Watch for the first appearance of the adult beetles in the spring when the potatoes are just beginning to come up. They pass the winter under ground and in the spring come out ready to lay eggs on the young potatoes. Collect and examine the adults. How many stripes hav...
The Mosquito Observations And Study
Collect all the different kinds of mosquitoes you can find and note difference in size and markings. Do you find the malarial fever mosquito in your region? Is malarial fever common during the summer and fall? Are there any old stagnant ponds or swamps near your home? ...
A Bee-hunter - The Philanthus Aviporus
To encounter among the Hymenoptera, those ardent lovers of flowers, a
species which goes a-hunting on its own account is, to say the least of
it, astonishing. That the larder of the larvae should be provisioned with
captured prey is natural enough; but that the provider, ...
A Dangerous Diet
The Scolia's egg is in no way exceptional in shape. It is white,
cylindrical, straight and about four millimetres long by one millimetre
thick. (About .156 x .039 inch.--Translator's Note.) It is fixed, by its
fore-end, upon the median line of the victim's abdomen, well to ...
A Dig At The Evolutionists
To rear a caterpillar-eater on a skewerful of Spiders is a very innocent
thing, unlikely to compromise the security of the State; it is also a very
childish thing, as I hasten to confess, and worthy of the schoolboy who, in
the mysteries of his desk, seeks as best he may so...
A Honey Bee Never Volunteers An Attack Or Acts On The Offensive When It Is Gorged Or Filled With Honey
The man who first attempted to lodge a swarm of bees in an artificial
hive, was doubtless agreeably surprised at the ease with which he was
able to accomplish it. For when the bees are intending to swarm, they
fill their honey-bags to their utmost capacity. This is wisely o...
A Memorable Lesson
I take leave of the mushrooms with regret: there would be so many
other questions to solve concerning them! Why do the maggots eat
the Satanic bolete and scorn the imperial mushroom? How is it that
they find delicious what we find poisonous and why is it that what
seems e...
A Parasite Of The Maggot
The dangers of the exhumation are not the only ones; the Bluebottle
must be acquainted with others. Life, when all is said, is a
knacker's yard wherein the devourer of today becomes the devoured
of tomorrow; and the robber of the dead cannot fail to be robbed of
her own l...
A Truffle-hunter The Bolboceras Gallicus
In the matter of physics we hear of nothing to-day but the Roentgen rays,
which penetrate opaque bodies and photograph the invisible. A splendid
discovery; but nothing very remarkable as compared with the surprises
reserved for us by the future, when, better instructed as...
Age Of Bees
The queen bee, (as has been already stated,) will live four, and
sometimes, though very rarely, five years. As the life of the drones is
usually cut short by violence, it is not easy to ascertain its precise
limit. Bevan, in some interesting statements on the longevity of b...
An Invader - The Haricot - Weevil
If there is one vegetable on earth that more than any other is a gift of
the gods, it is the haricot bean. It has all the virtues: it forms a
soft paste upon the tongue; it is extremely palatable, abundant,
inexpensive, and highly nutritious. It is a vegetable meat which,...
Another Prober (perforator)
What can he be called, this creature whose style and title I dare
not inscribe at the head of the chapter? His name is
Monodontomerus cupreus, SM. Just try it, for fun: Mo-no-don-to-
me-rus. What a gorgeous mouthful! What an idea it gives one of
some beast of the Apocal...
Artificial Rearing Of Queens
The distress of the bees when they lose their queen, has already been
described. If they have the means of supplying her loss, they soon calm
down, and commence forthwith, the necessary steps for rearing another.
The process of rearing queens artificially, to meet some spec...
Artificial Swarming
The numerous efforts which have been made for the last fifty years or
more, to dispense with natural swarming, plainly indicate the anxiety of
Apiarians to find some better mode of increasing their colonies.
Although I am able to propagate bees by natural swarming, with...
Bee-dress
Timid Apiarians, and all who are liable to suffer severely from the
sting of a bee, should by all means furnish themselves with the
protection of a bee-dress. The great objection to gauze-wire veils or
other materials of which such a dress has been usually made, is that
th...
Bees Cannot Under Any Circumstances Resist The Temptation To Fill Themselves With Liquid Sweets
It would be quite as easy for an inveterate miser to look with
indifference upon a golden shower of double eagles, falling at his feet
and soliciting his appropriation. If then we can contrive a way to call
their attention to a treat of running sweets, when we wish to perfo...
Bramble-dwellers
The peasant, as he trims his hedge, whose riotous tangle threatens to
encroach upon the road, cuts the trailing stems of the bramble a foot
or two from the ground and leaves the root-stock, which soon dries
up. These bramble-stumps, sheltered and protected by the thorny
br...
Breeding Cage Observations
After you have learned all you can about the habits of the grasshopper in the field, catch a few of them and take them home and put them in a glass fruit jar. Collect green leaves for them and watch them feed. Watch their method of feeding closely and see how it differ...
Breeding Work
Collect a few of the worms and put them in a glass jar with a piece of cabbage leaf. Examine them carefully and watch them crawl. How many legs do they have? Where are they placed on the body? How can they use so many legs while crawling? How many joints are there to t...
Change Of Diet
Brillat-Savarin, when pronouncing his famous maxim, "Tell me what you eat
and I will tell you what you are," certainly never suspected the signal
confirmation which the entomological world would bestow upon his saying.
Our gastrosopher was speaking only of the culinary capr...
Comb
Wax is a natural secretion of the bees; it may be called _their oil or
fat_. If they are gorged with honey, or any liquid sweet, and remain
quietly clustered together, it is formed in small wax pouches on their
abdomen, and comes out in the shape of very delicate scales. ...
Directions For Collecting
Directions For Feeding Bees
Few things in the practical department of the Apiary, are more important
and yet more shamefully neglected, or grossly mismanaged, than the
feeding of bees. In order to make this subject as clear as possible, I
shall begin with the Spring examination of the hives, and f...
Economy Of Energy
What stimulus does the insect obey when it employs the reserve powers
that slumber in its race? Of what use are its industrial variations?
The Osmia will yield us her secret with no great difficulty. Let us
examine her work in a cylindrical habitation. I have described in
...
Effect Of Retarded Impregnation On The Queen Bee
I shall now mention a fact in the physiology of the Queen Bee, more
singular than any which has yet been related.
