, and
those in which it is modified into a sting. One of the most interesting
sections of the Borers includes the SAW-FLIES, in which the boring
instrument is modified into a pair of toothed saws, which are used for
cutting incisions in leaves, or in the tender bark of twigs, in which to
deposit the eggs. These flies have four transparent wings, sometimes
stained with yellow or purple, and their bodies are moderately stout and
obtuse, and generally black, red or yellow. The antennæ are very variable
in form, and are sometimes knobbed at the end like those of a butterfly;
sometimes they are formed of a number of long, slender joints; sometimes of
only three--a moderately long basal one, a short middle one, and a long
terminal one, composed of a number of joints united into one; and rarely,
as in the case of the males of some small species about half an inch long
which feed on fir and pine, the antennæ are feathered. The grubs are very
like caterpillars, and are sometimes called "false caterpillars"; but a
true caterpillar (except in one or two very rare exceptions among foreign
species) has never more than sixteen legs, while these "false caterpillars"
have more, often as many as twenty-two. They also resemble caterpillars in
another way, for the pupæ are enclosed in cocoons. One interesting
Australian species, which feeds on gum-trees, proceeds from a black
caterpillar with only six legs. The perfect insect has a blackish head and
thorax, with three large yellow spots on the latter, yellowish antennæ and
wings, and a green abdomen; it measures about an inch and a half across the
wings, and has knobbed antennæ. An allied species, found in Tasmania, is
said to tend its young larvæ--an unusual habit, except among social insects
like bees, wasps, and ants. Among the commonest and the most destructive
saw-flies in England are those feeding upon the currant, gooseberry, and
pear, of which there are several species, measuring about half an inch
across the wings. The commonest flies which lay their eggs on the
gooseberry and currant are yellow, with the head, antennæ, and three long
spots on the back black, and the wings transparent, with black veins. The
grubs are bluish green, with twenty legs, and numerous black dots; and
several may often be seen on one leaf. The best-known of the PEAR SAW-FLIES
is black, with the wings transparent, except the veins; the grub is very
like a slug, and is green or yellow, very slimy, with the front of the body
much thickened.
[Illustration: _Photo by W. P. Dando, F.Z.S., Regent's Park._
TREE-WASP.
Very similar to the common wasp, but builds its nest in trees instead of in
the ground.]
The WOOD-WASPS include only a few species, the grubs of which live in the
stems of plants, or in the solid wood of trees. One of the largest feeds on
fir- or pine-trees, and the fly measures from half an inch to an inch and a
half in length, and varies much in size, though the male is generally much
smaller than the female. The female is yellow, with two black bands, and a
stout ovipositor half as long as the abdomen. In the male the tip of the
abdomen is black, and ends in a rectangular point. The wings are
transparent, with yellow nervures.
[Illustration: _Photo by Scholastic Photo. Co._] [_Parson's Green._
TREE-WASP'S NEST.
Generally built in a thick bush.]
Next to these insects come the GALL-FLIES, most of which produce round
galls on oaks; and in some species we meet with a wingless brood, living
alternately with the winged broods, but at the roots of the trees instead
of in the open air. The veining of the wings is reduced to one or two
veins; the antennæ are rather long, and not angulated; and the abdomen is
short, and constricted at the base. The flies seldom measure more than half
an inch across the wings. Some galls are hard, like the one found on the
Turkey oak, from which ink is made; while others are large and juicy,
resembling cherries, or small apples, among which is the so-called apple of
Sodom. Others, like the Bedeguar, which is found on roses, have a mossy
appearance. The latter are produced by a small black saw-fly, with part of
the legs, and, in the female, the base of the abdomen, red beneath.
[Illustration: _Photo by W. P. Dando, F.Z.S._] [_Regent's Park._
PINE-BORING WASP (FEMALE).
Formidable in appearance, but quite harmless.]
Some of the smaller gall-flies do not produce galls, but are parasitic on
other insects; but galls are very liable to the parasitic attacks of other
insects, especially to those of small brilliant metallic green four-winged
flies, belonging to an allied family, with very few nervures, but with a
black membranous spot on the front edge of the fore wings, and angulated
antennæ. Many galls do not begin to grow until the larva is hatched and
begins to eat.
We now come to five or six families of parasitic species, popularly called
ICHNEUMON-FLIES, and immensely numerous and varied. There are probably
considerably over 2,000 species in England alone; but they are
comparatively little known or studied. Some of these have beautifully
delicate wings, fringed with long bristles, and are among the smallest
insects known, being of quite microscopic dimensions. These are parasitic
on the eggs of various insects, and some are aquatic. But the more typical
ichneumon-flies are of larger size, often measuring more than an inch
across the wings. Their bodies are usually black or yellow, and there is
often an irregularly shaped space in the middle of the fore wing, where the
veins of the wing converge. In these flies the ovipositor is very short;
but in others it is of great length, especially in the case of the largest
British insect of this group, which is parasitic on the larvæ of the great
black-and-yellow wood-wasp, of which we have already spoken. This parasite
is as large as the wood-wasp, but much more slender; it is black, with red
legs, and two white dots on each segment of the abdomen. The ovipositor,
which looks like three black threads, is as long as the whole body.
[Illustration: _Photo by W. P. Dando, F.Z.S., Regent's Park._
PINE-BORING WASP (MALE).
Smaller than the female, and very different in appearance.]
