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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Insect Folk + +Author: Margaret Warner Morley + +Release Date: July 8, 2006 [EBook #18790] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE INSECT FOLK *** + + + + +Produced by Joseph R. Hauser, Janet Blenkinship and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + + + +<h1>The Insect Folk</h1> + +<p><br /></p> + +<h4>BY</h4> + +<p><br /></p> + +<h2>MARGARET WARNER MORLEY</h2> + +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<p class='center'>AUTHOR OF "SEED-BABIES," "FLOWERS AND THEIR FRIENDS" +"LITTLE WANDERERS," ETC.</p> + +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<h3><i>ILLUSTRATED BY THE AUTHOR</i></h3> + +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<p class='center'>BOSTON, U.S.A.<br /> +GINN & COMPANY, PUBLISHERS<br /> +1903</p> + +<p class='center'>Copyright, 1903, by<br /> +MARGARET WARNER MORLEY<br /> +<i>All rights reserved</i></p> + +<p><br /><br /></p> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>A WORD TO THE CHILDREN</h2> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Children</span>,—The very best way to know the insects is to go +and watch them. Watch them whenever you can, and each time you will find +out something new. Books will help you, but you must watch, too. Look +more than you read.</p> + +<p>If you need to catch them, put them under a tumbler, and feed them and +give them a drop of water every day to drink. Slip a card under the rim +of the tumbler on one side so as to let in the air. If you do not know +what to feed them, or if they will not eat, let them go after a day or +two.</p> + +<p>If you wish to kill an injurious insect, do it <i>quickly and completely</i>. +Remember the insects are alive, and we should not make them suffer +unnecessarily.</p> + +<p>Of course you must try to make your captives feel at home. If they live +in the sand, put sand in the tumbler and tie a piece of netting over the +top so they cannot escape.</p> + +<p>If they live in the water, put them in a tumbler of water. And when you +have secured your captives, watch them as much as you can.</p> + +<p>If you do not know how to pronounce the words in this book, study the +glossary at the back and it will help you.</p> + +<p>I hope you will have a very happy time getting acquainted with your +little insect neighbors.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 20em;">MARGARET WARNER MORLEY.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;" class="smcap">Boston,</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">April 18, 1903.</span><br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + + +<table border="0" cellpadding="2" width="70%" cellspacing="4" summary="Contents"> +<tr><td align='left'> </td><td align='right'>PAGE</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Our Pretty Dragon Flies</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_3'><b>3</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Fairy May Flies</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_25'><b>25</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Stone Fly Folk</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_33'><b>33</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Silver Fish</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_36'><b>36</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Old Cockroaches</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_41'><b>41</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Neighbor Walking Stick</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_52'><b>52</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Grasshopper Tribes</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_59'><b>59</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Shorthorned Grasshoppers</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_61'><b>61</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Longhorned Grasshoppers</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_81'><b>81</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Pretty Katydids</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_94'><b>94</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Cricket-like Grasshoppers</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_99'><b>99</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Cheery Cricket People</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_101'><b>101</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">A Large Family</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_107'><b>107</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Great Bug Family</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_115'><b>115</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Water Boatman</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_116'><b>116</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Funny Back-swimmers</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_124'><b>124</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Giant Water Bug</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_125'><b>125</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Little Mrs. Shore Bug</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_127'><b>127</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Airy Water Striders</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_127'><b>127</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">A Queer Fellow</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_129'><b>129</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Well Dressed Lace Bug</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_132'><b>132</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">A Bad Bug</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_133'><b>133</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Troublesome Red Bug</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_135'><b>135</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Ravenous Chinch Bugs</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_138'><b>138</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Well Protected Stink Bug</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_139'><b>139</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Louse</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_142'><b>142</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Bird Lice and Book Lice</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_142'><b>142</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Friend