Huber, while experimenting to ascertain how the Queen was fecundated,
confined some of his young Queens to their hives, by contracting the
entrances, so that...
Exchanging The Nests
Let us continue our series of tests with the Mason-bee of the Walls.
Thanks to its position on a pebble which we can move at will, the nest
of this Bee lends itself to most interesting experiments. Here is the
first: I shift a nest from its place, that is to say, I carry th...
Experiments
As the nests of the Mason-bee of the Walls are erected on small-sized
pebbles, which can be easily carried wherever you like and moved about
from one place to another, without disturbing either the work of the
builder or the repose of the occupants of the cells, they lend
...
Feeding To Make A Profit By Selling The Honey Stored Up By The Bees
For many years, Apiarians have attempted to make the feeding of bees on
a large scale, profitable to their owners. All such attempts however,
must, from the very nature of the case, meet with very limited success.
If large quantities of cheap West India honey are fed to the...
Fertile Workers
It has already been remarked, that the workers are proved by dissection
to be females, all of which, under ordinary circumstances, are barren.
Occasionally, some of them appear to be more fully developed than
common, so as to be capable of laying eggs: these eggs, like thos...
Heredity
Facts which I have set forth elsewhere prove that certain dung
beetles' make an exception to the rule of paternal indifference--a
general rule in the insect world--and know something of domestic
cooperation. The father works with almost the same zeal as the
mother in prov...
Honey Pasturage Overstocking
In the chapter on Feeding, it has already been stated that honey is not
a natural secretion of the bee, but a substance obtained from the
nectaries of the blossoms; it is not therefore, made, but merely
gathered by the bees. The truth is well expressed in the lines so
fa...
Industrial Chemistry
Everything happens sooner or later. When, through the low windows
overlooking the garden of the school, my eye glanced at the
laboratory, where the madder vats were steaming; when, in the
sanctuary itself, I was present, by way of a first and last
chemistry lesson, at the...
Insects And Mushrooms
It were out of place to recall my long relations with the bolete
and the agaric if the insect did not here enter into a question of
grave interest. Several mushrooms are edible, some even enjoy a
great reputation; others are formidable poisons. Short of
botanical studies...
Instinct And Discernment
The Pelopaeus (A Mason-wasp forming the subject of essays which have
not yet been published in English.--Translator's Note.) gives us a
very poor idea of her intellect when she plasters up the spot in the
wall where the nest which I have removed used to stand, when she
per...
Instincts Of Bees
This treatise has already grown to such a length, that I must be
exceedingly brief on a point peculiarly interesting to all who delight
in investigating the wonders of the insect world. In the preceding parts
of the work, numerous proofs have been given of the refined insti...
Larval Dimorphism
If the reader has paid any attention to the story of the Anthrax,
he must have perceived that my narrative is incomplete. The fox in
the fable saw how the lion's visitors entered his den, but did not
see how they went out. With us, it is the converse: we know the
way out...
Loss Of The Queen
That the queen of a hive is often lost, and that the ruin of the whole
colony soon follows, unless such a loss is seasonably remedied, are
facts which ought to be well known to every observing bee-keeper.
Some queens appear to die of old age or disease, and at a time wh...
Mathematical Memories: My Little Table
It is time to start our analytical geometry. He can come now, my
partner, the mathematician: I think I shall understand what he
says. I have already run through my book and noticed that our
subject, whose beautiful precision makes work a recreation,
bristles with no very...
Mathematical Memories: Newton's Binomial Theorem
The spider's web is a glorious mathematical problem. I should
enjoy working it out in all its details, were I not afraid of
wearying the reader's attention. Perhaps I have even gone too far
in the little that I have said, in which case I owe him some
compensation: 'Would...
More Enquiries Into Mason-bees
This chapter was to have taken the form of a letter addressed to
Charles Darwin, the illustrious naturalist who now lies buried beside
Newton in Westminster Abbey. It was my task to report to him the
result of some experiments which he had suggested to me in the course
of ...
My Schooling
I am back in the village, in my father's house. I am now seven
years old; and it is high time that I went to school. Nothing
could have turned out better: the master is my godfather. What
shall I call the room in which I was to become acquainted with the
alphabet? It w...
Natural Swarming And Hiving Of Swarms
The swarming of bees has been justly regarded as one of the most
beautiful sights in the whole compass of rural economy. Although, for
reasons which will hereafter be assigned, I prefer to rely chiefly on
artificial means for the multiplication of colonies, I should be ve...
Objections And Rejoinders
No idea of any scope can begin its soaring flight but straightway the
curmudgeons are after it, eager to break its wings and to stamp the wounded
thing under foot. My discovery of the surgical methods that give the
Hunting Wasps their preserved foodstuffs has undergone the ...
On The Advantages Which Ought To Be Found In An Improved Hive
In this chapter, I shall enumerate certain very desirable, if not
necessary, qualities of a good hive. I have neither the taste nor the
time for the invidious work of disparaging other hives. I prefer
inviting the attention of bee-keepers to the importance of these
requi...
On The Threshold Of The Hive
IT is not my intention to write a treatise on apiculture, or on
practical bee-keeping. Excellent works of the kind abound in all
civilised countries, and it were useless to attempt another. France
has those of Dadant, Georges de Layens and Bonnier, Bertrand, Hamet,
Weber...
On The Way In Which The Eggs Of The Queen Bee Are Fecundated
I come now to a subject of great practical importance, and one which,
until quite recently, has been _attended_ with apparently insuperable
difficulties.
It has been noticed that the queen bee commences laying in the latter
part of winter, or early in spring, and long be...
Overstocking A District With Bees
I come now to a point of the very first importance to all interested in
the cultivation of bees. If the opinions which the great majority of
American bee-keepers entertain, are correct, then the keeping of bees
must, in our country, be always an insignificant pursuit. I con...
Parasites
In August or September, let us go into some gorge with bare and sun-
scorched sides. When we find a slope well-baked by the summer heat, a
quiet corner with the temperature of an oven, we will call a halt:
there is a fine harvest to be gathered there. This tropical land is
...
Pasturage
Some blossoms yield only pollen, and others only honey; but by far the
largest number, both honey and pollen. Since the discovery that rye
flour will answer so admirably as a substitute, before the bees are able
to gather the pollen from the flowers, early blossoms producin...