The numerous parasites of which we have spoken usually deposit their eggs
in punctures in the bodies of caterpillars or other immature insects, which
the grubs devour from within during the life of their victim, leaving it to
die when they themselves have reached their full growth.
Intermediate between the boring and stinging insects of this order comes
the small family of the RUBY-TAILED FLIES. These are brilliantly coloured
bronze-red, blue, or green metallic four-winged flies, with the thorax
covered with large depressions, and the abdomen smooth, and usually
composed, as seen from above, of one large, smooth joint, and one or two
much smaller coarsely punctured ones beyond it, the last ending in a
variable number of short teeth. They roll themselves up in a ball when
alarmed, and are parasites, depositing their eggs in the nests of other
insects. An entomologist once saw a ruby-tailed fly hurled to the ground by
a mason-bee which had built her nest in a hole in a wall. The fly rolled
herself up into a ball, when the bee bit off her wings, and then flew away.
But as soon as she was gone the wingless fly stretched herself out again,
and climbed up the wall to the bee's nest to deposit her eggs.
[Illustration: CROESUS BUTTERFLY OF BATCHIAN
Male natural size]
[Illustration: _Photo by W. P. Dando F.Z.S. Regent's Park._ _Printed at
Lyons, France._
CROESUS BUTTERFLY OF BATCHIAN.
Female slightly reduced]
[Illustration: _Photo by W. P. Dando, F.Z.S._] [_Regent's Park._
ICHNEUMON-FLY.
One of the largest British species of a very extensive group of parasitic
insects.]
The group of stinging insects begins with the ANTS, which are probably the
most intelligent animals now living in the world. Different species,
however, differ very much in their manners and customs, and in the grade of
civilisation to which they have attained. Some of the more industrious
among them keep other insects as cattle, and even as pets; others harvest
grain, while a few species cultivate grain for their own use; and others
make large mushroom-beds of comminuted leaves, and thus do great harm to
cultivated trees in many parts of tropical America. When the industrious
ants are not too busy, they sometimes indulge in sports and pastimes. But
there are some species which live in idle communities. Such ants are only
energetic as marauders, and are so degraded that they cannot even feed
themselves, and starve to death if they are deprived of the services of
their black slaves, which have been carried off as pupæ by the others in
piratical raids, and brought up by other slaves, which do all the work in
the nests of their captors.
Quitting the Ants, we arrive at a rather extensive series of insects of
moderate or considerable size, and with very spiny legs, called
BURROWING-WASPS. They are brightly coloured, active insects, and generally
dig holes in the ground, which they provision with caterpillars,
grasshoppers, or spiders, which they paralyse with their stings, and leave
in a moribund condition to form the food of their progeny. They are
generally winged in both sexes, but in one family the females are stout and
very hairy, and look like large hairy ants, while the males are slender
winged insects, very unlike their partners. In the burrowing-wasps the
front of the thorax, or second division of the body, is usually transverse,
and often narrow; but in the TRUE WASPS it bends back to the wings. Among
these latter it is only the small group of the SOCIAL WASPS which are
gregarious, and among which we find workers as well as males and females.
The largest of the British wasps is the HORNET; but there are several much
larger species in the East Indies, some of which are black and yellow, like
the Chinese MANDARIN-WASP, the largest of all, which often measures 2
inches across the wings. Others are black, with one large reddish band on
the abdomen. Their nests, which they construct of a kind of paper, are
formed in a hole in the ground, in a hollow tree, or in a bush, or under
the eaves of a house. A nest is commenced by a single female which has
survived the winter, and is afterwards enlarged by the exertions of her
progeny.
[Illustration: RUBY-TAILED FLY.
Generally of a brilliant metallic green or blue.]
[Illustration: _Photos by W. P. Dando, F.Z.S., Regent's Park._
WOOD-ANT. The largest species found in Britain.]
The last group in this order are the BEES. They may generally be easily
recognised by their shaggy bodies and legs. As with the Wasps, most species
are solitary, or live in very small communities. Some few are smooth, and
more or less metallic. A photograph of a large and beautiful South American
species appears in the Coloured Plate. The largest British bees are the
stout-bodied HUMBLE-BEES, or BUMBLE-BEES, which are generally yellow, more
or less banded with black, or else black with a red tail. They form a small
nest of cells just beneath the surface of the ground in meadows. A common
European species, not found in England, is the large black, violet-winged
CARPENTER-BEE, which makes its nest in a gallery burrowed in a post, where
there is a separate compartment for each grub.
[Illustration: _Photos by W. P. Dando, F.Z.S., Regent's Park._
SOLITARY ANT.
(MALE.) (FEMALE.)
Not a true ant, but a burrowing-wasp, believed to be parasitic in the nests
of humble-bees.]
There are only a few species belonging to the TRUE HIVE-BEES found in
different parts of the world. They can always be distinguished from any of
the SOLITARY BEES, some of which much resemble them, by having a single
long, narrow cell, about four times as long as broad, running along the
front edge of the fore wing. In the solitary bees the corresponding cell is
much broader and shorter, rarely more than one and a half times as long as
broad, and only occupying a small portion of the front edge of the wing.
Hive-bees have always been looked upon with more interest than most other
insects, both on account of the valuable products of honey and wax which
they produce, and because of their remarkable habits. They are probably
less intelligent than ants, but they are larger; and as all classes of
their adult population are winged insects, and have been kept in a
domesticated or semi-domesticated state for many centuries, they have lent
themselves more readily to observation.
