Elementary Zoology Part 14

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 71.--A trio of apple tent-caterpillars, _Clisiocampa americana_, natural size. These caterpillars make the large unsightly webs or "tents" in apple-trees, a colony of the caterpillars living in each tent. (Photograph from life by M. V. Slingerland.)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 72.--A family of forest tent-caterpillars (_Clisiocampa disstria_), resting during the day on the bark, about one-third natural size. (Photograph from life by M. V. Slingerland.)]

The Coleoptera is the largest insect order, probably 100,000 species of beetles being known, of which 10,000 species are found in North America. They pa.s.s through a complete metamorphosis (figs. 75 and 76), the larvae of the various kinds showing much variety in form and habit. The pupae are quiescent and are mummy-like in appearance, the legs and wings being folded and pressed to the ventral surface of the body. Among the familiar beetles are the lady-birds, which are beneficial insects feeding on plant-lice and other noxious forms; the beautifully colored tiger-beetles, predaceous in habit; the "tumblebugs" and carrion beetles, which feed on decaying organic matter; the luminous fire-flies with their phosph.o.r.escent organs on the ventral part of the abdomen; the striped Colorado potato-beetle and the cuc.u.mber-beetles and numerous other destructive leaf-eating kinds; the various weevils (fig. 78) that bore into fruits, nuts and grains, and the many wood-boring beetles, destructive to fruit-trees as well as to shade- and forest-trees.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 73.--Moths of the peach-tree borer, _Sanninoidea exitiosa_, natural size; the upper one and the one at the right are females. (Photograph by M. V. Slingerland.)]

The predaceous water-beetles (_Dyticus_ sp.) are common in ponds and quiet pools in streams. When at rest they hang head downward with the tip of the abdomen just projecting from the water. Air is taken under the tips of the folded wing-covers (elytra) and acc.u.mulates so that it can be breathed while the beetle swims and feeds under water. When the air becomes impure the beetle rises to the surface, forces it out, and acc.u.mulates a fresh supply. The beetles are very voracious, feeding on other insects, and even on small fish. The eggs are laid promiscuously in the water, and the elongate spindle-form larvae (fig. 77) called water-tigers are also predaceous. They suck the blood from other insects through their sharp-pointed sickle-shaped hollow mandibles. When a larva is fully grown it leaves the water, burrows in the ground, and makes a round cell within which it undergoes its transformations. The pupa state lasts about three weeks in summer, but the larvae that transform in autumn remain in the pupa state all winter.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 74.--Army-worms, larvae of the moth, _Leucania unipuncta_, on corn. (Photograph by M. V. Slingerland.)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 75.--The quince-curculio (a beetle), _Conotrachelus crataegi_, natural size and enlarged. (Photograph by M.

V. Slingerland.)]

The June-beetles (June-bugs) (_Lachnosterna_ sp.) feed on the foliage of trees. Their eggs are laid among the roots of gra.s.s in little hollow b.a.l.l.s of earth, and the fat sluggish white larvae feed on the gra.s.s-roots. They sometimes occur in such numbers as to injure seriously lawns and meadows. The larvae live three years (probably) before pupating. They pupate underground in an earthen cell, from which the adult beetle crawls out and flies up to the tree-tops.

=Hymenoptera: the ichneumon flies, ants, wasps, and bees.=--TECHNICAL NOTE.--Obtain specimens of wasps, both social (distinguished by having each wing folded longitudinally) and solitary (wings not folded longitudinally), and if possible of both queens (larger) and workers (smaller) of the social kinds; of ants both winged (males or females) and wingless (workers) individuals; also of honey-bees, including a queen, drones, and workers, and some brood comb containing eggs, larvae, and pupae. The bee specimens can be got of a bee raiser. Compare the external structure of ants, bees, and wasps with that of other insects; note the p.r.o.nounced division of the body into three regions (head, thorax, abdomen); note the character of the mouth-parts having mandibles fitted for biting (ants and wasps) or moulding wax (honey-bees) and having the other parts adapted for taking both solid and liquid food; note the sting (possessed by the females and workers only). Observe the behavior of bees in and about a hive; note the coming and going of workers for food. Observe bees collecting pollen at flowers; observe them drinking nectar. Examine the honey-bee in its various stages, egg, larva, pupa, adult. Note the special structure of the adult worker fitting it to perform its various special labors; the pollen-baskets on the hind legs; the wax-plates on the ventral surface of the abdomen, the wax-shears between tibia and tarsus of hind legs; the antennae-cleaners on the fore legs; the hooks on front margin of hind wings, etc.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 76.--Immature stages of the quince curculio, _Conotrachelus crataegi_; at the left, the larva natural size and enlarged; at the right, the pupa. The beetle lays its eggs in pits on quinces, and the larva lives inside the quince as a grub; the pupa lives in the ground. (Photograph by M. V. Slingerland.)]

