fumans_, which is so very common in the early spring. Damp situations
are affected by it, but it is seldom met with except by insect-hunters,
for it conceals itself generally under stones, as many as a half-dozen
individuals often being found in company in a single locality. Banks of
tidal rivers afford excellent hunting-grounds in England for Brachinus,
but in America low, dank woods and borders of streams are the places
where one must look to discover its presence.
When once you have made the acquaintance of so remarkable a stranger
you can never afterwards fail to recognize him in your travels. He
is peculiar, but not at all distinguished in looks, as some of his
brethren. Picture a yellowish-red beetle, with a bluish frock-coat,
which his wing-covers resemble, and possessed of a short, narrow head,
a heart-shaped prothorax, as the front of the chest-segments is called,
and a long, broad abdomen, three times the size of the rest of his
body, and you have a tolerably fair idea of Brachinus.
But it is not so much his odd shape as a most extraordinary property
he possesses, which is singularly unique in the animal kingdom, that
makes him an object of interest and curiosity. Deep down in his most
marvellous body a fluid, highly volatile in its nature, is elaborated,
which the little creature can retain or expel at his pleasure. It
is only, however, when alarmed that he utilizes this fluid in small
quantities in defense, but its effect is wonderful, for in coming
into contact with the atmosphere it immediately volatilizes and
explodes, looking very much like a discharge of powder from a miniature
artillery. In consequence of this phenomenon the insect which produces
it is popularly called the Bombardier Beetle.
[Illustration: BRACHINUS PURSUED BY AN ENEMY.
His Curious and Unique Method of Defence.]
So small a coleopter, being scarcely one-fourth of an inch in length,
and so comparatively weak, is likely to be attacked by the larger
Geodephaga, or Earth Devourers, and especially by the Carabi, which
inhabit similar retreats. But for this curious defence the smaller
insect could have but the barest chance of living in the struggle for
existence. Often have I seen a Carabus in hot pursuit of Brachinus. The
chase is always an interesting one, and never fails, however frequently
it has been observed, of attracting attention and exciting admiration.
But the wide-awake, ever watchful Brachinus never loses his head for a
second when thus pursued, but like the clever artilleryman that he is,
awaits the opportune moment, and then pours a heavy discharge of his
fulminating fluid into the very face of the enemy. Baffled, alarmed,
Carabus desists from the attack, and backs slowly away from the tiny
blue smoke, while Brachinus, in the confusion that ensues, escapes to
some place of security for rest and protection.
Most skilfully has the artist delineated the scene. _Carabus serratus_,
the pursuing beetle, is chasing the Bombardier, and has nearly effected
his capture, when, all of a sudden, a discharge of artillery has
stopped the pursuit, under cover of which the Bombardier will make off.
Meanwhile the Carabus, exchanging his rapid advance for a retreat quite
as rapid, throws back his antennæ, a sign of his defeat, and skulks
away to recover his wonted self-possession.
The volatile fluid, which produces such curious effects, is secreted
in a small sac just within the end of the abdomen. Not only is it
capable of repelling the larger beetles by its explosion and cloud
of blue vapor, but it is also powerful enough to discolor the human
skin, as many who have captured Bombardier Beetles by the hand know
only too well. Should the fluid get within the eyelids, the pain and
irritation produced are very distressing. Some years ago the writer,
while searching for carabi underneath stones and in creviced rocks, met
for the first time with Brachinus, but was ignorant as a child of his
obnoxious property. Placing a little fellow upon his hand for close
examination, he soon experienced a burning and painful sensation of the
ball of the eye, but did not for a long while attribute the cause to a
discharge from the Beetle. Repeated investigations at very short ranges
by means of a microscope were attended with similar results, till
eventually an inflammation of the visual organs set in, accompanied by
a blurring of the sight, which debarred him from reading and study for
nearly a fortnight. One learns wisdom by experience, and the wisdom
thus acquired serves for a lifetime.
Even Brachinus has learned by experience, doubtless, to be economical
in the use of his resources. The whole of the contents of his tiny
magazine are not ejected at one discharge, but there is sufficient
to produce a series of explosions, each explosion being perceptibly
fainter than its predecessor. By pressing the abdomen of the dead
Beetle between finger and thumb these explosions may even be produced.