[Illustration: _Photo by W. P. Dando, F.Z.S._] [_Regent's Park._
HORNET.
The largest species of true wasp found in Britain.]
The hive-bees live in very large communities, and in a state of nature they
make their nests in hollow trees or in crevices of rocks, where they build
their waxen cells, store their honey, and rear their young. There are three
classes among them,--the queen-bee, the female and the mother of the hive;
the male, or drone; and the neuter, or worker, which is really an
imperfectly developed and usually sterile female. Like other insects, bees
pass through a metamorphosis, which in their case is of the description
called "complete," for the immature forms of the bee show no resemblance
whatever to the winged insect which will finally be perfected. Every bee
commences its life in the form of an egg. Each egg is laid by the queen-bee
in a separate cell, and in a few days the egg hatches into a white footless
maggot, which is carefully tended by the workers, and fed by them with a
preparation secreted by the bees, which is carefully graduated, not only
according to the age of the grub, but is differently constituted according
to the sex and status of the bee; for it is well known that it is in the
power of the workers to develop a young grub which would otherwise become a
sterile worker into a perfect queen-bee, by placing it in a large cell, and
rearing it on the same nourishing food which is supplied to those grubs
which are intended to become perfect queens. When the grub is full-grown,
it spins itself a small silken cocoon, and becomes a pupa, or nymph, as it
is called. The pupa somewhat resembles a swathed mummy, for all the
external portions of the future bee can be seen outlined in the hard casing
which encloses it. As soon as it arrives at maturity, it makes its way out
through the upper end, when the cell is at once prepared by the other bees
for a fresh occupant. The newly born bee is at first moist, flabby, and
pale-coloured; but in a few hours her skin dries and hardens, when she at
once commences her life-long labours, at first tending the young bees and
doing other necessary duties in the hive, and then, a fortnight later,
going forth with her companions to collect honey and pollen in the meadows
and gardens.
[Illustration: _Photo by W. P. Dando, F.Z.S., Regent's Park._
HIVE-BEE.
(QUEEN, WORKER, AND DRONE.)
There are only about ten or twelve kinds of true hive-bees known.]
There is never room for more than one queen-bee in a hive; and the queens,
which may be recognised by their longer bodies and shorter wings, have such
a mortal hatred of each other that, whenever two of them meet, they will
fight, if permitted, until one is killed. But in summer, when young bees
are hatching daily in large numbers, and the hive is getting
over-populated, the workers do not permit the queens to fight; and finally
one of them (usually the old queen in the first instance) works herself up
into a great flurry, and rushes out of the hive, attended by several
hundred followers, to seek for fresh fields and pastures new. This is
called "swarming"; and a strong hive will often throw off as many as four
or five swarms in the course of the summer. It is then the object of the
bee-keeper to get the queen to enter a new hive, for otherwise the swarm
may fly to a distance and be lost; but wherever the queen-bee takes up her
abode, her companions will assemble round her, and at once commence the
work of building combs and storing up honey.
[Illustration: _Photo by B. H. Bentley_] [_Sheffield._
BUMBLE-BEE ON EVERLASTING-PEA.
Bumble-bees make their nests in the ground, and live in smaller
communities than the hive-bee.]
The drone, or male bee, is rather larger than the worker, and has a more
obtuse body. He may be at once distinguished by his long thirteen-jointed
antennæ, or feelers, for the antennæ are shorter and only twelve-jointed in
the queen and worker. There are several hundred drones in a hive; but the
queen only pairs once in her life, on the wing, and the ceremony is
immediately followed by the death of the drone. The drones have no sting,
for the sting of the female and worker is really a modified ovipositor, or
egg-laying apparatus, analogous to the organ which is so conspicuous in
many ichneumons and other insects belonging to the same order as the bees.
In the autumn the unfortunate drones are all massacred or else driven forth
from the hive by the workers, when they speedily perish. The workers are by
far the most numerous of the inhabitants of a bee-hive; there may be many
thousands of them, and their number appears to be only limited by the
dimensions of the hive itself.
The ancients had observed something of the economy of bees, but many of
their ideas on the subject were strangely fantastic. It was perhaps natural
to suppose that the leader of the bees was a king rather than a queen; but
it was also supposed that a swarm of bees could be obtained by killing an
ox and leaving the carcase to rot. This notion appears to have originated
in swarms of flies, more or less resembling bees, having been noticed
flying round or near putrefying carcases.
Among all the truly social insects--_i.e._ hive-bees, wasps, ants, and
termites, or so-called white ants--we find that the bulk of the community
consists of sterile females, and the number of fertile females is very
small, even in those cases where more than one female is permitted to live
in a nest, as among wasps.
[Illustration: _Photo by C. Reid_] [_Wishaw, N.B._
BEES.
Swarming from the hive after the queen.]
HUMBLE-BEES live in small communities, consisting of males, females, and
workers; but their economy is very simple compared with that of the
hive-bee, and they do not confine themselves to a single female to a nest.
The SOLITARY BEES are very numerous in species, and consist only of males
and females. They do not live in communities, but each female constructs a
dwelling for her own young. Many of them burrow in the ground, and they are
so far gregarious that a large number of females will sometimes form their
burrows near each other in the same bank. There are about two hundred
different kinds of bees known to inhabit the British Isles. The solitary
bees are very varied in their habits, and some of them are parasitic on
other species.