The Hymenoptera include the familiar ants, bees, and wasps, and also a host of other four-winged, mostly small, insects, many of which are parasites in their larval stage on other insects. All Hymenoptera have a complete metamorphosis, and their habits and instincts are, as a rule, very highly specialized. The parasitic Hymenoptera such as the ichneumon flies, chalcid flies, etc., are stingless but have usually a piercing ovipositor (the sting being only a modified ovipositor). The general life-history of these ichneumons is as follows: the female ichneumon fly, finding one of the caterpillars or fly or beetle larvae which is its host, settles on it and either lays an egg or several eggs on it, or thrusting in its ovipositor, lays the eggs in the body; the young ichneumon hatching as a grub burrows into the body of its caterpillar host, feeding on the body-tissues, but not attacking the heart or nervous system, so that the host is not soon killed; the ichneumon pupates either inside the host, or crawls out and, spinning a little silken coc.o.o.n (fig. 160), pupates on the surface of the body or elsewhere.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 77.--Water-tiger, the larva of the predaceous water-beetle, _Dyticus_ sp. (From specimen.)]

Some of the stingless Hymenoptera are not parasites, but are gall-producers. The female with its piercing ovipositor lays an egg in the soft tissue of a leaf or stem, and after the larva hatches the gall rapidly forms. The larval insect lies in the plant-tissue, having for food the sap which comes to the rapidly growing gall. It pupates in the gall, and when adult eats its way out.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 78.--The plum curculio, _Conotrachelus nenuphar_, a beetle very injurious to plums. (Photograph by M. V. Slingerland.)]

The ants, bees, and wasps are called the stinging Hymenoptera, although the ants we have in North America have their sting so reduced as to be no longer usable. Among these Hymenoptera are the social or communal insects, viz., all the ants, the b.u.mblebees and honey-bee, and the few social wasps, as the yellow-jacket and black hornet. There are many more species of non-social or solitary bees and wasps than social ones, and their habits and instincts are nearly as remarkable.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 79.--The currant-stem girdler, _Ja.n.u.s integer_, a Hymenopteron at work girdling a stem after having deposited an egg in the stem half an inch lower down. (Photograph by M. V. Slingerland.)]

The solitary and digger wasps do not live in communities as the hornets do, but each female makes a nest or several nests of her own, lays eggs and provides for her own young. The nest is usually a short vertical or inclined burrow in the ground, with the bottom enlarged to form a cell or chamber. In this chamber a single egg is laid, and some insects or spiders, captured and so stung by the wasps as to be paralyzed but not killed, are put in for food. The nest is then closed up by the female, and the larva hatching from the egg feeds on the enclosed helpless insects until full grown, when it pupates in the cell and the issuing adult gnaws and pushes its way out of the ground.

Each species of wasp has habits peculiar to itself, making always the same kind of nest, and providing always the same kind of food. Some of these wasps make their nests in twigs of various plants, especially those with pithy centres in the stems. For interesting accounts of the habits of several digger wasps see Peckham's "The Solitary Wasps."

The solitary bees, of which there are similarly many kinds, are like the solitary wasps in general habit, only they provision the nest with a mixture of pollen and nectar got from flowers instead of with stung insects. Sometimes many individuals of a single species of solitary bee will make their nests near together and thus form a sort of community in which, however, each member has its own nest and rears its own young. In the case of certain small mining bees of the genus _Halictus_, a step farther toward true communal life is taken by the common building and use by several females of a single vertical tunnel or burrow from which each female makes an individual lateral tunnel, at the end of which is a brood-chamber. Perhaps half a dozen females will thus live together, each independent except for the common use of the vertical tunnel and exit.