In hot countries, where exceedingly large species abound, the
explosions are said to be very loud, and accompanied with quite a cloud
of blue vapor.
BRIGHT AND SHINING ONES.
Probably more than ninety thousand different species of beetles exist
in the world, first and foremost among them standing the Cicindelidæ,
or Tiger Beetles. From their high position in the coleopterous world
they may well demand our attention, but they have other claims upon our
consideration. They are beautiful, courageous little creatures, and
accomplish a vast amount of good to man. The name Cicindela, by which
they are known to scientific people, tells us that they are the “bright
and shining ones;” while the cognomen of Tiger Beetle reveals to all
English-speaking nations the story of the incessant warfare which they
wage upon their fellows.
The Cicindelæ love the merry sunshine. On any bright summer day they
may be found running and flying about sunny banks, or revelling in
sandy places where the day-god smilingly rejoices. They mostly avoid
vegetation, as it checks their easy rapid movements, although some
kinds affect grassy spots among the trees. They are the most predaceous
of the coleoptera, and behave like the tigers among mammals, the hawks
among birds, the crocodiles among reptiles and the sharks among fishes.
In the tropics some few genera seek their food on the leaves of trees,
but in temperate and sub-tropical regions, where the species are more
abundant, they are terrestrial in habits.
Let us now take our instruments of capture and go in quest of some
of the dozen or more species that have their home with us. The day
is auspicious. Here is a likely spot. See there upon the ground are
some specimens of our commonest species--the _Cicindela vulgaris_ of
naturalists. Go for that one. He sees you as quickly as you see him,
and is off for a few yards, but suddenly drops to the grass from his
flight, but always with his head towards the enemy. Again and again
you start him, but at last, tiring of the chase, he takes a longer
flight that usual. This is a _ruse_ of his, and knowing what it means,
you hurry back to where you first saw him in time to see him all
unsuspectingly alight, and you easily take him captive in your toils.
Now that you have him secure, examine him closely. Watch how savagely
he moves his mandibles and tries to pinch. You need not be afraid,
for his bite is inoffensive and not very painful. You measure with
the eye his size, and you rightly decide that he is not much over an
inch in length, and scarcely one-fourth in breadth. His head you will
find very large and brainy, his jaws powerful and long and curved,
two scimitar-like weapons, which are admirably fitted for cutting and
carving the quivering bodies of his prey. His eleven-jointed antennæ
are long, slender and graceful. In color his back is dull purple, but
beneath he is resplendent in a bright brassy green. Three whitish,
irregular bands adorn his wing-covers. His legs, long and slender, are
just the things on which to hunt the active insects upon which he feeds.
His next of kin, the Purple Tiger Beetle, is nearly as large as he, and
often joins him in company. Beautifully robed in purple he usually is,
but sometimes in a greenish garb arrayed. From the outer almost to the
inner margin of each wing meanders a reddish line, while lower down a
dot, and still another at the farthest tip of the inner border, enhance
his beauty. Cold spring days delight him best, and he is often seen
when snow is yet upon the ground.
More beautiful by far than either, and no less active, is _Cicindela
sex guttata_, or the Six-spotted Tiger Beetle, whose dress, a brilliant
metallic green, flecked with six small silver spots, renders him a
pretty sight when you flash the rays of light athwart his burnished
armor. Hot, June-like days and dusty road-sides suit him best, and
there, what time the sun looks down in all his burning ardor, our
little friend is met, his purpose bent on slaughter. Other species
might be instanced, for North America contains at least a hundred, but
enough have been given for our present object.
[Illustration: COMMON TIGER BEETLE.
Larvæ in Burrows. Two Other Species in Background.]
Tiger Beetles may well be called beneficial insects. Although they
do not, like that brilliant murderess, the dragon-fly, clear the
atmosphere of the gnats and flies that torment mankind, but still,
with their powerful curved daggers, which serve them for jaws, they
accomplish a swift and almost incredible havoc among the smaller
insects. We should take care of them, and respect them, for they are an
invaluable auxiliary to the farmer.