The large CARPENTER-BEES, which form their nests in wood, are not British;
but there are some small British species which make theirs in the interior
of bramble-sticks. Some are very hairy; others are smooth, and look at
first sight like small wasps, being banded with black and yellow. But one
of the handsomest and most conspicuous of the solitary species is the
FULVOUS BEE, which is a hairy species much resembling a small humble-bee,
and is one often seen in abundance along with other bees, flying round
sallow blossoms in spring.
SCALE-WINGED INSECTS, OR BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS.
BY W. F. KIRBY, F.L.S.
BUTTERFLIES and MOTHS are easily distinguished from other insects by many
very obvious characters, and a considerable number are remarkable for the
beautiful and varied colours of their wings. These are, as it were, tiled
with overlapping scales, attached to the membrane by a slender stem; hence
their name, Scale-winged Insects. These scales differ very much in shape,
sometimes being long and slender, and almost hair-like, while at other
times they are widened at the extremity, like a battledore, or they may be
short and broad, like a fan or a shovel. Different forms of scales are
found on different parts of the wings of the same insect; and some forms of
scale are peculiar to the male, as are usually the dense tufts of scales
found on the fore wings of the Skipper Butterflies, and on the hind wings
of the Chrysippus Butterfly. The varied colours of these scales are due
partly to pigment, interposed between the extremely delicate double or
triple tissues of which the scales are composed; or, more rarely, to the
refraction of light from the surface of the scales themselves, or, as has
recently been stated, to different coloured scales alternating so that the
varying colours are visible at different angles, as in the metallic "shot"
colour of the Purple Emperor Butterfly, and in various species found in
South America and other countries. In the case of the Purple Emperor, and
in many other butterflies, this "shot" colouring is confined to the males.
Indeed, as a rule, female butterflies and moths are larger than the males,
but far less brilliantly coloured than their mates. There are, however,
many species in which the sexes differ little in size or colour; but it
only rarely happens that the female is more brightly coloured than the
male.
The bodies of butterflies and moths, the legs, and often more or less of
the base or borders of the wings are clothed with hair or hair-like scales.
These insects have a long or short proboscis, through which they imbibe
their food, which consists of the honey of flowers, the sap of trees, or
moisture from the ground. Like other insects, they have six legs in the
perfect state; but in some species either the front or hind pair becomes
more or less rudimentary, especially in the males.
[Illustration: _Photo by J. Edwards_] [_Colesborne._
LEAF-BUTTERFLY.
These butterflies are so remarkably like certain leaves that it is almost
impossible to distinguish the difference even at close quarters.]
Butterflies and moths pass through four stages. The egg is laid by the
female on some plant which will provide suitable nourishment for the
caterpillar. A caterpillar, which is the next stage, is a jointed,
worm-like creature with sixteen legs; those corresponding with the legs of
the perfect insect are horny, and a pair is placed on each of the first
three joints behind the head. The next four pairs, called "prolegs," are
thick and fleshy, and a pair is placed under each of joints seven to ten
(reckoning the head as joint one), the last joint of all being provided
with a pair slightly differing from the others, and called "claspers." In
many young caterpillars, however, and also in the full-grown caterpillars
of a considerable number of moths (especially among those with slender
bodies), one or more of the first three pairs of pro-legs may be
rudimentary or absent, and the caterpillar walks by arching its back at
every step, in a way that must be seen to be appreciated, though such
caterpillars (popularly called Loopers, on account of the way they loop up
their bodies in walking) are often very active, and cover the ground much
more rapidly than one might imagine. Sometimes the claspers, or last pair
of legs, are modified into tentacles, which, in the caterpillars of the
Puss-moth and its allies, contain retractile whips, used as weapons of
defence.
[Illustration: _Photo by L. H. Joutel_] [_New York._
SOUTH AMERICAN LONG-WINGED BUTTERFLIES.
Showing external resemblance between two butterflies of different
families.]
[Illustration: _Photo by L. H. Joutel_] [_New York._
DIANA FRITILLARY.
The male is dark brown, with a broad orange border spotted with black. The
female has green marginal markings.]
[Illustration: _Photo by J. Edwards_] [_Colesborne._
QUEEN OF SPAIN FRITILLARY.
Brown above, with plush spots; spotted with silver beneath.]
Caterpillars are very voracious, and increase in size with great rapidity;
and whenever their skin gets too tight, after splitting it, they slip it
off (along with the lining of the stomach and intestines), and after a few
hours' lethargy, necessary to recover from the debilitating effects of such
a serious operation, and to give the new skin time to dry and harden, they
begin to feed again as voraciously as ever. The number of these moults
varies according to the species; when the caterpillar has attained its full
growth, it enters upon the third stage of its life as a pupa, or chrysalis.
A pupa means a doll, or swaddled baby, and is a very appropriate name for
the dark-coloured object, cased in a horny skin, with no detached organs
visible, except the sheath for the proboscis in some of the Hawk-moths, in
which this organ is unusually long, but with the separate cases of the
wings, legs, etc., of the future butterfly or moth plainly visible in the
sutures on its surface. The pupæ of some butterflies have more or less
metallic colours; and to these only is the term "chrysalis" applicable.
Some pupæ are naked, and those of most butterflies are either suspended by
the tail, or attached to a branch by a belt of silk round the body. Those
of moths are generally formed either in an earthen cell under the surface
of the ground, or else are enclosed in an oval case called a "cocoon,"
chiefly composed of silk, though sometimes moss or chips of wood are worked
into it. Other pupæ are found between leaves, or, in the case of
caterpillars which feed in the wood of trees, or in the stems of plants, in
the galleries where they have lived.