Permutations Of Sex
The sex of the egg is optional. The choice rests with the mother, who
is guided by considerations of space and, according to the
accommodation at her disposal, which is frequently fortuitous and
incapable of modification, places a female in this cell and a male in
that, so...
Pinning And Preserving A Collection
Method of pinning different kinds of insects.
After the insects, have been caught and killed, they should then be prepared for the permanent collection. Most insects such as wasps, beetles, ...
Pollen Or Bee-bread
This substance is gathered by the bees from the flowers, or blossoms,
and is used _for the nourishment of their young_. Repeated experiments
have proved that no brood can be raised in a hive, unless the bees are
supplied with it. It contains none of the elements of wax, b...
Procuring Bees To Start An Apiary
A person ignorant of bees, must depend in a very great measure, on the
honesty of those from whom he purchases them. Many stocks are not worth
accepting as a gift: like a horse or cow, incurably diseased, they will
only prove a bill of vexatious expense. If an inexperienced...
Propolis
This substance is obtained by the bees from the resinous buds and limbs
of trees; and when first gathered, it is usually of a bright golden
color, and is exceedingly sticky. The different kinds of poplars furnish
a rich supply. The bees bring it on their thighs just as th...
Protection Against Extremes Of Heat And Cold Sudden And Severe Changes Of Temperature And Dampness In The Hives
I specially invite a careful perusal of this chapter, as the subject,
though of the very first importance in the management of bees, is one to
which but little attention has been given by the majority of
cultivators.
In our climate of great and sudden extremes, many co...
Protector
I attach very great importance to the way in which I give the bees
effectual protection against extremes of heat and cold, and sudden
changes of temperature, without removing them from their stands, or
incurring the expense and disadvantages of a covered Bee-House. This I
...
Rationing According To Sex
Considered in respect of quality, the food has just disclosed our profound
ignorance of the origins of instinct. Success falls to the blusterers, to
the imperturbable dogmatists, from whom anything is accepted if only they
make a little noise. Let us discard this bad habit ...
Rearing And Observing Them While Alive
While studying an insect it is advisable wherever possible to first study it where it is found in the field and later bring it home and keep it alive in a jar where it can be fed and observed and its various habits studied. Cages for breeding insects consist simply of ...
Recollections Of Childhood
Almost as much as insects and birds--the former so dear to the
child, who loves to rear his cockchafers and rose beetles on a bed
of hawthorn in a box pierced with holes; the latter an irresistible
temptation, with their nests and their eggs and their little ones
opening t...
Remedies For The Sting Of A Bee
If only a few of the host of remedies, so zealously advocated, could be
made effectual, few persons would have much reason to dread being stung.
Most of them, however, are of no manner of use whatever. Like the
prescriptions of the quack, they are absolutely worse than doin...
Robbing
Bees are exceedingly prone to rob each other, and unless suitable
precautions are used to prevent it, the Apiarian will often have cause
to mourn over the ruin of some of his most promising stocks. The moment
a departure is made from the old-fashioned mode of managing bee...
Royal Jelly
The young queens are supplied with a much larger quantity of food than
is allotted to the other larvae, so that they seem almost to float in a
thick bed of jelly, and there is usually a portion of it left unconsumed
at the base of the cells, after the insects have arrived a...
Some Reflections Upon Insect Psychology
The laudator temperis acti is out of favour just now: the world is on
the move. Yes, but sometimes it moves backwards. When I was a boy, our
twopenny textbooks told us that man was a reasoning animal; nowadays,
there are learned volumes to prove to us that human reason is b...
Study Of Specimen
Take a grasshopper from the jar and examine it carefully. Count the number of legs, wings and joints in the body. How many joints in the legs? Examine the tip of the foot for a soft pad and on either side of it a strong hook. What are these used for? What are the sharp...
Study Of The Fly And Its Work
Observe first of all the feeding habits of the fly. What foods in the home is it most fond of? Make a list of all the food materials it is found to feed on. Where and on what is it found feeding out doors? Do you find it feeding on filth and if so, on what? Do you find ...
The Anger Of Bees Remedy For Their Sting Bee-dress Instincts Of Bees
If the bee was disposed to use, without any provocation, the effective
weapon with which it has been provided, its domestication would be
entirely out of the question. The same remark however, is equally true
of the ox, the horse or the dog. If these faithful servants of ...
The Ant
The ants are closely related to the bees and are similar to them in many respects. They live in colonies consisting of workers, drones, and a queen. The males or drones appear at swarming time and the workers are divided into various castes—warriors, guards, nurs...
The Ant Studies And Observations
It is easy to study the out-door life of ants, but it is most difficult to follow their activities in the nest. Go into the field or out on the school grounds and watch along paths or bare spots for ants. Soon red or black fellows will be seen hurrying along after food;...
The Anthrax
I made the acquaintance of the Anthrax in 1855 at Carpentras, at
the time when the life history of the oil beetles was causing me
to search the tall slopes beloved of the Anthophora bees [mason
bees]. Her curious pupae, so powerfully equipped to force an
outlet for the pe...
The Apply Worm
Apple worms in core of apple. Usually only one worm appears in an apple. Note the decaying of the apple.
This is perhaps the most destructive insect pest attacking the apple. Every year, t...
The Apply Worm Observations And Breeding Work
Go into the orchard and examine for apples with masses of sawdust-like material projecting from the sides or blossom end. By removing this brown deposit which is the excrement of the worm, you will find a hole leading into the apple. Cut open one of these and determine...
The Banded Epeira
In the inclement season of the year, when the insect has nothing to do
and retires to winter quarters, the observer profits by the mildness of
the sunny nooks and grubs in the sand, lifts the stones, searches the
brushwood; and often he is stirred with a pleasurable excit...
The Banded Epeira
BUILDING THE WEB.
The fowling-snare is one of man's ingenious villainies. With lines, pegs and poles, two large, earth-coloured nets are stretched upon the ground, one to the right, the other to the left of a bare surface. A long cord, pulled at the right moment by the fowl...
The Bee-eating Philanthus
To meet among the Wasps, those eager lovers of flowers, a species that goes
hunting more or less on its own account is certainly a notable event. That
the larder of the grub should be provided with prey is natural enough; but
that the provider, whose diet is honey, should h...
