you will see that its feelers are like a plume of six feathers. These
feathers are so set that the beetle can fold them on each other into a
single club, as you can fold a fan. They are called scale-feelers.
[Illustration]
The stag beetle has also curious feelers. They are made in scales, but
he cannot close them into a club. The scales are set like the teeth of
a comb. He has comb-feelers. Perhaps they are of use to him in cleaning
his body and legs.
These stag beetles during the day crawl about on trees. They fly by
night. Their eggs are usually laid in the trunks of old oak-trees.
The larva of the stag beetle has six strong legs and a pair of strong
jaws for cutting leaves and wood. The bark, wood, leaves, and roots of
the oak and willow are its chief food.
This larva is very large, and lies with its body curled in a half ring.
If you look at it, you will see that it has nine round spots down its
side, on the rings of its body. It looks as if it wore a coat with big
buttons on the side.
Now let me tell you a new wonder. These buttons are the air-holes
through which this larva breathes. Come, let us hear the whole story of
the insect’s breathing.
You know you draw the air in through your nose and mouth, and this air
fills your lungs. You know also that the insect breathes through long,
fine tubes. They are kept open with a stiff thread, and wound over all
its body.
These tubes have openings for air to pass in and out. These can open
and close. In shape they are a little like the lid of a glass jar.
These are the holes that we see so clearly along the side of the body
of this larva. Both the larva and the pupa must breathe, or they cannot
live.
The larva of a stag beetle lives and grows for four or six years; then
it passes into the pupa state. When it is ready to change, it makes
a case for itself of the fine chips, the juice of which it has been
sucking. It binds this sort of coarse sawdust together with glue from
its mouth.
When the stag beetle finally comes from this pupa-case, he is a
fine-looking fellow. His head and chest are black, with tiny dots like
carving. His wing-cases are a deep chestnut.
There are some stag beetles that never get the large, strong horns. We
do not know why this is so. Mr. Stag Beetle with the horns fights with
and beats his cousins who have no horns.
Stag beetles are fond of fighting. They are like Mr. Crab in that. They
have duels with each other.
Mrs. Stag Beetle does not behave in this way. She looks on at the
fight, but takes no part in it. Her business is to lay eggs in safe
places. She has no time to fight. And then--she has no horns!
FOOTNOTES:
[15] See page 75.
LESSON XXIX.
MR. BEETLE SEEKS FOR A HOME.
I shall now tell you of a very odd beetle. If ever you find one of this
family, you will say, “This poor beetle has outgrown his coat!” You
will say that when you see how very short his wing-cases are.
But no! the beetle has not outgrown his coat. Insects do not grow after
they leave the pupa-case. Mr. Beetle and his coat are both of the same
size that they always were.
In fact, this beetle’s coat was cut short for him at the first. It is
the fashion in his family to wear short clothes! The flying-wings of
this beetle are large, but the wing-covers are very short. They do not
cover half the length of the body. Yet this beetle can fold up and tuck
his flying-wings under the short wing-cases.
[Illustration]
Most of the short-coated beetles are small. Some of them are an inch
long. They are very lively insects. They are very greedy little
creatures, too.
Some of these beetles eat only animal food. They are always busy
hunting for it. Others of them are fond of mushrooms. Some of them have
a bad smell. People do not care to touch them.
Since their hard shell coat is so short, it would be easy to hurt them.
No doubt they have this bad smell to keep away creatures that would eat
them. The smell keeps them from harm.
The “short-coats” do not all have a bad smell. Some beetles with long
coats have this foul odor. There are also beetles that smell like
roses, and like musk.
Some of the short-coated beetles curl the hind part of their body over.
The end is held up above their backs. If they had a long, hard coat,
they could not do that.
[Illustration: He seeks a Home.]
You have read about the termites, or white ants.[16] In Brazil people
may find one kind of the short-coat beetle living in the nests of the
termites.
These beetles that live with the termites are very strange animals. The
back part of their body is too large for the front part. It looks like
a great ball, and is turned up over the upper part of the back.
These are the only beetles that do not lay eggs and go off and leave
them. They keep their eggs in this large, round part of the body until
they hatch. Then the little larvæ come out alive.
Why do the ants allow these beetles to live with them? Perhaps it is
because they make no trouble and so the termites do not care one way or
the other. Perhaps, like the little Aphis,[17] this beetle has a way of
making honey; if so, it pays for its house-rent with honey!