When the perfect butterfly or moth is ready to emerge, the pupa splits, and
the insect works its way to the open air. Its body is limp and heavy, and
the wings are like little flaps of wet rag; but it discharges a quantity of
superfluous fluid, generally of a red colour, and fixes itself on a branch,
or other convenient foothold, where its wings can hang downwards. The
expansion and contraction of the muscles pump air into the hollow tubes
which form the framework of the wings; these rapidly expand to their full
size, and become dry and firm at the same time. After this, the insect
flies about with its companions, pairs, lays its eggs, and then dies, after
enjoying its life for a period, varying according to the species and the
season, from a few hours to several months.
[Illustration: TAWNY ADMIRAL.
A North American butterfly.]
We have not yet spoken of the feelers, or antennæ, of butterflies and
moths. They are two long, jointed organs, nearly always knobbed at the end
in butterflies, or at least the terminal joints are thicker than the rest.
But in moths the antennæ are of different shapes, and generally end in a
point. Sometimes they are simple and thread-like; sometimes they are
thickest in the middle, and thinner at both ends, as in the Hawk-moths; and
they are often comb-like, especially in the males, as in the Silk-moths.
BUTTERFLIES.
[Illustration: _Photo by L. H. Joutel_] [_New York._
CATERPILLAR OF TAWNY ADMIRAL.
Remarkable for the sharply contrasted black and pale markings.]
As already mentioned, butterflies may be distinguished from moths by their
antennæ being thickened at the extremities. There are comparatively few
species in Europe--only about three hundred, of which between sixty and
seventy are met with in the British Islands; but in tropical countries they
are much more numerous and varied. It is a mistake to suppose that
butterflies are always bright-coloured insects, and moths the reverse; for
though many butterflies are brightly coloured, others are very dingy. On
the other hand, although it is equally true that many moths are
dull-coloured, others, especially among those with slender bodies, or those
which fly by day, are quite as brilliantly coloured as any butterflies.
[Illustration: _Photo by E. C. Atkinson._
BLUE BUTTERFLY.
Among the most conspicuous of the smaller European butterflies.]
Butterflies are divided into several groups, the first of which includes
the BRUSH-FOOTED BUTTERFLIES, so called because the front pair of legs is
converted into hairy paws, useless for walking, and only employed for
toilet purposes. This is a very extensive group, including about half the
butterflies known, and is divided into several smaller sections. The most
interesting species among the DANAIDS is the MONARCH, one of the largest
and commonest butterflies found in North America. It is migratory in its
habits, and has succeeded in acclimatising itself throughout the Pacific
islands as far as Australia and New Zealand, as well as in the Canaries;
and so many specimens have been taken recently in the south of England that
it seems not unlikely to take up its residence there also. It is a tawny
butterfly, not unlike the one represented on the preceding page, but much
larger, measuring about 5 inches across the wings. The caterpillar is
yellow, with transverse black bands, and a pair of long, black slender
filaments near each extremity of the body. The pupa is pale green, with
golden spots, and is suspended by the tail, as is the case with most of
those of the Brush-footed Butterflies.
The next group, the LONG-WINGED BUTTERFLIES, includes a considerable number
of species with long rounded wings, found in tropical and sub-tropical
America. A species with black and transparent markings is shown on page
710, but many have wholly transparent wings, except for a narrow black or
brown border.
[Illustration: _Photo by W. Saville-Kent, F.Z.S._] [_Milford-on-Sea._
BLUE MORPHO BUTTERFLY AND HUMMING-BIRD.
Note proportionate sizes.]
Turning to more familiar insects, there are several kinds of large or
moderate-sized tawny butterflies, marked with black spots and lines, called
FRITILLARIES in England. The caterpillars are spiny, and feed on violets
and other low-growing plants. The photograph on page 710 shows the DIANA
FRITILLARY, a large and handsome species, which is somewhat of a rarity in
the Southern States of America; it measures 4 inches in expanse, and the
sexes are very dissimilar. It is dark brown, with a broad orange border
spotted with black in the male, and rows of more or less connected green or
white spots in the female.
[Illustration: _Photos by J. Edwards_]
LARGE BLUE BUTTERFLY (MALE, FEMALE, AND UNDERSIDE).
Scarce and nearly extinct in England.]
[Illustration: MAZARINE BLUE BUTTERFLY (MALE, FEMALE, AND UNDERSIDE).
Practically extinct in England.]
[Illustration: _Photos by J. Edwards_] LONG-TAILED BLUE BUTTERFLY
(MALE, FEMALE, AND UNDERSIDE).
An occasional immigrant on the south coast of England.]
[Illustration: BLOXWORTH BLUE BUTTERFLY (MALE, FEMALE, AND UNDERSIDE).
Probably a casual visitor in England.]
The ANGLE-WINGED BUTTERFLIES include several of the best known and most
brightly coloured British species, such as the RED ADMIRAL, a velvety black
butterfly, with a transverse red band on the fore wings, and several white
spots between this and the tip, the hind wings having a red border, spotted
with black and blue. It measures about 2½ inches across the wings, and is
common in gardens and orchards in summer and autumn. The caterpillar, which
feeds on nettle, is brown or black, with yellow stripes and spines. The
TAWNY ADMIRAL is a North American butterfly, remarkable for its resemblance
to the larger butterfly called the Monarch, of which we have already
spoken. The Danaids and Long-winged Butterflies have tough integuments and
a disagreeable odour, which more or less protects them from birds. Many
other butterflies belonging to other families have a superficial
resemblance to these, and are believed to share in their immunity. This
phenomenon is technically called "mimicry." The caterpillar of the tawny
admiral is grey and black, with curious spiny tufts.