The Bee-moth And Other Enemies Of Bees Diseases Of Bees
Of all the numerous enemies of the honey-bee, the Bee-Moth (Tinea
mellonella,) in climates of hot Summers, is by far, the most to be
dreaded. So wide spread and fatal have been its ravages in this country,
that thousands have abandoned the cultivation of bees in despair, ...
The Black-bellied Tarantula
The Spider has a bad name: to most of us, she represents an odious,
noxious animal, which every one hastens to crush under foot. Against
this summary verdict the observer sets the beast's industry, its talent
as a weaver, its wiliness in the chase, its tragic nuptials an...
The Bluebottle
To purge the earth of death's impurities and cause deceased animal matter to be once more numbered among the treasures of life there are hosts of sausage-queens, including, in our part of the world, the Bluebottle (Calliphora vomitaria, Lin.) and the Grey Flesh-fly (Sarcophaga...
The Bluebottle: The Grub
The larvae of the bluebottle hatch within two days in the warm
weather. Whether inside my apparatus, in direct contact with the
piece of meat, or outside, on the edge of a slit that enables them
to enter, they set to work at once. They do not eat, in the strict
sense of ...
The Bluebottle: The Laying
To purge the earth of death's impurities and cause deceased animal
matter to be once more numbered among the treasures of life there
are hosts of sausage queens, including, in our part of the world,
the bluebottle (Calliphora vomitaria, LIN.) and the checkered flesh
fly (S...
The Bumblebee Fly
Underneath the wasp's brown paper manor house, the ground is
channeled into a sort of drain for the refuse of the nest. Here
are shot the dead or weakly larvae which a continual inspection
roots out from the cells to make room for fresh occupants; here, at
the time of the...
The Burying-beetles Experiments
Let us proceed to the rational prowess which has earned for the Necrophorus the better part of his renown and, to begin with, let us submit the case related by Clairville--that of the too hard soil and the call for assistance--to experimental test.
With this object in view,...
The Burying-beetles The Burial
Beside the footpath in April lies the Mole, disembowelled by the peasant's spade; at the foot of the hedge the pitiless urchin has stoned to death the Lizard, who was about to don his green, pearl-embellished costume. The passer-by has thought it a meritorious deed to crush be...
The Cabbage Miller
Egg of cabbage miller much enlarged.
With the first approach of spring comes swarms of large green flies which bask in the March sun on the south sides of buildings. They are not with us l...
The Cabbage Miller Observations And Study
Cabbage worm feeding, slightly enlarged.
Pupa or chrysalis of cabbage miller.
Go into the garden and examine ...
The Cabbage-caterpillar
The cabbage of our modern kitchen-gardens is a semi-artificial plant, the produce of our agricultural ingenuity quite as much as of the niggardly gifts of nature. Spontaneous vegetation supplied us with the long-stalked, scanty-leaved, ill-smelling wilding, as found, according...
The Caddis Worm
Whom shall I lodge in my glass trough, kept permanently wholesome
by the action of the water weeds? I shall keep caddis worms, those
expert dressers. Few of the self-clothing insects surpass them in
ingenious attire. The ponds in my neighborhood supply me with five
or s...
The Capricorn
My youthful meditations owe some happy moments to Condillac's famous statue which, when endowed with the sense of smell, inhales the scent of a rose and out of that single impression creates a whole world of ideas. (Etienne Bonnot de Condillac, Abb‚ de Mureaux (1715-80), the l...
The Cetonia-larva
The Scolia's feeding-period lasts, on the average, for a dozen days or so.
By then the victuals are no more than a crumpled bag, a skin emptied of the
last scrap of nutriment. A little earlier, the russet-yellow tint announces
the extinction of the last spark of life in the...
The Cigale Leaves Its Burrow
The first Cigales appear about the summer solstice. Along the beaten
paths, calcined by the sun, hardened by the passage of frequent feet, we
see little circular orifices almost large enough to admit the thumb.
These are the holes by which the larvae of the Cigale have co...
The Cigale. The Eggs And Their Hatching
The Cigale confides its eggs to dry, slender twigs. All the branches
examined by Reaumur which bore such eggs were branches of the mulberry:
a proof that the person entrusted with the search for these eggs in the
neighbourhood of Avignon did not bring much variety to his ...
The Clotho Spider
She is named Durand's Clotho (_Clotho Durandi_, LATR.), in memory of him
who first called attention to this particular Spider. To enter on
eternity under the safe-conduct of a diminutive animal which saves us
from speedy oblivion under the mallows and rockets is no conte...
The Colorado Potato Beetle
The Colorado potato beetle showing stages of development and work on a potato plant. Note the small patch of eggs and different sized grub on the plant and the grub, pupa and adult at side.
...
The Cotton-bees
The evidence of the Leaf-cutters proves that a certain latitude is
left to the insect in its choice of materials for the nest; and this
is confirmed by the testimony of the Anthidia, the cotton-
manufacturers. My district possesses five: A. Florentinum, LATR., A.
diadema, ...
The Crab Spider
The Spider that showed me the exodus in all its magnificence is known
officially as _Thomisus onustus_, WALCK. Though the name suggest nothing
to the reader's mind, it has the advantage, at any rate, of hurting
neither the throat nor the ear, as is too often the case wit...
The Distribution Of The Sexes
Does the insect know beforehand the sex of the egg which it is about
to lay? When examining the stock of food in the cells just now, we
began to suspect that it does, for each little heap of provisions is
carefully proportioned to the needs at one time of a male and at
ano...
The Dragon Fly
Cast off skin of dragon-fly nymph, showing shape and position taken on a twig when the adult winged form emerged from the last nymph stage.
What child is there that is not familiar with t...
The Dragon Fly Observations And Field Studies
Go into the fields and study and collect the different kinds of dragon-flies and their young stages from the bottoms of ponds. How swiftly can they fly? Do they fly high in the air as well as near the water or surface of the earth? Can you see them catch other insects?...
The Drones Or Male Bees
The drones are, unquestionably, the male bees. Dissection proves that
they have the appropriate organs of generation. They are much larger and
stouter than either the queen or workers; although their bodies are not
quite so long as that of the queen. They have no sting with...
The Elephant - Beetle
Some of our machines have extraordinary-looking mechanisms, which remain
inexplicable so long as they are seen in repose. But wait until the
whole is in motion; then the uncouth-looking contrivance, with its
cog-wheels interacting and its connecting-rods oscillating, will...