The ferocity of these insects is remarkable. No sooner have they taken
their prey, than they quickly strip it of wings and legs, and proceed
at once to suck out the contents of its abdomen. Often when they are
disturbed in this agreeable occupation, not wishing to leave their
victim, they fly away with it to a place of uninterrupted security, but
they are unable to carry a heavy burden to any great distance.
They are true children of the earth. The eggs are laid in the earth,
and in the earth the grubs are hatched, and in the earth they spend
their days, and in the earth they prepare their shrouds, and, wrapped
therein, sleep their pupa-sleep through the long, dreary winter, and
with the returning warmth of spring crawl out of their earthy chambers
to run and sport on earth, seldom using their new-formed wings to fly
away from their beloved mother.
The grubs are hideous hunchbacks, but possessed of brains and stomach.
They live in the same localities as their parents, the anxious mother,
with wise precision, having carefully deposited her eggs where food
would be readily attainable by her children. Have you a desire to
examine a larva? There is a hole that has been made by one of these
creatures. Place down into it a small straw or a bit of fine twig. The
cranky little hermit, who is always wide-awake, resists most fiercely
such unprovoked insolence, and instantly seeks, by the aid of his
broad, expansive head, to eject the intruding object. Now is your time.
When he shows himself, quickly seize him with your fingers. You will
find him a perfect Daniel Quilp, with head enormous, flat, metallic in
color and armed with long, curved jaws. His legs are six in number,
and on the back, half-way between the legs and tail, are two curious,
odd-looking tubercles, each terminating in a pair of recurved hooks.
The head and first body-division are horny, the rest of the creature
being soft and very sensitive.
While the larval Cicindela has all the desire for slaughter which his
parents manifest, yet his delicate skin, long body and stubby legs
not only prevent him from chasing prey, but also from attempting a
struggle with an insect of any size; nevertheless this imperfectly
armed creature manages to secure his food without exposing himself
to any serious risk. With his short, thick spiny legs he loosens the
earth, and with his flat head, which he uses as a shovel, and turning
himself into a z-shaped figure, hoists up the clay and upsets it
around the mouth of his intended dwelling. With head and legs, and
with a perseverance that is truly surprising, he sinks in a very short
time a shaft a foot in length and as large in diameter as an ordinary
lead-pencil.
Especial pains are taken to see that the tunnel is sufficiently wide,
so that the little creature can crawl in with ease. If he wishes to
remain set fast, he sticks the back of his body against the sides and
rests safely with the aid of his hooks. In this position he can poke
his head out of the ground, thus closing the entrance of his burrow,
while in patient waiting for some unsuspicious wayfarer to pass over.
As soon, however, as the luckless insect touches the top of his head,
he relinquishes his hold within the tunnel and descends with great
precipitation to the bottom, and thus his victim falls into the hole,
where it is seized by the powerful jaws and its juices absorbed in a
quiet, leisurely manner. The loose earth around the opening of the
tunnel gives way on the approach of an insect, and thus the success of
the cunning Cicindela is doubly insured.
Sometimes in the construction of a burrow, after a certain depth has
been reached, the young Cicindela meets with a difficulty which he had
not expected. A flat stone is encountered, and thus further progress
in a vertical direction is prevented. If the obstacle, on account of
its size, cannot be gone round, and the shaft is not deep enough for
his purpose, it is not unusual for him to desert it and attempt the
tunnelling of a home in some more desirable spot. He does not undertake
a very long journey, for he knows too well the risk which he runs by
so doing, as he is in danger of being assaulted by secret foes in the
rear, an attack which the peculiar conformation of his hinder body ill
fits him to resist. On land he is timid and cowardly, and well might
he be, but within the protecting walls of his underground castle,
with a pair of powerful swords with which to defend himself, he is the
impersonation of fearlessness and courage.
When fully grown the larva closes up the mouth of its abode, and in
quiet and solitude undergoes its metamorphosis, lying dormant during
the winter months. But when the breath of warm spring days has melted
the icy coldness of the earth, and filled the air with vivifying
influences, then comes it forth in all the pomp and splendor of its
nature--a winged existence.
