Illustrative Anecdotes of the Animal Kingdom Part 22

THE SPIDER.

The celebrated Lewenhoek found by microscopic observation that the threads of the minutest spiders, some of which are not larger than a grain of sand, are so fine that it would take four millions of them to make a thread as thick as a hair of his beard. In the early part of the last century, M. Bon, of Languedoc, fabricated a pair of stockings and a pair of gloves from the threads of spiders. They were nearly as strong as silk, and of a beautiful gray color.

The animal ferocity of spiders makes it impossible to keep them together. M. Bon distributed 4 or 5000 spiders into different cells, putting in each cell about 200, and fed them with flies; but the large ones soon devoured the small ones, and in a short time there were only one or two large ones left in each cell.

To test the ingenuity of the spider, a gentleman frequently placed one on a small upright stick, and surrounded the base with water. After having reconnoitred, and discovered that the ordinary means of escape were cut off, it ascended the stick, and, standing nearly on its head, ejected its long web, which the wind soon carried to some contiguous object: along this the sagacious insect effected its escape--not, however, until it had ascertained, by several exertions of its own strength, that its web was securely attached at the end.

THE SCORPION.

This is one of the largest of the insect tribe, and is not less terrible for its size than its malignity. Its sting, in some countries, is fatal. Volchammer put one of these creatures, and a large spider, into a gla.s.s vessel. The latter used all its efforts to entangle the scorpion in its web, which it immediately began to spin; but the scorpion stung its adversary to death; it then cut off all its legs, and sucked out the internal parts at its leisure.

The same naturalist shut up a female scorpion with her young in a gla.s.s case. She devoured all but one, which took refuge on the back of its parent, and soon revenged the death of its brethren by killing the old one in its turn.

THE DEATH-WATCH.

This insect makes a ticking noise by beating its head with great force against whatever it happens to stand on. Two of them were kept in a box by a gentleman for three weeks; and he found that, by imitating their note by beating with the point of a pin or nail upon the table, the insect would answer him as many times as he made the sound.

THE GLOWWORM.

The female of this insect is very luminous, and has no wings. The light always becomes brighter when the worm is in motion, and it can withdraw it when it pleases. When the light is most brilliant, it emits a sensible heat. When a glowworm is put into a phial, and this is immersed in water, a beautiful irradiation takes place. If the insect be crushed, and the hands and face rubbed with it, they have a luminous appearance, like that produced by phosphorus.

THE FIRE-FLY.

"I was in the habit," says a writer on the Island of Jamaica, "of enclosing, every night, a dozen or more fire-flies under an inverted gla.s.s tumbler on my bedroom table, the light of whose bodies enabled me to read without difficulty. They are about the size of a bee, and perfectly harmless. Their coming forth in more than usual numbers is the certain harbinger of rain; and I have frequently, while travelling, met them in such numbers that, be the night ever so dark, the path was as visible as at noonday."

THE BEETLE.

The following account of the BURYING BEETLE is given by M. Gleditsch, a foreign naturalist. He often remarked that dead moles, when laid upon the ground, especially if upon loose earth, were almost sure to disappear in the course of two or three days, often of twelve hours. To ascertain the cause, he placed a mole upon one of the beds in his garden. It had vanished by the third morning; and, on digging where it had been laid, he found it buried to the depth of three inches, and under it four beetles, which seemed to have been the agents in this singular inhumation. To determine the point more clearly, he put four of these insects into a gla.s.s vessel, half filled with earth, and properly secured, and upon the surface of the earth, two frogs. In less than twelve hours, one of the frogs was interred by two of the beetles; the other two ran about the whole day, as if busied in measuring the dimensions of the remaining corpse, which on the third day was also found buried. He then introduced a dead linnet. A pair of the beetles were soon engaged upon the bird. They began their operations by pushing out the earth from under the body, so as to form a cavity for its reception; and it was curious to see the efforts which the beetles made, by dragging at the feathers of the bird from below, to pull it into its grave. The male, having driven the female away, continued the work alone for five hours. He lifted up the bird, changed its place, turned it, and arranged it in the grave, and from time to time came out of the hole, mounted upon it, and trod it under foot, and then retired below, and pulled it down. At length, apparently wearied with this uninterrupted labor, it came forth, and leaned its head upon the earth beside the bird, without the smallest motion, as if to rest itself, for a full hour, when it again crept under the earth. The next day, in the morning, the bird was an inch and a half under ground, and the trench remained open the whole day, the corpse seeming as if laid out upon a bier, surrounded with a rampart of mould. In the evening, it had sunk half an inch lower; and in another day, the work was completed, and the bird covered. M. Gleditsch continued to add other small dead animals, which were all sooner or later buried; and the result of his experiment was, that in fifty days four beetles had interred, in the very small s.p.a.ce of earth allotted to them, twelve carca.s.ses: viz., four frogs, three small birds, two fishes, one mole, and two gra.s.shoppers, besides the entrails of a fish, and two morsels of the lungs of an ox.