The Empusa
The sea, life's first foster-mother, still preserves in her depths many of those singular and incongruous shapes which were the earliest attempts of the animal kingdom; the land, less fruitful, but with more capacity for progress, has almost wholly lost the strange forms of ot...
The Eumenes
A wasp-like garb of motley black and yellow; a slender and graceful figure; wings not spread out flat, when resting, but folded lengthwise in two; the abdomen a sort of chemist's retort, which swells into a gourd and is fastened to the thorax by a long neck, first distending i...
The Fable Of The Cigale And The Ant
Fame is the daughter of Legend. In the world of creatures, as in the
world of men, the story precedes and outlives history. There are many
instances of the fact that if an insect attract our attention for this
reason or that, it is given a place in those legends of the pe...
The Field - Cricket
The breeding of Crickets demands no particular preparations. A little
patience is enough--patience, which according to Buffon is genius; but
which I, more modestly, will call the superlative virtue of the
observer. In April, May, or later we may establish isolated couples...
The Firefly
This insect is of little economic importance to us at present but its peculiar habit of producing light makes it a very striking form and one which deserves study. The firefly is a beetle, and begins to make its appearance the latter part of June when the darkest night...
The Firefly Observations And Studies
Firefly beetles on sour-dock leaf.
Lower surface of firefly beetle enlarged to show the light producing segments of ...
The Foundation Of The City
LET us rather consider the proceedings of the swarm the apiarist
shall have gathered into his hive. And first of all let us not be
forgetful of the sacrifice these fifty thousand virgins have made,
who, as Ronsard sings,--
"In a little body bear so true a...
The Garden Spiders: Building The Web
The fowling-snare is one of man's ingenious villainies. With lines, pegs
and poles, two large, earth-coloured nets are stretched upon the ground,
one to the right, the other to the left of a bare surface. A long cord,
pulled, at the right moment, by the fowler, who hide...
The Garden Spiders: My Neighbour
Age does not modify the Epeira's talent in any essential feature. As the
young worked, so do the old, the richer by a year's experience. There
are no masters nor apprentices in their guild; all know their craft from
the moment that the first thread is laid. We have lea...
The Garden Spiders: Pairing And Hunting
Notwithstanding the importance of the subject, I shall not enlarge upon
the nuptials of the Epeirae, grim natures whose loves easily turn to
tragedy in the mystery of the night. I have but once been present at the
pairing and for this curious experience I must thank my l...
The Garden Spiders: The Lime-snare
The spiral network of the Epeirae possesses contrivances of fearsome
cunning. Let us give our attention by preference to that of the Banded
Epeira or that of the Silky Epeira, both of which can be observed at
early morning in all their freshness.
The thread that forms...
The Garden Spiders: The Question Of Property
A dog has found a bone. He lies in the shade, holding it between his
paws, and studies it fondly. It is his sacred property, his chattel. An
Epeira has woven her web. Here again is property; and owning a better
title than the other. Favoured by chance and assisted by...
The Garden Spiders: The Telegraph-wire
Of the six Garden Spiders that form the object of my observations, two
only, the Banded and the silky Epeira, remain constantly in their webs,
even under the blinding rays of a fierce sun. The others, as a rule, do
not show themselves until nightfall. At some distance f...
The Glow-worm
Few insects in our climes vie in popular fame with the Glow-worm, that curious little animal which, to celebrate the little joys of life, kindles a beacon at its tail-end. Who does not know it, at least by name? Who has not seen it roam amid the grass, like a spark fallen from...
The Golden Gardener - Courtship
It is generally recognized that the Carabus auratus is an active
exterminator of caterpillars; on this account in particular it deserves
its title of Gardener Beetle; it is the vigilant policeman of our
kitchen-gardens, our flower-beds and herbaceous borders. If my inquir...
The Golden Gardener - Its Nutriment
In writing the first lines of this chapter I am reminded of the
slaughter-pens of Chicago; of those horrible meat factories which in the
course of the year cut up one million and eighty thousand bullocks and
seventeen hundred thousand swine, which enter a train of machine...
The Grasshopper
The grasshopper or locust is one of the most ancient plagues of cultivated crops. From the earliest time they have destroyed crops. During Moses' sojourn in Egypt they were so destructive as to cause severe famine and various other references to their destructive work a...
The Grasshopper Field Studies
The small so-called red-legged grasshopper is always most abundant in the fall and for this reason we have selected it for our studies. It is about an inch long, olive-brown in color with the ends of the hind legs bright red. It is found everywhere in pastures, meadows ...
The Great Peacock Or Emperor Moth
It was a memorable night! I will name it the Night of the Great Peacock.
Who does not know this superb moth, the largest of all our European
butterflies[3] with its livery of chestnut velvet and its collar of
white fur? The greys and browns of the wings are crossed by a p...
The Green Grasshopper
We are in the middle of July. The astronomical dog-days are just beginning; but in reality the torrid season has anticipated the calendar and for some weeks past the heat has been overpowering.
This evening in the village they are celebrating the National Festival. (The 14t...
The Greenbottles
I have wished for a few things in my life, none of them capable of
interfering with the common weal. I have longed to possess a pond,
screened from the indiscretion of the passers by, close to my
house, with clumps of rushes and patches of duckweed. Here, in my
leisure h...
The Grey Flesh Flies
Here the costume changes, not the manner of life. We find the same
frequenting of dead bodies, the same capacity for the speedy
liquefaction of the fleshy matter. I am speaking of an ash-gray
fly, the greenbottle's superior in size, with brown streaks on her
back and sil...
The Grey Locust
I have just witnessed a moving spectacle: the last moult of a locust;
the emergence of the adult from its larval envelope. It was magnificent.
I am speaking of the Grey Locust, the colossus among our acridians,[10]
which is often seen among the vines in September when the...
The Halicti A Parasite
Do you know the Halicti? Perhaps not. There is no great harm done: it
is quite possible to enjoy the few sweets of existence without
knowing the Halicti. Nevertheless, when questioned persistently,
these humble creatures with no history can tell us some very singular
thing...
The Halicti Parthenogenesis
The Halictus opens up another question, connected with one of life's
obscurest problems. Let us go back five-and-twenty years. I am living
at Orange. My house stands alone among the fields. On the other side
of the wall enclosing our yard, which faces due south, is a narrow...
The Halicti The Portress
Leaving our village is no very serious matter when we are children.