There are other short-coat beetles which do not have these big, round
bodies. They lay their eggs like other beetles, yet they live in
ant-hills. Perhaps these beetles and their larvæ like to feed on the
husks and rubbish they may find in the ant-hill. The ants do not drive
them out.
The short-coat beetles are not the only ones that take lodgings.
Perhaps you may hear your mother say that “the moths have got into her
furs.” If she looks at the furs, she may find, not only moths, but
small beetles. They are having a fine time eating up the fur!
Such beetles destroy furs, skins, skin rugs, and stuffed animals. Their
greedy larvæ can make much havoc. These larvæ are like tiny black
worms. They are fond of ham, bacon, and lard.
One very large short-coat beetle is called the “coach-horse.” The larva
of this coach-horse beetle looks like the full-grown insect. It carries
its tail aloft, in the same way. It can run fast, and seeks its food
all day long.
These larvæ often hide under stones. In the winter they go deeper under
ground. They are fierce, and they eat animal food.
The baby lives only about three weeks in the pupa-case. This case is of
an odd shape, like a wedge, with a rounded top. It is of a shining gold
color, and has a plume or crown of hairs in front.
FOOTNOTES:
[16] See Lesson IX.
[17] See Lesson IX.
LESSON XXX.
THE LITTLE WATER-MEN.
You know of spiders that live on land. You also know of spiders that
run upon the water. There are also land-beetles and water-beetles.
The water-spiders have rafts, boats, skates, and diving-bells. They sit
and float on lily leaves. Their homes are cool and bright under the
clear, still waters.
There is also a happy race of beetles that have all these things. The
story of these beetles is like the story of a fairy prince, but it is a
true story.
[Illustration: A Happy Race.]
All living things are fitted for the places where they are to live. The
animals that live in cold lands have thick fur. Birds are made with
light bodies,[18] so that they can fly easily. The fish have scaly,
pointed, slippery bodies, so they can glide swiftly through the water.
So you must expect to find that the water-beetles are not quite like
the land-beetles. They have bodies made fit to live in their water-home.
If you place a water-beetle beside a land-beetle, you will see that the
parts of the water-beetle fit more closely than the land-beetle’s.
They join each other so as to form a smooth, water-tight case. When we
build a boat, is it not our first care to make it tight, so that it
will not leak?
Next you will see that the water-beetle’s body is longer, narrower, and
more pointed in front than the land-beetle’s. It is made so as to part
the water as it moves along. The water-beetle’s shape is more fish-like
than that of the land-beetle. When we build a boat, we do not make it
broad or square at both ends. We make the fore-part narrow and sharp,
to cleave the water as the fish does.
As the water-beetles will swim much and walk very little, their first
and second pairs of legs are small and feeble, but the hind legs are
wide and strong, and reach far back. They are used for swimming.
Mr. Swimming Crab has broad hind legs, used for oars or paddles. Mr.
Water-Beetle’s legs are made in much the same way, and have hairs or
bristles upon them.
Though the water-beetles are to walk but little, they are to fly much,
and so their wings are fine and large.
In fact, the water-beetle likes to fly. Very often he flies at night,
and he seems to delight in a clear moonlight. Then the water of his
pond spreads out like a sheet of silver, and the crickets chirp in the
grass. The air is moist and cool; it is sweet with the scent of flowers.
On such nights the water-beetles rise quite high into the air, and fly
here and there, as if full of joy. Then they turn, close their wings,
and drop into the water with a plash, like a stone.
When a number of these beetles drop with this quick plash, what do you
think happens? Why, the green frogs who sit on logs or rocks, with
their big eyes above the water, dive in a great fright. I wonder if the
beetles think it is fun to scare the frogs? The frogs give a loud croak
as they dive.
The larvæ of water-beetles live in the water, as their parents do. They
are very greedy, and hunt their food as if they were angry. They have
large jaws, shaped like a sickle. Their bodies are long and narrow, and
they have on each side of the head six tiny eyes.
With so many eyes, they can see all about them, so they keep out of
danger. They also see bugs which they wish to catch. Their straight,
narrow bodies dart through the water with such quick motion as Mr. Crab
has when he runs on the sand. They pounce on their prey, and their
curved jaws hold it fast.