The b.u.mblebees (_Bombus_ sp.) are truly communal in habit. All the eggs are laid by a queen or fertile female, which is the only member of the colony to live through the winter. In the spring she finds a deserted mouse's nest or other hole in the ground, gathers a ma.s.s of pollen and lays some eggs on it. The larvae, hatching, feed on the pollen, dig out irregular cells for themselves in it, pupate, and soon issue as workers, or infertile females. These workers gather more pollen, the queen lays more eggs, and several successive broods of workers are produced. Finally late in the summer a brood containing males (drones) and fertile females (queens) is produced, mating takes place, and then before winter all the workers and drones and some of the queens die, leaving a few fertilized queens to hibernate and establish new communities in the spring.

The yellow-jackets and hornets (Vespidae), the so-called social wasps, have a life-history very like that of the b.u.mblebees. The communities of the social wasps are larger and their nests are often made above ground, being composed of several combs one above the other and all enclosed in a many-layered covering sac open only by a small hole at the bottom. This kind of nest hangs from the branch of a tree and is built of wasp-paper, which is a pulp made from bits of old wood chewed by the workers. The brood-cells are provisioned with killed and chewed insects, the larvae of both solitary and social wasps being given animal food, while the larvae of both solitary and social bees are fed flower-pollen and honey. As in the b.u.mblebees, all the members of the community except a few fertilized females die in the autumn, the surviving queens founding new colonies in the spring. The queen builds a miniature "hornet's nest" in the spring, lays an egg in each cell and stores the cells with chewed insects. The first brood is composed of workers, which enlarge the nest, get more food, and relieve the queen of all labor except that of egg-laying. More broods of workers follow until the fall brood of males and females appears, after which the original process is repeated.

The honey-bees and ants show a highly specialized communal life, with a well-marked division of labor and an individual sacrifice of independence and personal advantage which is remarkable. Their communities are large, including thousands of individuals, and the structural differences among the males, females, and workers are readily recognizable. With the ants the workers may be of two or more sorts, a distinction into large and small workers or worker majors and worker minors being not uncommon.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 80.--The honey-bee, _Apis mellifica_; _A_, queen, _B_, drone, _C_, worker. (From specimens.)]

A honey-bee community, living in hollow tree or hive, includes a queen or fertile female, a few hundred drones or fertile males, and ten to forty thousand workers, infertile females (fig. 80). The number of drones and workers varies, being smallest in winter. Each kind of individual has a certain particular part of the work of the whole community to do; the queen lays all the eggs, that is, is the mother of the entire community; the drones act simply as the royal consorts, fertilizing the eggs; while the workers build the comb, produce the wax from which the cells are constructed, bring in all the food consisting of flower-pollen and nectar, care for the young bees, fight off intruders, and in fact perform all the many labors and industries of the community except those of reproduction. There is a certain not very well understood and perhaps not very sharply defined division of these labors among the worker individuals, the younger ones acting specially as "nurses," feeding and caring for the young bees (larvae and pupae), the older ones making the food-gathering expeditions. The queen lays her eggs one in each of many cells (fig. 81). These eggs hatch in three days, and the young bee appears as a white, soft, footless, helpless grub or larva that is fed at first by the nurses with a highly nutritious substance called bee-jelly which the nurses make in their stomachs and regurgitate for the larva. After two or three days of this feeding the larvae are fed pollen and honey. After a few days a small ma.s.s of this food is put into the cell, which is then "capped" or covered with wax. The larva after using up this food-supply pupates, and lies quiescent in the pupal stage for thirteen days, when the fully developed bee issues, and breaking through the wax cap of the cell is ready for the labors which are immediately a.s.signed it. The bee with the kind of life-history just described is a worker. It has been demonstrated that the eggs which produce workers and those which produce queens do not differ, but if the workers desire to have a queen produced they tear down two or three cells around some one cell, enlarging this latter into a large vase-shaped cell. When the larva hatches from the egg in this cell it is fed for its whole larval life with bee-jelly.

