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 from day to day. A reading lens or a magnifying glass will be helpful as plant-lice are very small. How do they move about? Can you count their legs? How many have they? Can you see their eyes and feelers? When feeding
Common apple aphis showing a winged and wingless agamic summer forms at a and c, one with wing pads formed at b, and a recently born young at d. (After U. S. Dept. Agri.)In the garden examine and see if you can find lady-beetles or other parasites attacking the lice. Collect some of the enemies of the lice for your collection. Make a gallon of tobacco tea by soaking one pound of tobacco stems or waste tobacco in one gallon of water for a day or use one ounce of forty per cent nicotine sulphate in three gallons of soap suds and spray or sprinkle infested bushes or vegetables with it. In an hour examine and see what effect it has had on the plant-lice. Nicotine is the most effective chemical for killing plant-lice. Do any of the lice develop wings? If so, how many? Wings develop on some of the lice at times when a plant or crop becomes too heavily infested by them. This enables some of the lice to spread to new food plants before old plants are completely destroyed and the colony of lice starved.
Wooly apple aphis, showing how they cluster in masses on limbs and secrete the white, wooly protection over their bodies.Make a careful enlarged drawing of a winged plant-louse and a wingless one showing legs, feelers, beak, honey dew tubes on back and body segmentation. If ants are seen to attend the lice observe them carefully and describe their work. The ants feed on a sweet honey dew excretion discharged by the lice.
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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 ... The Honey Bee Observations And Studies
<div> <img src="/images/050.jpg" alt="" title="" height="300" width="257" /> 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.</div> <p>Go into the fields and study ... The House Fly Or Typhoid Fly
<p>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... 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 ... 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 c... The Lady Beetle
<p>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. ... The Lady Beetle Observations And Studies
<p>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? ... 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 ... 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 th... 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... 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 ferociou... 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 eclips... 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 ... 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 t... 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 p... 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 subj... 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... 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, vu... The Mosquito
<p>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... 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 mo... 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 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 c... 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 ... 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 S... 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... 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 t... 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 droop... 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... 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 Provencals, begins ... 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, an... 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 g... 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-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 Plant Louse
<p>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 plan... The Plant Louse Observations And Field Studies
<p>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 l... 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 ... 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'... 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, th... The Principal Orders
<p>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. ... 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... 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... 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 mig... 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... 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... 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 jour... 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, entomologist... 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 ... 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 ... 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 lar... 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 a... 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... 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 ... The Squash Bug
<p>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 ... The Squash Bug Observations And Field Studies
<div> <img src="/images/044.png" alt="" title="" height="200" width="226" /> Squash stink-bug adult and nymph extracting sap from squash.</div> <p>Plant a few squash hills in the garden in the spring and also plant a few seeds in rich dirt in discard... 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... 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 fr... 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, a... 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 t... The Tomato Or Tabacco Worm
<p>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... The Tomato Or Tabacco Worm Study And Observation
<p>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. Co... 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 o... The White Grub Or June Bug
<div> <img src="/images/035.jpg" alt="" title="" height="234" width="250" /> White grub feeding on roots of corn plant, enlarged.</div> <p>This insect is more familiar to country children in the grub stage. Every one who has followed a plow in rich ... The White Grub Or June Bug Observations And Studies
<p>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 mov... 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 ... 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... Their Habits
<p>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... Their Methods Of Developing
<p>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 t... Their Principal Characteristics
<div> <img src="/images/004.png" alt="" title="" height="250" width="311" /> 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; ...