The QUEEN BEETLE is about one inch and a quarter in length; she carries by her side two brilliant lamps, which she lights up at pleasure with the solar phosphorus furnished her by nature. These lamps do not flash and glimmer like those of the fire-fly, but give as steady a light as that of gas, exhibiting two glowing spheres as large as a minute pearl, which affords light enough, in the darkest night, to enable one to read by them. The queen beetle is found only in tropical climates.

THE EARWIG.

Baron de Geer, a famous Swedish naturalist, gives us the following: "About the end of March I found an earwig brooding over her eggs in a small cell, scooped out in a garden border. In order to watch her proceedings, I removed the eggs into my study, placing them upon fresh earth under a bell-gla.s.s. The careful mother soon scooped out a fresh cell, and collected the scattered eggs with great care to the little nest, placing herself over them, to prevent the too rapid evaporation of the moisture. When the earth began to dry up, she dug the cell gradually deeper, till at length she got almost out of view. At last, the cell became too dry, and she removed the eggs to the edge of the gla.s.s, where some of the moisture had condensed. Upon observing this, I dropped some water into the abandoned cell, and the mother soon after removed the eggs there. Her subsequent proceedings were no less interesting; but I regret to add that, during my absence, the bell-gla.s.s was removed, and the earwig escaped with her eggs."

THE CRICKET.

Mr. Southey describes the perilous situation of a ship sailing to Brazil, which was saved from shipwreck by the singing of a ground cricket. "Three days they stood towards land. A soldier, who had set out in ill health, had brought a ground cricket with him from Cadiz, thinking to be amused by the insect's voice; but it had been silent the whole distance, to his no small disappointment. Now, on the fourth morning, the _grillo_ had begun to ring its shrill rattle, scenting the land. Such was the miserable watch that had been kept, that, upon looking out at this warning, they perceived high rocks within bowshot, against which, had it not been for the insect, they must inevitably have been lost. They had just time to drop anchor. From hence they coasted along, the grillo singing every night as if it had been on sh.o.r.e, till they reached the Islands of St. Catalina."

In China, the people take as much pleasure in cricket fights as the Spaniards do in bull fights. Two crickets are pitted against each other, and crowds of people gather round, to witness the combat. The insects rush at each other with great fury; and the spectators, high and low, rich and poor, seem to experience the most lively sensations of delight.

THE LOCUST.

In July, 1827, the Russian General Cobley had a grand battle with the locusts, on his estate of Coblewka, along the borders of the Sea of Oschakoff. The locusts were marching in twenty-four columns, and were destroying all the crops. General Cobley collected the peasants on his estate, and from all the neighboring country, amounting to five hundred persons. They were armed with pitchforks, spades, drums, and bells; and, thus equipped, they commenced their march against the invaders.

They soon compelled them to retreat, and pursued them incessantly towards the sea, where they were forced to jump into the water, and were drowned. Three days afterwards, the sea-sh.o.r.e was covered with the dead locusts, cast up by the waves; the air was infected by a fetid exhalation, and great numbers of poisoned fish were cast up by the waves on the strand. It is probable that the fish had fed on the locusts.

THE ANT.

_Anecdotes._--In tracing the designs of the cells and galleries, each ant appears to follow its own fancy. A want of accordance must therefore frequently take place at the point where their works join; but they never appear to be embarra.s.sed by any difficulties of this kind. An instance is related, in which two opposite walls were made, of such different elevations, that the ceiling of the one, if continued, would not have reached above half way of the height of the other. An experienced ant, arriving at the spot, seemed struck with the defect, immediately destroyed the lower ceiling, built up the wall to the proper height, and formed a new ceiling with the materials of the former.