From the pupa into which this larva transforms issues not a worker but a new queen. The eggs which produce drones or males differ from those which produce queens and workers in being unfertilized, the queen having the power to lay either fertilized or unfertilized eggs. When a new queen appears or when several appear at once there is great excitement in the community. If several appear they fight among themselves until only one survives. It is said that a queen never uses its sting except against another queen. The old queen now leaves the hive accompanied by many of the workers. She and her followers fly away together, finally alighting on some tree-branch and ma.s.sing there in a dense swarm. This is the familiar act of "swarming." Scouts leave the swarm to find a new home, to which they finally conduct the whole swarm. Thus is founded a new colony. "This swarming of the honey-bee is essential to the continued existence of the species; for in social insects it is as necessary that the colonies be multiplied as it is that there should be a reproduction of individuals. Otherwise as the colonies were destroyed the species would become extinct. With the social wasps and with the b.u.mblebees the old queen and the young ones remain together peacefully in the nest; but at the close of the season the nest is abandoned by all as an unfit place for pa.s.sing the winter, and in the following spring each young queen founds a new colony. Thus there is a tendency towards a great multiplication of colonies. But with the honey-bee the habit of storing food for winter, and the nature of the habitations of these insects, render it possible for the colonies to exist indefinitely, and thus if the old and young queens remained together peacefully there would be no multiplication of colonies and the species would surely die out in time. We see, therefore, that what appears to be merely jealousy on the part of the queen honey-bee is an instinct necessary to the continuance of the species."

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 81.--Worker brood and queen cells of honey-bee; beginning at the right end of upper row of cells and going to the left is a series of egg, young larvae, old larvae, pupa, and adult ready to issue; the large curving cells below are queen cells. (From Benton.)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 82.--Honey-bees building comb. (From Benton.)]

For the special labors of gathering food, making wax, building cells, etc., the workers are provided with special structures, as the pollen-baskets on the outer surface of the widened tibia of the hind legs, the wax-shears between the tibia and first tarsal joint of the hind legs, the wax-plates on the ventral surface of the abdomen, etc.

A great many interesting things connected with the life and industries of a honey-bee community can be learned by the student from observation, using for a guide some book such as Cowan's "Natural History of the Honey-bee."

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 83.--Comb of the tiny East Indian honey-bee, _Apis florea_, one-third natural size. (From Benton.)]

The gathering of food from long distances, the details of wax-making and comb-building, of honey-making (for the nectar of flowers is made into honey by an interesting process), the storing of food, how the community protects itself from starvation when winter sets in or food is scarce by killing the useless drones and the immature bees in egg and larval stage, and many other phenomena of the life of the bee community present good opportunities for careful observation and field study. Although the community is a persistent or continuous one, the individuals do not live long, the workers hatched in the spring usually not more than two or three months, and those hatched in the fall not more than six or eight months. But new ones are hatching while the old ones are dying and the community as a whole always persists. A queen may live several years, perhaps as many as five. She lays about one million eggs a year.

There are more than two thousand known species of ants (fig. 84), all of which live in communities and show a truly communal life. The ant workers are specially distinguished in structure from the males and females by being wingless, and in numerous species there are two sizes or kinds of workers known as worker majors and worker minors. The life-history and communal habits of ants are not so thoroughly known as are those of the honey-bee, but they show even more remarkable specializations. The ant nest or formicary is with most species an elaborate system of underground galleries and chambers, special rooms being used exclusively for certain special purposes, as nurse-rooms, food-storage rooms, etc. The food of ants comprises many animal and vegetable substances, but the favorite food with many species is the "honey-dew" secreted by the plant-lice (Aphididae) and scale insects (Coccidae). To obtain this food an ant strokes one of the aphids with its antennae, when the fluid is excreted by the insect and drunk by the ant. In order to have a certain supply of this food some species of ants care for and defend these defenseless aphids, which have been called the "cattle" of the ants. In some cases they are even taken into the ants' nests and food provided for them. "In the Mississippi Valley a certain kind of plant-louse lives on the roots of corn. Its eggs are deposited in the ground in the autumn and hatch the following spring before the corn is planted. Now the common little brown ant (_Lasius flavus_) lives abundantly in the cornfields, and is especially fond of the honey secreted by the corn-root louse. So when the plant-lice hatch in the spring before there are corn-roots for them to feed on, the little brown ants with great solicitude carefully place the plant-lice on the roots of a certain kind of knot-weed which grows in the field and protect them until the corn germinates. Then the ants remove the plant-lice to the roots of the corn, their favorite food-plant. In the arid lands of New Mexico and Arizona the ants rear scale insects on the roots of cactus."