We even look on it as a sort of holiday. We are going to see
something new, those magic pictures of our dreams. With age come
regrets; and the close of life is spent in stirring up old memories.
Then the b...
The Harmas
This is what I wished for, hoc erat in votis: a bit of land, oh,
not so very large, but fenced in, to avoid the drawbacks of a
public way; an abandoned, barren, sun scorched bit of land,
favored by thistles and by wasps and bees. Here, without fear of
being troubled by th...
The Harmas
This is what I wished for, hoc erat in votis: a bit of land, oh, not so very large, but fenced in, to avoid the drawbacks of a public way; an abandoned, barren, sun-scorched bit of land, favoured by thistles and by Wasps and Bees. Here, without fear of being troubled by the pa...
The Honey Bee
One can hardly believe that this small, ever busy creature each year gathers many million dollars worth of products for man in this country alone to say nothing of its inestimable value on the farm and especially in the orchard, where it assists in carrying pollen fr...
The Honey Bee Capable Of Being Tamed Or Domesticated To A Most Surprising Degree
If the bee had not such a necessary and yet formidable weapon both of
offence and defence, multitudes would be induced to enter upon its
cultivation, who are now afraid to have any thing to do with it. As the
new system of management which I have devised, seems to add to ...
The Honey Bee Observations And Studies
Two colonies of bees poorly cared for. Note box hives, crowding, lack of shade, and high weeds. It is a crime to treat bees this way.
Go into the fields and study the work of the bee. Fol...
The House Fly Or Typhoid Fly
In the house fly we find one of man's most deadly foes. War can not compare with the campaigns of disease and death waged by this most filthy of all insects. In our recent strife with Spain we lost a few lives in battle, but we lost many more in hospitals due to contag...
The Italian Cricket
My house shelters no specimens of the domestic Cricket, the guest of
bakeries and rustic hearths. But although in my village the chinks under
the hearthstones are mute, the nights of summer are musical with a
singer little known in the North. The sunny hours of spring hav...
The Labyrinth Spider
While the Epeirae, with their gorgeous net-tapestries, are incomparable
weavers, many other Spiders excel in ingenious devices for filling their
stomachs and leaving a lineage behind them: the two primary laws of
living things. Some of them are celebrities of long-standi...
The Lady Beetle
The lady-beetles comprise one family of small beetles, which is famous for the number of beneficial forms it includes. With but two exceptions the American forms feed upon other insects, in most cases pests such as plant-lice and scale insects. From the time they hatch...
The Lady Beetle Observations And Studies
Examine about fruit trees, shade trees, truck crops and in wheat fields for the brightly marked beetles. Watch them move about the plant in search of food. Can they fly? Do you find them eating the leaves? Do you find any green lice near them? See if they feed on these...
The Leaf-cutters
It is not enough that animal industry should be able, to a certain
extent, to adapt itself to casual exigencies when choosing the site
of a nest; if the race is to thrive, something else is required,
something which hide-bound instinct is unable to provide. The
Chaffinch, ...
The Leucopses
(This chapter should be read in conjunction with the essays entitled
"The Anthrax" and "Larval Dimorphism", forming chapters 2 and 4 of
"The Life of the Fly."--Translator's Note.)
Let us visit the nests of Chalicodoma muraria in July, detaching them
from their pebbles wi...
The Life Of The Bee
LET us now, in order to form a clearer conception of the bees'
intellectual power, proceed to consider their methods of
inter-communication. There can be no doubting that they understand
each other; and indeed it were surely impossible for a republic so
considera...
The Mantis - Courtship
The little we have seen of the customs of the Mantis does not square
very well with the popular name for the insect. From the term
_Prego-Dieu_ we should expect a peaceful placid creature, devoutly
self-absorbed; and we find a cannibal, a ferocious spectre, biting open
t...
The Mantis - The Chase
There is another creature of the Midi which is quite as curious and
interesting as the Cigale, but much less famous, as it is voiceless. If
Providence had provided it with cymbals, which are a prime element of
popularity, it would soon have eclipsed the renown of the cele...
The Mantis - The Nest
Let us take a more pleasant aspect of the insect whose loves are so
tragic. Its nest is a marvel. In scientific language it is known as the
_ootek_, or the "egg-box." I shall not make use of this barbarous
expression. As one does not speak of the "egg-box" of the titmouse...
The Mason Bees
Reaumur (Rene Antoine Ferchault de Reaumur (1683-1757), inventor of
the Reaumur thermometer and author of "Memoires pour servir a
l'histoire naturelle des insectes."--Translator's Note.) devoted one
of his papers to the story of the Chalicodoma of the Walls, whom he
calls ...
The Massacre Of The Males
IF skies remain clear, the air warm, and pollen and nectar abound in
the flowers, the workers, through a kind of forgetful indulgence, or
over-scrupulous prudence perhaps, will for a short time longer
endure the importunate, disastrous presence of the males. The...
The Method Of The Ammophilae.
My readers may differ in appraising the comparative value of the trifling
discoveries which entomology owes to my labours. The geologist, the
recorder of forms, will prefer the hypermetamorphosis of the Oil-beetles
(The chapter treating of this subject has not yet been tran...
The Method Of The Calicurgi
The non-armoured victims, vulnerable by the sting over almost their whole
body, ordinary caterpillars and Looper caterpillars, Cetonia- and Anoxia-
larvae, whose only means of defence, apart from their mandibles, consists
of rollings and contortions, called for the testimon...
The Method Of The Scoliae
After the Ammophilae, the paralysers who multiply their lancet-thrusts to
destroy the influence of the various nerve-centres, excepting those of the
head, it seemed advisable to interrogate other insects which also are
accustomed to a naked prey, vulnerable at all points sa...
The Mosquito
Here we have another small insect which, like the house fly, is extremely dangerous, due to its ability to carry the germs of disease. There are hundreds of species of mosquitoes, some small, some large. The majority of these are unable to carry disease so far as we kn...
The Mother Decides The Sex Of The Egg
I will begin with the Mason-bee of the Pebbles. (This is the same
insect as the Mason-bee of the Walls. Cf. "The Mason-bees": passim.--
Translator's Note.) The old nests are often used, when they are in
good enough repair. Early in the season the mothers quarrel fiercely
o...