Some of these great water-beetles have a sharp point, like a thorn, on
the under side of the breast. This is not of use to kill what they eat,
or to fight their enemies. The beetle seizes his prey with his jaws, or
with his fore feet. But if you try to hold him, then he draws his body
back, and drives this thorn into your hand.
Water-beetles have flat pads on their feet, as water-spiders do. The
hairs on these pads hold tiny bubbles of air.
When these beetles wish to fly, they do not rise straight out of the
water; they climb up the stem of some plant. Then, when they are high
enough to make a good start, they spread their lovely wings, and skim
away.
If you watch the ponds, you may see a water-beetle floating with his
head down, and the tip of his tail stuck out of the water. What does he
mean by that queer action?
He is getting air to breathe. Though he lives under the water, he
breathes air, and he is filling up his diving-bell; or, rather, he is
turning himself into a diving-bell. How does he do that? Let us see.
This beetle’s wing-covers are air-tight. The mouths of his
breathing-tubes open under the wing-covers. When he has used all the
fresh air he had, he wants some more. So he comes to the top of the
water, turns his head down, and spreads out his feet to balance
himself. Then, with a little jerk, he drives out any air that is yet
under his wing-covers.
Then he draws in fresh air, shuts his wing-covers up close, and goes
down with plenty of fresh, pure air to breathe.
I have known people who will shut themselves up in a room and breathe
the same air over and over again.[19] The beetle, you see, is more
sensible. He knows that if he is to keep his health and spirits, he
must have good, fresh, clean air to breathe. So he takes all this
trouble to get pure air.
FOOTNOTES:
[18] See Third Book.
[19] Let the teacher explain the evils of vitiated air.
LESSON XXXI.
WHIRLIGIG BEETLES.
There is a Mrs. Water-Beetle who has on the under side of her body two
little knobs for spinning silk. These are much like the silk-spinners
of Mrs. Spider.
As soon as this Mrs. Beetle has laid some eggs, she goes to work, like
a good mother, to keep her babies safe and warm. She spins a little
silk ball, or bag, for the eggs. This ball is water-tight. It is woven
so close that it does not leak. It is so light that it will float.
There are other beetles, and fish, and frogs in the water, that are
seeking food, and they might eat these eggs, but will not touch them
when in this tough silk ball. The balls are of a fine bright color,
like gold thread.
Another of the water-beetles makes a little silk bag, packs it full of
eggs, and glues it to the under side of a leaf of some water-plant.
You know that a fly has a little pair of wings, called alulets, below
its true wings. One of the beetles has such clubs or alulets. So you
see in one part they are somewhat like a spider, in another part
somewhat like a fly. And some things about them are like what a crab
has.
Among all animals you will find points of likeness between one creature
and another.
Did you ever see a whirligig beetle? He takes his name from the top,
or whirligig, because he spins round, and round, and round. Go to the
pond, and you will see some of these merry fellows. They act as if they
felt so happy that they could not keep still.
These whirligigs are of a fine bronze color. They use their hind
legs for oars, and their fore legs for rudders. They have their eyes
divided, so that each one seems to have a pair of eyes on each side of
its head; one half the eye looks up, and one looks down.
These are small beetles, and they whirl, whirl, whirl. Then they stand
still for a second. If you make a dart at them, and try to catch them,
you will find that it is not easy to do so.
These whirlers lay their eggs on leaves above water. The larvæ spin
silk pupa-cases which hang on leaves, or on stems, above the top of the
water.
These and other water-beetles live in ponds or very quiet streams, not
in swift water.
I hope the peep you have had at beetle-life will make you wish to study
it more. Study not so much in books, as out-of-doors for yourself.
Of what use are beetles? Wise people have not yet found out very much
about the use of beetles. Some of them, as you have read, devour or
bury spoiled things, that it would be bad to have lying about on the
ground. They help to keep the world clean.
Some of them eat insects that harm plants. Some of them make good food
for fish, birds, and other creatures. But very many of the beetles do
much harm to plants, clothes, and other valuable things. On the whole,
I fear that beetles are pretty rather than useful!
LESSON XXXII.
WHAT A FISHERMAN TOLD.
One day, on the sea-beach, I saw a man mending a net. He took from the
net two small things like shells. They clung to the meshes of the net.
They were white and hard. They looked like two or three shells put one
inside the other.
The fisherman said, “There are in the world more of these things than
there are leaves on the trees, I think.”
“Where do they grow, Mr. Fisherman?”