In the "Transactions of the French Academy," an account is given of an ant, that was taken from a hill, and thrown upon a heap of corn. It seemed attentively to survey this treasure, and then hastened back to its former abode, where it communicated intelligence of the land of plenty; for an immense host of its brethren quickly made their appearance, and commenced carrying off the grain.

M. Homberg informs us that, in Surinam, there is a species of ant called by the natives the _visiting ant_. These animals march in large troops, with the same order and precision as do a regularly-const.i.tuted army. They are welcome visitors to the natives, on account of their power of exterminating rats, mice, and other noxious animals, with which that country abounds. No sooner do they appear, than all the coffers, chests of drawers, and locked-up places in the house, are thrown open for them, when they immediately commence their work of destruction of animal life, as if commissioned by nature for that purpose. The only regret of the natives is, that they pay their visits but once in three or four years.

Two ants meeting on a path across a gravel-walk, one going to and the other from the nest, stop, touch each other's antennae, and appear to hold a conversation. One would almost fancy that one was communicating to the other the best place for foraging.

THE CATERPILLAR.

A curious species of manufacture was contrived by an officer of engineers residing at Munich. It consisted of lace veils, with open patterns on them, made entirely by caterpillars. Having made a paste of the leaves of the plant on which the insect feeds, he spread it thinly over a stone, or other flat substance, of the required size. He then, with a camel's hair pencil dipped in olive oil, drew a pattern he wished the insects to leave open. This stone was then placed in an inclined position, and a number of caterpillars were placed at the bottom. A peculiar species was chosen, which spins a strong web, and the animals commenced at the bottom, eating and spinning their way up to the top, carefully avoiding every part touched by the oil, but devouring every other part of the paste. The extreme lightness of these veils, combined with their strength, is surprising.

THE b.u.t.tERFLY.

In June, 1826, a column of b.u.t.terflies, from ten to fifteen feet broad, was seen to pa.s.s over Neufchatel, in Switzerland; the pa.s.sage lasted upwards of two hours, without any interruption, from the moment when the insects were observed.

THE MOTH.

A moth was once caught, at Arracan, which measured ten inches from the tip of one wing to the tip of the other, both being variegated with the brightest colors.

THE SILKWORM.

The great care bestowed upon this creature in China is shown in the following extract from an old work: "The place where their habitation is built must be retired, free from noisome smells, cattle, and all noises; as a noisome smell, or the least fright, makes great impressions upon so tender a breed; even the barking of dogs, and the crowing of c.o.c.ks are capable of putting them in disorder when they are newly hatched. For the purpose of paying them every attention, an affectionate mother is provided for their wants; she is called _Isan-more_, mother of the worms. She takes possession of the chamber, but not till she has washed herself, and put on clean clothes which have not the least ill smell; she must not have eaten any thing before, or have handled any wild succory, the smell of which is very prejudicial; she must be clothed in a plain habit without any lining, that she may be more sensible of the warmth of the place, and accordingly increase or lessen the fire; but she must carefully avoid making a smoke, or raising a dust, which would be very offensive to these tender creatures, which must be carefully tended before the first time of casting their slough."

During the first twenty-four hours of the silkworm's existence, the patient Chinese feeds the objects of her care forty-eight times a day; during the second or third day, thirty times; and so on, reducing the number of meals as the worm grows older.

FLIES.

Sir Arthur Young thus speaks of flies in his "Travels through the South of Europe:" "Flies form the most disagreeable circ.u.mstance in the southern climates. They are the first torments in Spain, Italy, and the olive districts of France. It is not that they bite, sting, or hurt; but they buzz, tease, and worry: your mouth, eyes, ears, and nose, are full of them; they swarm on every eatable. Fruit, sugar, milk, every thing, is attacked by them in such myriads, that if they were not driven away, by a person who has nothing else to do, to eat a meal is impossible. If I farmed in these countries, I think I should manure four or five acres of land a year with dead flies."

CLa.s.s RADIATA ... RADIATED ANIMALS.