[Illustration: _Photos by J. Edwards_]
LARGE COPPER BUTTERFLY (MALE, FEMALE, AND UNDERSIDE).
Extinct in England since 1860.]
[Illustration: DUSKY COPPER BUTTERFLY (MALE, FEMALE, AND UNDERSIDE).
Taken near Ilfracombe, August, 1887.]
The group of the SATYRS contains a great variety of moderate-sized brown or
tawny butterflies, usually with round spots centred with white towards the
margins of the wings. Many species are common in meadows; others, which are
dark brown or black, with red, white-centred marginal spots, are numerous
in mountainous countries, and two species are found in the north of England
and Scotland. The caterpillars of the Satyrs are usually smooth and green,
with a forked tail, and the pupæ are formed on the surface of the ground.
The great BLUE BUTTERFLIES of South America form another group of
Brush-footed Butterflies.
The second family is almost entirely American, and is only represented in
England by a brown butterfly about an inch in expanse, called the DUKE OF
BURGUNDY FRITILLARY. The caterpillar is reddish, and feeds on primroses. It
is not a very abundant species in England.
[Illustration: _Photo by W. Saville-Kent, F.Z.S., Milford-on-Sea._
NEW GUINEA GOLDEN BUTTERFLY.
A remarkable and recently discovered swallow-tailed butterfly.]
The third family is represented in Britain by three very distinct sections
of rather small butterflies, the largest of which scarcely measures more
than an inch and a half across the wings. These are the HAIR-STREAKS
(brown, with light lines on the under surface of the wings, and a short
tail on the hind wings, except in the GREEN HAIR-STREAK, so named from the
green under surface of the wings); the small BLUE BUTTERFLIES, which
generally have brown females; and the COPPERS, the only common species of
which measures about an inch across the wings. The fore wings are bright
coppery red, with dark brown spots and borders, and the hind wings are dark
brown, with a coppery red border, spotted outside with black. The small
copper butterfly and some of the blues are common in meadows and gardens.
Many of the members of the fourth family are of a white or yellow colour,
among which are the destructive WHITE CABBAGE-BUTTERFLIES, three species of
which are very common in England, where they may be seen in every garden
throughout the summer. The photograph on page 716 represents one of these
at rest. A prettier species is the ORANGE-TIP, which is common in spring.
The underside of the hind wings is mottled with green; and there is a
bright orange spot before the tip of the fore wing, both above and below.
Some of the South American butterflies of this family much resemble the
Long-winged Butterflies of the same country.
[Illustration: _Photo by W. Saville-Kent, F.Z.S., Milford-on-Sea._
AUSTRALIAN BUTTERFLIES.
Emerging from their pupæ.]
The family of the SWALLOW-TAILED BUTTERFLIES includes a considerable number
of large and handsome species, but they are not numerous in Europe, and
only one black-and-yellow species, measuring 3 inches across the wings, is
found in England, where it is now almost confined to the fens of the
south-eastern counties; its green caterpillar, with transverse black bands
spotted with orange, feeds on carrot, fennel, and other similar plants. All
the caterpillars of this family are remarkable for possessing a retractile
fork on the neck; but the butterflies do not all possess the long appendage
to the hind wings which has given some of them the name of Swallow-tails.
Thus it is wanting in most of the great BIRD-WINGED BUTTERFLIES of the
Eastern Islands, one of which, the CROESUS BUTTERFLY, is represented in the
Coloured Plate. The great difference between the sexes is well worth
noting. The female is considerably larger than the male, but in the
coloured figure the former has been reduced, owing to the exigencies of
space. Mr. A. R. Wallace writes as follows of the capture of the first
specimen:--
[Illustration: _Photo by J. Edwards_] [_Colesborne._
BATH WHITE BUTTERFLY.
Always rare in England, though common on the Continent.]
[Illustration: _Photo by B. H. Bentley_] [_Sheffield._
GREEN-VEINED WHITE BUTTERFLY.
The cabbage-butterfly referred to on page 715.]
"One day about the beginning of January, I found a beautiful shrub with
large white leafy bracts and yellow flowers, a species of Mussænda, and saw
one of these noble insects hovering over it, but it was too quick for me,
and flew away. The next day I went again to the same shrub and succeeded in
catching a female, and the day after a fine male. I found it to be as I had
expected, a perfectly new and most magnificent species, and one of the most
gorgeously coloured butterflies in the world. Fine specimens of the male
are more than seven inches across the wings, which are velvety black and
fiery orange, the latter colour replacing the green of the allied species.
The beauty and brilliancy of this insect are indescribable, and none but a
naturalist can understand the intense excitement I experienced when I at
length captured it. On taking it out of my net and opening the glorious
wings, my heart began to beat violently, the blood rushed to my head, and I
felt much more like fainting than I have done when in apprehension of
immediate death. I had a headache the rest of the day, so great was the
excitement produced by what will appear to most people a very inadequate
cause."
[Illustration: _Photo by J. Edwards_] [_Colesborne._
BLACK-VEINED WHITE BUTTERFLY.