The Narbonne Lycosa
The Epeira, who displays such astonishing industry to give her eggs a
dwelling-house of incomparable perfection, becomes, after that, careless
of her family. For what reason? She lacks the time. She has to die
when the first cold comes, whereas the eggs are destined to...
The Narbonne Lycosa: The Burrow
Michelet {23} has told us how, as a printer's apprentice in a cellar, he
established amicable relations with a Spider. At a certain hour of the
day, a ray of sunlight would glint through the window of the gloomy
workshop and light up the little compositor's case. Then h...
The Narbonne Lycosa: The Climbing-instinct
The month of March comes to an end; and the departure of the youngsters
begins, in glorious weather, during the hottest hours of the morning.
Laden with her swarming burden, the mother Lycosa is outside her burrow,
squatting on the parapet at the entrance. She lets them ...
The Narbonne Lycosa: The Family
For three weeks and more, the Lycosa trails the bag of eggs hanging to
her spinnerets. The reader will remember the experiments described in
the third chapter of this volume, particularly those with the cork ball
and the thread pellet which the Spider so foolishly accept...
The Nuptial Flight
WE will now consider the manner in which the impregnation of the
queen-bee comes to pass. Here again nature has taken extraordinary
measures to favour the union of males with females of a different
stock; a strange law, whereto nothing would seem to compel her; a
c...
The Oak Eggar, Or Banded Monk
Yes: I was to find it. I even had it already in my possession. An urchin
of seven years, with an alert countenance, not washed every day, bare
feet, and dilapidated breeches supported by a piece of string, who
frequented the house as a dealer in turnips and tomatoes, arri...
The Osmiae
February has its sunny days, heralding spring, to which rude winter
will reluctantly yield place. In snug corners, among the rocks, the
great spurge of our district, the characias of the Greeks, the jusclo
of the Provencals, begins to lift its drooping inflorescence and
di...
The Osmiae
THEIR HABITS.
February has its sunny days, heralding spring, to which rude winter will reluctantly yield place. In snug corners, among the rocks, the great spurge of our district, the characias of the Greeks, the jusclo of the Provençals, begins to lift its drooping inflore...
The Pea-weevil - Bruchus Pisi
Peas are held in high esteem by mankind. From remote ages man has
endeavoured, by careful culture, to produce larger, tenderer, and
sweeter varieties. Of an adaptable character, under careful treatment
the plant has evolved in a docile fashion, and has ended by giving us
...
The Pine - Chafer
The orthodox denomination of this insect is _Melolontha fullo_, Lin. It
does not answer, I am very well aware, to be difficult in matters of
nomenclature; make a noise of some sort, affix a Latin termination, and
you will have, as far as euphony goes, the equivalent of ma...
The Pine-processionary
Drover Dingdong's Sheep followed the Ram which Panurge had maliciously thrown overboard and leapt nimbly into the sea, one after the other, "for you know," says Rabelais, "it is the nature of the sheep always to follow the first, wheresoever it goes."
The Pine caterpillar i...
The Plant Louse
For this chapter any common species of plant-louse may be used. If the study is made in the spring the louse on rose, apple, clover, wheat or any other crop may be used. If the study is made in the fall the species on turnips, corn or other plant or crop may be selecte...
The Plant Louse Observations And Field Studies
Plant some melon, radish or other seeds in fertile soil in pots for use in this study. When lice appear on crops in the garden or field, collect a leaf with a few on it and carefully transfer them to the leaves on your potted plants. Watch the lice feed and increase fr...
The Poison Of The Bee
I have discussed elsewhere the stings administered by the Wasps to
their prey. Now chemistry comes and puts a spoke in the wheel of our
arguments, telling us that the poison of the Bees is not the same as
that of the Wasps. The Bees' is complex and formed of two elements,
...
The Pompili
The Ammophila's caterpillar (Cf. "The Hunting Wasps," by J. Henri Fabre,
translated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos: chapters 13 and 18 to 20; and
Chapter 11 of the present volume.--Translator's Note.), the Bembex (Cf.
idem: chapter 14.--Translator's Note.), Gad-fly, the Ce...
The Pond
The pond, the delight of my early childhood, is still a sight
whereof my old eyes never tire. What animation in that verdant
world! On the warm mud of the edges, the frog's little tadpole
basks and frisks in its black legions; down in the water, the
orange-bellied newt st...
The Principal Orders
In order to study a group of animals which includes so many thousand different kinds it is necessary to divide them into a number of sharply defined divisions or orders. All animal life is naturally grouped into such divisions and subdivisions. Among the insects we at ...
The Problem Of The Scoliae
Now that all the facts have been set forth, it is time to collate them. We
already know that the Beetle-hunters, the Cerceres (Cf. "The Hunting
Wasps": chapters 1 to 3.--Translator's Note.), prey exclusively on the
Weevils and the Buprestes, that is, on the families whose n...
The Process Of Rearing The Queen More Particularly Described
If in the early part of the season, the population of a hive becomes
uncomfortably crowded, the bees usually make preparations for swarming.
A number of royal cells are commenced, and they are placed almost always
upon those edges of the combs which are not attached to the ...
The Production Of So Many Drones Necessary In A State Of Nature To Prevent Degeneracy From In And In Breeding
I have often been able, by the reasons previously assigned, to account
for the necessity of such a large number of drones in a state of nature,
to the satisfaction of others, but never fully to my own. I have
repeatedly queried, why impregnation might not just as well have ...
The Progress Of The Race
BEFORE closing this book--as we have closed the hive on the torpid
silence of winter--I am anxious to meet the objection invariably
urged by those to whom we reveal the astounding industry and policy
of the bees. Yes, they will say, that is all very wonderful; b...
The Queen Or Mother-bee The Drones And The Workers; With Various Highly Important Facts In Their Natural History
Bees can flourish only when associated in large numbers, as a colony. In
a solitary state, a single bee is almost as helpless as a new-born
child; it is unable to endure even the ordinary chill of a cool summer
night.
If a strong colony of bees is examined, a short tim...
The Red Ants
The Pigeon transported for hundreds of miles is able to find his way
back to his Dove-cot; the Swallow, returning from his winter quarters
in Africa, crosses the sea and once more takes possession of the old
nest. What guides them on these long journeys? Is it sight? An
ob...
The Resin-bees
At the time when Fabricius (Johann Christian Fabricius (1745-1808), a
noted Danish entomologist, author of "Systema entomologiae" (1775).--
Translator's Note.) gave the genus Anthidium its name, a name still
used in our classifications, entomologists troubled very little ab...