It has been seen what a beautiful adaptation of means to an end is
shown by the young Cicindela. Even the adult, or mature form, with its
long, slender legs, so admirably formed for silence and fleetness of
movement, which are alike necessary to pursuit of prey and escape from
enemies, displays the wisdom of Him who breathed into all animated
nature, no matter how small or how humble, the essence of His being,
and endowed one and all with qualities of mind and body which should
respond to environing conditions and thus prepare them to survive in
the struggle for existence.
QUEEN OF AMERICAN SILK-SPINNERS.
No insect affords a better proof of high art in nature, and of the
transcendent beauty of the Creator’s thoughts, than the Luna moth,
which is as preëminent above her fellows as her namesake, the fair
empress of the sky, above the lesser lights that dominate the night.
Her elegant robes of green, set off with trimmings of purple, and
jewelled with diamonds, added to her queenly grace and personal
charms, will always distinguish her from the _profanum vulgus_ of the
articulata.
And now for a short biographical sketch of this remarkable beauty
from the cradle to the grave, and beyond, after she has assumed her
resurrection-attire, to the day when, her appointed work on earth being
ended, she quietly lays her body down to mingle with its native clay.
In her childhood, or caterpillar state, her head is elliptical in
shape, of a light pearly color, the rest of the body being a clear
bluish-green. A faint yellow band stretches along each side, just below
the line of her breathing-organs, from the first to the tenth segment,
while the back, between the several body-rings, is crossed by narrow
transverse bars, similar in coloration. Each segment, after the fashion
of her kith and kin, is adorned with small pearly warts, tinged with
purple, some five or six in number, each tipped with a few simple
hairs. Three brown spots, bordered above with yellow, ornament the end
of the tail. An interesting variety, whose general color is a dull
reddish-brown, is sometimes met with, but the lateral and transverse
stripes of yellow have disappeared, and the pearl-colored warts with
edges of purple have assumed a richer hue and blaze like a coronet of
rubies. When at rest, with the rings all bunched and body shortened,
the infantile Luna is as thick as a man’s thumb, measuring but two
inches in linear direction; but when she sets out upon her travels,
feeling the dignity of her station in life, she stretches to her full
length of three inches.
When have been completed her allotted days of feeding upon the leaves
of the hickory, oak, walnut or sweet gum, and she is seriously
contemplating the preparing of a shroud and casket in which to await
her resurrection-morn, she casts about for leaves, which, when they
are found, she securely draws together, and within the hollow space
there is soon spun a very close and strong oval cocoon of silk, one
and three-fourths inches in length, of chestnut-brown color, thin, and
covered with warts and excrescences, but seldom showing the imprints
of leaves. Cocoons of Luna so nearly resemble those of polyphemus,
that many an experienced collector is greatly chagrined, after getting
together a large supply of what he deems Luna cocoons, to find dusky,
one-eyed polyphemi to issue from the silken tombs rather than a goodly
throng, in delicate bridal attire, of proud empresses of the night.
Polyphemus cocoons are, however, somewhat smaller than Lunas, white
or dirty-white in color, rounded at each end, and sometimes angular,
because of the leaves being unevenly moulded into their surfaces, and
generally covered with a whitish meal-like powder.
[Illustration: AMERICAN LUNA MOTH.
Larva on Branch Below, and Cocoon on Twig Just Above.]