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 84.--The little black ant, _Monomorium minutum_; _a_, female, _b_, female with wings, _c_, male, _d_, workers, _e_, pupa, _f_, larva, _g_, egg of worker, all enlarged. (From Marlatt.)]

The ants are among the most warlike of insects. Battles between communities of different species are numerous, and the victorious community takes possession of the food-stores of the conquered. Some species of ants live wholly by war and robbery. In the case of the remarkable robber-ant (_Eciton_), found in tropical and subtropical regions, most of the workers are soldiers, and no longer do any work but fighting. The whole community lives exclusively by pillage. Some kinds of ants go even farther than mere robbery of food-stores: they make slaves of the conquered ants. There are numerous species of these slave-making ants. They attack a nest of another species and carry into their own nest the eggs and larvae and pupae of the conquered community, and when these come to maturity they act as slaves of the victors, collecting food, building additions to the nest, and caring for the young of the slave-makers.

As with the honey-bee the larval ants are helpless grubs and are cared for and fed by nurses. The so-called "ants' eggs," the little white oval ma.s.ses which we often see being carried in the mouths of ants in and out of an ants' nest, are not eggs, but are the pupae which are being brought out to enjoy the warmth and light of the sun or being taken back into the nest afterward.

There are in this country numerous species of ants showing much variety of habit and offering excellent opportunities for most interesting field observations. For an account of several of the common species see Comstock's "Manual of Insects," pp. 633-643. Ants may be readily kept in the schoolroom in an artificial nest or formicary and their life-history and habits closely watched. For full directions for making and keeping a simple and inexpensive formicary see Comstock's "Insect Life," pp.

278-281. For an interesting account of some of the habits of the social insects see Lubbock's "Ants, Bees, and Wasps."

CLa.s.s MYRIAPODA: THE MYRIAPODS, OR CENTIPEDS AND MILLIPEDS.

Belonging to the branch Arthropoda, with the cla.s.ses Crustacea and Insecta, are three other cla.s.ses, of which one, the Onychophora, is represented by a single genus _Peripatus_ (Fig. 85), of extremely interesting animals. However, as these animals are not found in the United States we cannot study them. The other two cla.s.ses are the Myriapoda, including the centipeds and millipeds or thousand-legged worms, and the Arachnida, including the scorpions, spiders, mites, and ticks. All these animals are often spoken of as insects, but though related to them they are not true insects.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 85.--_Peripatus eiseni_ (Mexico). (From specimen.)]

TECHNICAL NOTE.--From under stones or logs obtain specimens of millipeds, or thousand-legged worms (large blackish, cylindrical, worm-like animals with each body-segment back of the fourth bearing two pairs of jointed legs); also specimens of centipeds or hundred-legged worms (flattened, usually brownish or pale worm-like animals with the body-segments bearing only one pair of legs each) in the same places. Examine the external structure; note number of body-rings; division into body-regions; presence of antennae; character and number of eyes; character of mouth-parts; character and arrangement of legs. In the centipeds the first pair of legs is modified to form a pair of poison-fangs. They appear to belong to the mouth-parts. The internal anatomy will be found to be, if examined, much like that of insects and can be studied from the account of the anatomy of the water-scavenger beetle and b.u.t.terfly larva. Compare the Myriapods with the Hexapods or true insects. What are the points of resemblance? what are the points of difference?