“It is easier,” said the fisherman, “to say where they do not grow,
unless I just say, they grow wherever there is sea-water. The pier
yonder, below high-water mark, is covered with hundreds of them. All
the rocks that we see bare at low tide are white with them. Every log
or stick that drifts on the sea has them on it. All the old shells on
the beach, and many new shells, have dozens fastened on them.
“I have seen an old King Crab crawl up the beach,” the fisherman said.
“He had his shell so coated with these things, that it seemed as if he
had two shells, one on top of the other. It was so heavy that he could
hardly walk.
“I have also seen them growing in the skins of whales, and sharks, and
other fish. I have sailed all around the world, and I have found these
things everywhere.”
“What do you call them, Mr. Fisherman?”
“Some call them Sea-Acorns, some Sea-Rose-Buds. These are pretty names;
but Barnacle is the right name.”
“Do you know, Mr. Fisherman, that they are cousins of the crabs?”
“I’ll never believe _that_,” said the fisherman. “They do not _look_
like crabs. When I was a boy, folks told me that out of these shells
came a little bird that grew into a goose. I saw a picture once, of
a tree all covered with big barnacles, and out of each one hung a
little bird’s head. Is that tale true? They were not quite like these
barnacles.”
“No, Mr. Fisherman, it is not at all true. No birds grow from
barnacles. That is an old-time fable.”
“Well,” said the fisherman, “once in the water I saw something hanging
out of the shell of a fellow like this. It opened and shut, and looked
a _little_ like a bird’s foot.”
“It was a foot, Mr. Fisherman, but not a bird’s foot. It was Mr.
Barnacle’s own foot, and as he has no hands, he uses his feet to catch
his dinner.”
“I know,” said the fisherman, “that horse-hairs in ponds will turn into
long worms. But I never did think these shells would turn into birds.”
“And horse-hairs will never turn into worms. Long, thin, black worms
in ponds look much like the hairs of a horse’s tail, so some people
think they must once have been horse-tail hairs. But it is not so.
Horse-hairs are always only horse-hairs, and worms all come from eggs
which were laid to bring out a worm.”
“It is a pity,” said the fisherman, “that when I was a boy in school my
books did not tell me of these things. It would have been nice to know
what I was looking at as I went about the world.”
Now let us study these barnacles of which our fisherman spoke. He told
us truly about their number and where they grow. He told us what he
knew because it was what he had seen.
There are two kinds of barnacles,--those that have stems, and those
that have no stems. The kind that has no stems is the kind you will see
oftener, though there are plenty of the other kind.
The stemless, or acorn barnacles, are placed flat upon whatever they
grow on. Try to pull one off a stone. You cannot do it while the animal
is alive. When the animal is dead or dying, you can move the shell from
what it grows upon. After the animal has been dead some time, the
shells drop from their places, and leave room for others to grow.
All barnacles do not fix themselves upon dead bodies, such as stones,
wood, or shells. Many of them fasten upon living animals, and are
carried about with them from place to place. Perhaps they enjoy travel!
In the North Sea many sharks have barnacles growing upon them. The stem
of the barnacle has little hollow hairs, and these enter into the flesh
of the shark and hold fast there. Others have been found keeping house
upon the whale’s skin, and yet others on the shells of turtles.
These barnacles which you find by the shore are small things, you can
hold several of them in your hand at once. Far down in the ocean lives
a huge giant barnacle, so big that some of you could hardly lift him.
LESSON XXXIII.
MR. BARNACLE AND HIS SON.
The Barnacle has a name which means hair or ringlet-footed. People
thought his little fine curled-up feet looked like small curls of hair.
His body is like a small bag or sac, with the six pairs of little
curly feet placed at one end. The body is made of rings as are the
bodies of insects. All the six pairs of legs are on the chest rings.
Each leg has two joints, and a little branch like a fine fringe. The
hard shelly cover of the barnacle is made of plates lapped together.
When they are closed they look something like buds on trees, or young
pine cones. When the fringes of the feet wave out between the edges
of the shell-plates, it looks as if the buds were about to open into
flower.
A barnacle is more like his far-off cousin Mr. Crab when he is little
than when he is grown up. Every grown-up barnacle must be firmly
fastened upon some other body. The barnacles are divided into two
classes, according to the way in which they are fastened upon objects:
1. Stem Barnacles, 2. Stemless Barnacles.
A stem barnacle has plates which form a three-cornered shell. It grows
fast to some object by a small stem which is soft, and can bend about
easily.