In June the Lunas awake from their death-like slumber, burst asunder
their silken cerements, having at first made loose the compact threads
by a fluid-ejection, and come out into the world in all the freshness
and glory of a new and untried existence. Their wings, which expand
from four and three-fourths to five and one-half inches, are of a
delicate light-green color, the hinder ones being prolonged into a tail
of an inch and a half or more in length. Along the anterior margin
of the fore-wings is a broad purple-brown stripe, extending also
across the back, and sending downwards a little branch to a glittering
eye-like spot near the middle of the wing. These eyes, of which there
is one on each wing, are transparent in the centre, and encircled by
white, yellow, blue and black rings. The hinder borders are more or
less edged with purple-brown. All the nervures are very distinct, and
pale-brown in color. Near the body the wings are thickly invested with
long white hairs. The under sides, excepting that an indistinct line
runs along the margin of both wings, are like to the upper. As for the
body, the thorax is white, occasionally yellowish or greenish, and
coursed by the purple-brown stripe that traverses the entire length
of the upper edge of the wings; and the abdomen, similarly colored,
and clothed with white, wool-like hairs. The head is small and white,
and furnished with broad, flat and strongly pectinated antennæ, which
are very much wider in the male. The legs are purple-brown, and poorly
adapted for walking, but this defect is largely compensated for in
the wide stretch of wings, that fit their possessor for powerful and
long-sustained flight.
Such is Luna in her various transformations. Notwithstanding her
great size and almost matchless loveliness, her habits are not
proportionally noteworthy. The gift of superior beauty, in the insect
as in the mammalian world, does not often carry with it a high order
of intelligence. It is true the young Luna knows pretty well the
secret of dissembling. How quickly she perceives the approach of an
enemy! And she knows how to deal with him, but her little trick of
simulating death, or an immobile twig, does not always succeed with
the wily spider, or artful ichneumon. That she is a tolerably good
connoisseur of the character of foods, there can be no question. You
cannot deceive her. Take from her the foods her ancestors have used
for centuries untold, and substitute others she knows nothing about,
and she is at once cognizant of the change. However hungry she may be,
and in her early growing years she is ever a voracious feeder, she
will starve rather than eat what the unwritten law of her race has
strictly interdicted. I have known cases where death has ensued, or
the caterpillar has pupated earlier than usual, when alien food has
been given it to eat. But in the beginning of life, just after the
first skin-moulting has been effected, ere the little creature has
attained its seventh day of age, no trouble is experienced in changing
the food, almost anything edible in the plant-line being eaten, though
some things with a more decided relish than others. In the matter of
cocoon-weaving, where the necessary leaves for a basis cannot be
obtained, as occurs in captivity, the inconvenience is overcome, but
not without difficulty. Leaves, you must know, are in Luna’s way of
thinking, as essential to cocoon-building as wooden or iron beams and
girders to man’s own constructing. Without a framework of some sort,
what a sorry attempt would we make at home-building, but Luna does
succeed, after a good deal of wise planning and no little worry, in
producing a house which is well worthy her effort.
While the gaudy moth or butterfly, when contrasted in wisdom and sense
with the dingy-colored bee, may suffer in comparison, yet she is by
no means the dull, stupid creature she is pictured to be. She lives,
it is a fact, as has often been said, for the increase of her race,
but the interest she shows for the young she may never see, in laying
her eggs upon the plant that is to serve them as food and home, puts
her upon a rather high plane of intelligent existence. Luna’s life, in
the perfect state, is usually quite brief. It is one of the happiest
of honeymoons. Love conquers and destroys all other passions of her
being, while her gormandizing offspring are never troubled by the
ardent flame which consumes even the thought of sipping the nectar of
the flowers that rival in beauty the wings of the mother, who is the
perfect representation and embodiment of elegance and grace. While the
early insect lives and eats, the adult form, upon whom Dame Nature has
expended so much wealth of color and such symmetry of shape, which make
her a “thing of beauty and a joy forever,” lives and dies, for in her
seeming haste and forgetfulness the great mother of us all has made her
without the essential means of tasting food, a delight and an enjoyment
which the lords of creation are so wont to esteem the purpose and aim
of all human existence.
BASKET-CARRIERS.
You who have been to the country, in the summer, and who have kept your
eyes alive to the surroundings, have doubtless seen the Basket-worm
feeding upon the leaves of the quince, apple, peach, linden, and other
deciduous trees, as well as upon such evergreen as the arbor-vitæ,
Norway spruce, and red cedar. In Germany these worms are popularly
designated _Sack-träger_, or Sack-bearer, while the mature insect is
spoken of as the House-builder Moth. Scientifically speaking, the
latter is called _Thyridopteryx ephemeræformis_, a name which is nearly
twice the length of the caterpillar it represents.