The Myriapoda are land-animals breathing by means of tracheae like the insects. In them the body-segments are nearly uniform in character with the exception of the head, which, as in the insects, bears the mouth-parts and antennae. There is no grouping of the body-segments into regions except as the head is opposed to the rest of the body. (In a few myriapods there are indications of a division of the hind body into thorax and abdomen.) The presence of true legs on all the segments of the hinder region of the body and the lack of the three-region division of the body are the princ.i.p.al external structural characteristics which distinguish myriapods from insects. The internal anatomy corresponds in general character with that of insects.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 86.--A galley-worm (milliped), _Julus_ sp. (From specimen.)]

The most familiar myriapods are the millipeds, and the lithobians and centipeds. The millipeds are cylindrical in shape, have two pairs of legs on most of the body-segments and are vegetable feeders, though some may feed on dead animal matter. The galley-worms (_Julus_) (fig.

86), large, blackish, cylindrical millipeds found under stones and logs and leaves and in loose soil, are familiar forms. They crawl slowly and when disturbed curl up and emit a malodorous fluid. They can easily be kept alive in shallow gla.s.s vessels with a layer of earth in the bottom, and their habits and life-history may thus be studied. They should be fed sliced apples, green leaves, gra.s.s, strawberries, fresh ears of corn, etc. They are not poisonous and may be handled with impunity. They lay their eggs in little spherical cells or nests in the ground. An English species of which the life-history has been studied lays from 60 to 100 eggs at a time. The eggs of this species hatch in about twelve days.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 87.--The skein centiped, _Scutigera forceps_, natural size, common in houses and conservatories. (From Marlatt.)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 88.--A centiped, _Scolopendra_ sp. (From specimen.)]

The lithobians and centipeds are flattened and have but a single pair of legs on each body-ring. They are predaceous in habit, catching and killing insects, snails, earthworms, etc. They can run rapidly, and have the first pair of legs modified into a pair of poison-claws, which are bent forward so as to lie near the mouth. The common "skein"

centiped (_Scutigera forceps_) (fig. 87) is yellowish and has fifteen pairs of legs, long 40-segmented antennae, and nine large and six smaller dorsal segmental plates. The true centipeds (_Scolopendra_) (fig. 88) have twenty-one to twenty-three body-rings, each with a pair of legs, and the antennae have seventeen to twenty joints. They live in warm regions, some growing to be very large, as long as twelve inches or more. The "bite" or wound made by the poison-claws is fatal to insects and other small animals, their prey, and painful or even dangerous to man. The popular notion that a centiped "stings" with all of its feet is fallacious. It is recorded by Humboldt that centipeds are eaten by some of the South American Indians.

CLa.s.s ARACHNIDA: THE SCORPIONS, SPIDERS, MITES, AND TICKS.

TECHNICAL NOTE.--Obtain specimens of various spiders; the running or hunting spiders may be found on the ground, especially under stones and boards, the web-makers on their snares. Get also spiders' "coc.o.o.ns" (egg-sacs). Examine the external structure of the spider; note the two body-regions; the number and character of legs; the absence of antennae; the number and arrangement of the eyes (which are simple, not compound); the mouth-parts, especially the large mandibles; the spinnerets at the tip of the abdomen (examine a cut off spinneret under the microscope to see the spinning-tubes); note the breathing openings or spiracles on under side of abdomen. Obtain also a scorpion if possible, and some ticks and mites. Compare with the spiders and note that in the scorpion the body is plainly seen (especially in the abdomen) to be composed of segments. Note the extreme fusion of the segments and body-regions in the mites and ticks. The common red spider of hothouses and gardens is a mite; ticks may sometimes be found on dogs. Observe various kinds of spider-webs, and try to observe the process of web-making (this can be observed early in the morning or about dusk) by one of the orb-weaving garden-spiders. Live spiders can be kept in the schoolroom and their feeding habits and perhaps web-making habits observed.

The cla.s.s Arachnida is composed of Arthropods whose body-segments are grouped into two regions, a cephalothorax bearing the mouth-parts, eyes, and legs, and an abdomen. The segments composing these two parts are so fused that, except in the scorpions, they are usually indistinguishable. There are no antennae, the eyes are simple, the mouth-parts fitted for biting, and there are four pairs of legs. In their internal anatomy the arachnids show in some forms a peculiar modification of the respiratory organs, the tracheae being flat and leaf-like and ma.s.sed together in a few groups rather than being tubular and ramifying through the body.