A stemless barnacle has a shell shaped like an acorn, or like a rosebud
with the top bitten off. Instead of a stem, it is held fast to the
object on which it grows by a thin plate of shell at its broad, or flat
end. This plate has a tiny hole in the centre.
When you first saw a barnacle, you would not think it was any relative
of Mr. Crab. When grown up it does not look at all like the Crab
Family. When crabs and barnacles are very young, they look more like
each other.
[Illustration: Old and Young Barnacles.]
Let us look at an acorn barnacle. The shell is in plates, as if two or
three shells were set one over another. The shell grows by added bits
of lime, as a conch shell does. The thin skin that lines it, and holds
it together, is shed, like Mr. Crab’s coat. Then the shell has room to
grow.
The shell is hard and white. It is lined with a very thin skin, which
often has a faint, pretty tint.
The stem barnacles have long, flesh-like stems which move and sway with
the motion of the water. They look much like a little, queer, pale plum
hung by a thick stem.
The end of the barnacle, which clings to the stone, log, shell, or fish
on which it has fastened itself, is the head end. The two feelers,
which all these animals have, are turned into two fine tubes, or pipes.
These feelers have little glands or sacs which make a strong cement.
Cement is like glue, but much more strong and stiff.
This cement fastens Mr. Barnacle to his place. So after he has settled
himself in life, he never wanders about any more.
Did Mr. Barnacle ever go abroad? Oh, yes! When he was young he swam
about the water-world, in a very brisk way. Let us hear about that.
Mr. Barnacle makes the same changes of life that an insect does. First
he is an egg, then a larva, then a pupa, and at last a steady old
barnacle. But the larva barnacle makes two or three changes of shape
before it turns into a pupa.
Barnacles grow fast. They change their coats often when they are young.
Here is an old acorn barnacle fast upon a stone. It is about as big as
the end of your little finger. It has some eggs which it packs into the
shape of a small leaf. It tucks this leaf of eggs into a fold of the
thin skin that lines the thick shell.
As the eggs get ready to hatch into larvæ, the old barnacle is also
growing, and making more shell. Soon it is ready to enlarge the outer
shell. So the inside skin cracks apart and falls off. By degrees some
barnacles become quite large as fresh shell grows from within.
[Illustration]
When the old inside skin falls off, the eggs are set free. Out of them
come the larvæ. The larvæ are active, hungry little fellows, who know
how to swim as soon as they are loose in the water.
The larva acts as if it liked to be free from the shell prison. It
darts about in the sea, and each day its shape changes. It has one eye,
a mouth, two feelers like horns, and six legs. It can swim, and can
walk over sea-weed.
Some parts of this gay little larva will one day turn into tubes to
make cement to hold it fast to a stone. Then it will be a stay-at-home
barnacle all the rest of its life long.
When the larva becomes a pupa, it drifts about until at last it is time
for it to stop travelling and keep still. Then it fixes itself by its
head to the place that will always be its home. All it has to do after
that, is to fish and eat. As it makes new shell, it will enlarge the
old shell. And it will have little eggs, packed in the shape of a wee
leaf between the skin and outer shell.
By and by Mr. Barnacle has a hard shell of many plates, his eye has
gone down near his stomach. Do you think he can see what he eats? His
legs are not used for walking, but to fish with; his mouth is near his
feet. The rest of his head has gone off with his feelers, to attend to
making cement and shell. What a queer creature he is!
LESSON XXXIV.
A FISHING PARTY.
Did you ever go fishing? Did you fish with a rod and line? Or, did you
sit on a pier and let your line drop into the water from your hand?
Or, did you go out with the boats and see the men throw a net into the
water?
There are many ways of fishing, and now I shall tell you of some queer
little fishers and their ways. Why did you want to catch fish? Oh, just
for fun!
My little fishers fish for food, and they eat their fish without any
cooking. Their fish are so small that you cannot see them without the
help of a glass that magnifies.
I saw a fishing party to-day. There were twenty fishers in it. They
were all dressed in white coats. They all sat on one stone.
“What a big stone!” you cry. You had better say, “Oh, what little
fishers!” For, to tell you the truth, I covered the whole party up with
one of my hands!
Was this a fairy fishing party? No; it was a barnacle fishing party. I
will tell you about it.