A much rarer species in England now than formerly.]
The SKIPPERS, the last family of butterflies, are comparatively
stout-bodied insects, with the antennæ widely apart at the base, and
sometimes forked at the tip. They are not numerous in Europe; the prettiest
of the British species is perhaps the PEARL-SKIPPER, which measures rather
more than an inch across its brown and tawny wings; the under surface of
the hind wings is green, and marked with several clear white spots.
MOTHS.
Moths are much more numerous than butterflies, and there are about 2,000
different kinds found in the British Islands alone. Consequently we are
able to notice only a few.
The HAWK-MOTHS have long, pointed wings, thick, tapering bodies, and the
antennæ thickest in the middle. The pink, greenish-striped ELEPHANT
HAWK-MOTH (see page 718) is a comparatively small species. The specimens
measure about 2½ inches across the wings. Some species are much larger. The
DEATH'S-HEAD HAWK-MOTH, whose caterpillar feeds on potato-leaves, is 5 or 6
inches in expanse; and some of the South American species measure as much
as 9 inches. The caterpillars of the hawk-moths are generally green, often
with oblique lines of a different colour on the sides. They are not hairy,
though the skin is sometimes rough, and there is a fleshy appendage, called
a "horn," on the back, just before the extremity of the body. The brown
pupæ are found in cells in the ground.
[Illustration: _Photo by E. C. Atkinson._
ORANGE-TIP.
Showing three different positions when wings are folded, and partly or
entirely concealing upper wing.]
The CHINESE MULBERRY-SILKWORM, which produces most of the silk of commerce,
is a smooth, whitish caterpillar, about 2 inches long, with a horn. It is
often reared in England on lettuce. The moth is a sluggish, stout-bodied
insect. It is whitish, with two dusky stripes on the fore wings. The pupa
is enclosed in an oval whitish or yellow cocoon of pure silk.
[Illustration: _Photo by J. Edwards, Colesborne._
LARGE GRIZZLED SKIPPER BUTTERFLY.
Upper- and under-sides.]
[Illustration: _Photo by W. P. Dando, F.Z.S._] [_Regent's Park._
SWALLOW-TAILED BUTTERFLY
The only British species of this butterfly is almost confined to the fen
districts of Norfolk.]
The EMPEROR-MOTHS, of which there is only one species in England, likewise
spin large cocoons, sometimes used for commercial purposes. The
caterpillars are generally more or less spiny or tufted. Some of the moths
have long tails on the hind wings, like swallow-tailed butterflies, and
there are several species in South Europe, South Africa, the East Indies,
and North America of a beautiful sea-green colour. It will be noticed that
the specimens represented on page 718 have the tails a little broken, which
is a very common accident with swallow-tailed butterflies and moths. We may
also notice the round or crescent-shaped spots in the middle of the wings
of some of the moths represented on this page and the next. These are very
characteristic of the emperor-moths, and there is often a transparent spot
in the centre of the concentric markings. Two other North American species
of this family are shown in the photographs on page 719, rather under
natural size. The second of these, the CECROPIA MOTH, is represented with
its cocoon. This moth has occasionally been captured in England, having
been introduced either accidentally or by design. A year or two ago a
specimen was brought to the Natural History Museum at South Kensington
which had been caught in the street close by. During the summer many
foreign butterflies and moths may be seen alive in the Insect-house at the
Zoological Gardens, Regent's Park, and several of the photographs given in
these pages were taken from specimens living there in the summer of 1901.
The largest of the emperor-moths is the great ATLAS MOTH of North India,
the largest of all known butterflies or moths, which occasionally measures
almost a foot across its reddish-tawny wings.
[Illustration: _Photo by Highley._
ELEPHANT HAWK MOTHS
Showing position when at rest.]
[Illustration: _Photo by Highley._
LUNA MOTHS.
A green North American moth with tail, allied to the English Emperor-moth.]
The IMPERIAL MOTH, a handsome North American moth belonging to a family
allied to the emperor-moths, is represented below.
[Illustration: _Photo by L. H. Joutel, New York._
POLYPHEMUS MOTH.
A handsome North American Emperor-moth.]
[Illustration: _Photo by Highley._
CECROPIA MOTH.
The largest of the North American Emperor-moths.]
[Illustration: _Photo by L. H. Joutel_] [_New York._
IMPERIAL MOTH.
Yellow with purplish-brown dots and blotches. Native of North America.]
The EGGARS form another allied family, also with tufted caterpillars, but
with the central eye of the wings absent, or reduced to a small black spot.
A set of remarkable photographs, representing the eggs, caterpillars,
cocoons and sections of cocoons, and the moths of a large and handsome
species--the CYPRESS-MOTH of Smyrna--appears on pages 720 and 721. We have
received the following account of their habits from Mr. Mavroyeni, to whom
we are indebted for the photographs: "In the month of July they start
weaving their cocoons, in which they remain for seventeen days. A couple of
weeks after the moths have emerged from their cocoons and laid their eggs,
the eggs hatch, and the young caterpillars run up the tree, and feed from
the end of August, during autumn, winter, and spring." We believe that the
cocoons of this species are prepared for use as silk in Greece.