The Scoliae
Were strength to take precedence over the other zoological attributes, the
Scoliae would hold a predominant place in the front rank of the Wasps. Some
of them may be compared in size with the little bird from the north, the
Golden-crested Wren, who comes to us at the time o...
The Sisyphus Beetle - The Instinct Of Paternity
The duties of paternity are seldom imposed on any but the higher
animals. They are most notable in the bird; and the furry peoples acquit
themselves honourably. Lower in the scale we find in the father a
general indifference as to the fate of the family. Very few insects ...
The Song Of The Cigale
Where I live I can capture five species of Cigale, the two principal
species being the common Cigale and the variety which lives on the
flowering ash. Both of these are widely distributed and are the only
species known to the country folk. The larger of the two is the com...
The Spiders
THE NARBONNE LYCOSA, OR BLACK-BELLIED TARANTULA.
THE BURROW.
Michelet has told us how, as a printer's apprentice in a cellar, he established amicable relations with a Spider. (Jules Michelet (1798-1874), author of "L'Oiseau" and "L'Insecte," in addition to the historical...
The Spiders' Exodus
Seeds, when ripened in the fruit, are disseminated, that is to say,
scattered on the surface of the ground, to sprout in spots as yet
unoccupied and fill the expanses that realize favourable conditions.
Amid the wayside rubbish grows one of the gourd family, _Ecbalium
...
The Squash Bug
This common blackish or earth-colored bug is usually called the squash stink-bug. It has a very disagreeable odor which gives it this name. When disturbed it throws off from scent glands a small quantity of an oily substance which produces this odor. This is a protecti...
The Squash Bug Observations And Field Studies
Squash stink-bug adult and nymph extracting sap from squash.
Plant a few squash hills in the garden in the spring and also plant a few seeds in rich dirt in discarded tin cans or flower po...
The Story Of My Cats
If this swinging-process fails entirely when its object is to make the
insect lose its bearings, what influence can it have upon the Cat? Is
the method of whirling the animal round in a bag, to prevent its
return, worthy of confidence? I believed in it at first, so close-
...
The Swarm
WE will now, so as to draw more closely to nature, consider the
different episodes of the swarm as they come to pass in an ordinary
hive, which is ten or twenty times more populous than an observation
one, and leaves the bees entirely free and untrammelled.
H...
The Tachytes
The family of Wasps whose name I inscribe at the head of this chapter has
not hitherto, so far as I know, made much noise in the world. Its annals
are limited to methodical classifications, which make very poor reading.
The happy nations, men say, are those which have no hi...
The Theory Of Parasitism
The Melecta does what she can with the gifts at her disposal. I should
leave it at that, if I had not to take into consideration a grave
charge brought against her. She is accused of having lost, for want of
use and through laziness, the workman's tools with which, so we ar...
The Tomato Or Tabacco Worm
This insect is often very destructive to tomatoes and tobacco. Most country boys and girls know it and fear its ugly looking horn. When full grown it is four inches long, usually dark green with a number of slanting white lines along either side. It is so near the color...
The Tomato Or Tabacco Worm Study And Observation
Observe the worms where they are at work on tomatoes. Disturb them and hear them grind their jaws together. Do they eat the foliage rapidly? Dust a little Paris green on the foliage where a worm is eating and see what happens in half an hour. Collect a number of the wo...
The Tribulations Of The Mason Bee
To illustrate the methods of those who batten on others' goods, the
plunderers who know no rest till they have wrought the destruction of
the worker, it would be difficult to find a better instance than the
tribulations suffered by the Chalicodoma of the Walls. The Mason wh...
The White Grub Or June Bug
White grub feeding on roots of corn plant, enlarged.
This insect is more familiar to country children in the grub stage. Every one who has followed a plow in rich sod land has seen these f...
The White Grub Or June Bug Observations And Studies
Collect a number of the grubs from the ground and examine them for legs, eyes and mouth. How many legs have they? Can you find eyes? What use would they have for eyes while in the ground? Do they bite? Place them on the table and see how they move. What color are they? ...
The Workers Or Common Bees
The number of workers in a hive varies very much. A good swarm ought to
contain 15,000 or 20,000; and in large hives, strong colonies which are
not reduced by swarming, frequently number two or three times as many,
during the height of the breeding season. We have well-auth...
The Young Queens
HERE let us close our hive, where we find that life is reassuming
its circular movement, is extending and multiplying, to be again
divided as soon as it shall attain the fulness of its happiness and
strength; and let us for the last time reopen the mother-city, ...
Their Habits
The habits of insects are as varied as their forms and adaptations. Some live in the water all their life, others spend a part of their life under water, others live the care-free life of the open air, others enjoy feeding upon and living in the foulest of filth, others...
Their Methods Of Developing
In most cases the parent insect deposits small eggs which hatch later into the young insects. In some cases, as with the blow-flies, the maggot may hatch from the egg while yet in the parent's body, when the active larva is born alive. Whether the egg hatches before or...
Their Principal Characteristics
Face of grasshopper enlarged showing parts; ant., antenna; eye, compound eye; oc., ocellus or simple eye; cl., clypeus; lbr., labrum or upper lip; mx. p., maxillary palpus; lb. p., labial palpus; l...
Their Role In Agriculture
Some insects may be very destructive to crops, others are beneficial, while the majority of insects are of no importance to man or agriculture. The various forms of pests such as the chinch bug, potato beetles, and others do an enormous amount of damage each year. They...
Transferring Bees From The Common Hive To The Movable Comb Hive
The construction of my hive is such, as to permit me to transfer bees
from the common hives, during all the season that the weather is warm
enough to permit them to fly; and yet to be able to guarantee that they
will receive no serious damage by the change.
On the 10th o...
Ventilation Of The Hive
If a populous hive is examined on a warm Summer day, a considerable
number of bees will be found standing on the alighting board, with their
heads turned towards the entrance, the extremity of their bodies
slightly elevated, and their wings in such rapid motion that they ...
What They Are
Side view of grasshopper with wings and legs partly removed. Note the division of the body into head, thorax, composed of prothorax, mesothorax and metathorax, and abdomen consisting of ring-like se...
A convenient home-made net for catching insects; note the broom-stick handle, heavy twisted wire and mosquito net bag.