Among other kinds, we may notice the bright-coloured TIGER-MOTHS, with
their black and cream-coloured fore wings and red-and-black hind wings,
which frequent gardens, and are reared from reddish-brown caterpillars with
long hair. These are stout-bodied moths; and there are other moths, with
brown fore wings and whitish hind wings, which fly to candles, or buzz over
flowers in the evening. These are called OWL-MOTHS; but there are larger
and handsomer members of the same family, called YELLOW UNDERWINGS,
measuring nearly 2 inches across the wings, and likely to be flushed in
strawberry-beds or hay-fields. They have brown fore wings, and bright
yellow hind wings, with a black border. The RED-UNDERWING MOTH is about 3
inches in expanse, and has greyish-brown fore wings, and red hind wings,
with a black central band; it is often seen flying about willow-trees in
the afternoon, or resting on tree-trunks, when the bright-coloured hind
wings are quite concealed.
[Illustration: _Photo by C. N. Mavroyeni_] [_Smyrna._
COCOONS OF CYPRESS-MOTH.
These yield silk.]
The LOOPER-MOTHS are those produced from caterpillars which have only ten
legs instead of sixteen, as already explained. Most have slender bodies of
moderate length, and broad and rather brightly coloured wings, green,
russet-brown, yellow, etc. Some, measuring about an inch in expanse, are
called CARPET-MOTHS, from the zigzag patterns on the fore wings, which are
generally black and white, or brown and white, and sometimes green. The
YELLOW-SHELL, a yellow moth, with some zigzag brown and whitish lines
across the wings, which expand about an inch, is common in hedges and
bushes. The white, black-and-yellow-spotted GOOSEBERRY-MOTH, or
MAGPIE-MOTH, so common in gardens, is also one of the Loopers.
[Illustration: _Photo by C. N. Mavroyeni_] [_Smyrna._
CYPRESS-MOTHS AT REST.
In the month of July they start weaving their cocoons, in which they remain
for seventeen days. A couple of weeks after their eggs are hatched, and the
young caterpillars run up the tree, and feed from the end of August, during
autumn, winter, and spring.]
Among the smaller moths are the PEARL-MOTHS, with long slender bodies,
wings longer than broad, and often with a pearly lustre, one or two species
of which are common among nettles. We may also mention the SNOUT-MOTH, a
brown slender-bodied moth, with a pointed beak projecting in front of the
head, likewise a common insect among nettles. The GRASS-MOTHS are small
moths, with narrow whitish fore wings, and broad brownish hind wings, which
they wrap round their bodies when at rest. They are common in every field
and meadow. The BELL-MOTHS have broad truncated fore wings, and rounded
hind wings. A species belonging to this family, with green fore wings and
brown hind wings, may be shaken from every oak-tree in summer, and at the
same time numbers of its little green caterpillars will drop themselves
down, and remain swinging at the end of a thread, till they think that the
danger is past, when they climb up again.
[Illustration: _Photo by C. N. Mavroyeni_] [_Smyrna._
CYPRESS-MOTHS.
The inside of the cocoons, showing the pupæ.]
The CLOTHES-MOTHS, familiar to everybody, are representatives of an
enormous family of small moths, comprising nearly two-thirds of the British
species, but only a few live in houses. Most have narrow wings with long
fringes, and many feed in tortuous galleries which they eat in the
substance of leaves. Some are among the smallest moths known.
The WHITE PLUME-MOTH, which may be noticed floating about in weedy places
like a piece of thistle-down, is a representative of a small family in
which the fore wings are divided into three separate feathers, and the hind
wings into two. The other species are brown, and smaller. When at rest,
they look like small daddy-long-legs.
The TWENTY-PLUME MOTH is a yellowish-grey species, less than an inch in
expanse, often to be seen at rest on windows or palings. It might easily be
taken for a small looper-moth, but that each wing is split into six
feathers.
SILKWORMS.
[Illustration: _Photo by C. N. Mavroyeni_] [_Smyrna._
CYPRESS-CATERPILLARS.
When they leave their cocoons, the young caterpillars run up the tree to
feed.]
We have now completed a rapid survey of the principal groups of Butterflies
and Moths, and may fittingly conclude this part of our subject by giving a
short account of the history of SILKWORMS--insects which far surpass all
other butterflies and moths in their importance to mankind, on account of
the valuable product which is obtained from their cocoons. The industry has
been carried on from time immemorial in China; and many old Chinese works
contain interesting particulars, especially relating to the rearing of
silkworms by the queens and their ladies, for silk was probably a royal
monopoly in old times. These Chinese records date back to about 2200 B.C.,
when the silk industry was already flourishing; but, according to the
usually received tradition, silkworms were first reared during the reign of
the Emperor Hwang-té (2640 B.C.) by his queen. The following extracts from
the "Le-he Book of Ceremonies," written between 204 B.C. and 135 B.C., and
quoted by Horsfield and Moore in their "Catalogue of the Lepidoptera of the
East India Museum," may not be uninteresting to our renders:--
[Illustration: _Photo by J. Peat Millar_] [_Beith._
DEATH'S-HEAD MOTH.
Remarkable for the skull-like pattern on the back.]
"In the first month of spring orders were issued to the forester not to cut
down the mulberry-trees; and when the cooing doves were observed fluttering
with their wings, and the crested jays alighting upon the mulberry-trees,
people were to prepare the trays and frames for the purpose of rearing the
silkworms.
[Illustration: _Photo by W. Saville-Kent, F.Z.S., Milford-on-Sea._
DAY-FLYING MOTH OF MADAGASCAR.
Remarkable for the brilliancy of its colours--green and black, with the
hind wings brilliant coppery red towards the extremity.]