Cicada</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_143'><b>143</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Odd Spittle Insect</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_152'><b>152</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Pretty Leaf Hoppers</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_154'><b>154</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Comical Tree Hoppers</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_157'><b>157</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Jumping Plant Lice</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_157'><b>157</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Aphids</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_158'><b>158</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Scale Bugs</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_165'><b>165</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Horned Corydalus</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_175'><b>175</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Fairy Lacewing</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_183'><b>183</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Ant Lion</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_187'><b>187</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Little Caddice Flies</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_190'><b>190</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Glossary</span></td><td align='right'><a href='#Page_197'><b>197</b></a></td></tr> +</table> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p><br /><br /></p> + + +<h2>Odonata</h2> + +<h2>Ephemerida</h2> + +<h2>Plecoptera</h2> + +<h2>Thysanura</h2> + +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span></p> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img010.jpg" alt="Dragon Flies" title="Dragon Flies" /></div> + +<h2><span class="smcap">Our Pretty Dragon Flies</span></h2> + + +<p>Come, children; come with me.</p> + +<p>Come to a pond I know of.</p> + +<p>See how the water shines in the sun.</p> + +<p>Over there is an old log lying on the edge of the pond.</p> + +<p>It is covered with green moss, and a green frog is sitting on one end of +it.</p> + +<p>Let us go and sit on the other end.</p> + +<p>Goop! he says, and—plump! he has jumped into the water.</p> + +<p>That is too bad, frog; we did not mean to disturb you.</p> + +<p>How pretty it is here!</p> + +<p>See the pickerel weed growing out in the water with its arrow-shaped +leaves, and its spikes of purple flowers.</p> + +<p>See, down in the water are little fish, and very likely pollywogs are +there too, and lots of queer little things.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span></p> + +<p>But who is this darting over the pond?</p> + +<p>Ah, we know you.</p> + +<p>You are our queer little, dear little old dragon fly.</p> + +<p>Look, children; see the dragon flies darting about like flashes of light +in every direction.</p> + +<p>They are having such a good time.</p> + +<p>Whizz! One flashed right past Mollie's ear.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img011.jpg" alt="Dragon Flies" title="Dragon Flies" /></div> + + +<p>Pretty people, I wish one of you would come and sit by us a little +while, so we could get a good look at you.</p> + +<p>What is that, Ned? You have found a large one lying on the ground?</p> + +<p>Sure enough; it is a beauty too, with a green body and silver wings.</p> + +<p>Something seems to be wrong with it; it does not fly nor try to get +away.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span></p> + +<p>What a big one it is!</p> + +<p>My! my! what eyes!</p> + +<p>Don't crowd, Amy; let little Nell see too.</p> + +<p>What is that you say, Richard? "It catches mosquitoes and gnats and +flies and other insects while flying."</p> + +<p>Yes, and that is why it has such big eyes. We should need big eyes +ourselves if we were to spend our time chasing mosquitoes.</p> + +<p>Two eyes you have, little dragon fly, like the rest of us, but your eyes +are not like ours.</p> + +<p>No, indeed!</p> + +<p>Each of your big eyes is made up of a great many small eyes packed close +together.</p> + +<p>Do you know, children, that some of the largest of the dragon flies have +as many as twenty thousand facets, or small eyes, in each large eye?</p> + +<p>Think of it! Forty thousand eyes in one little dragon fly head. It +<i>ought</i> to see well.</p> + + +<p>These facets are six-sided, excepting those along the edge, which are +rounded on the outside. You cannot see their real shape without a +microscope, they are so small. But here is a picture of some facets<img src="images/img012.jpg" alt="Eye" title="Eye" /> as +they look under the microscope.</p> + + + +<p>Eyes like these, made up of many facets, we call compound eyes.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span></p> + +<p>All grown-up insects have compound eyes, though not many have as large +ones as the dragon fly.</p> + +<p>Only insects that chase other insects or that need to see in the dark +have very large eyes.</p> + +<p>See what a big mouth the dragon fly has. Its jaws do not show unless it +opens its lower lip, which fits over its mouth like a mask.</p> + +<p>I should not care to have it bite my finger.</p> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/img013.jpg" alt="Dragon Flies" title="Dragon Flies" /></div> +<p>It could not hurt very much, and its bite is not poisonous, still I +shall handle it carefully.</p> + +<p>Some call the dragon fly a darning needle, and say it sews up people's +ears when they lie on the grass. This is not true. It does not sew up +anything. It has nothing to sew with.</p> + + + +<p>Why should it want to sew up people's ears, anyway?</p> + +<p>It does nothing unpleasant but bite fingers, and it never goes out of +its way to do that.</p> + +<p>If we let it alone, it always lets us alone.</p> + +<p>It is our good friend because it catches mosquitoes. For this reason it +is sometimes called mosquito hawk.</p> + +<p>We should never kill a dragon fly.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span></p> + +<p>Sometimes it is called a spindle, I suppose because it is long and +slender like a spindle.</p> + +<p>Down South the colored people believe the dragon fly brings dead snakes +to life, and they call it snake doctor.</p> + +<p>In some places it is called snake feeder.</p> + +<p>But it has nothing to do with snakes, dead or alive.</p> + +<p>The French have given it a pretty name, <i>demoiselle</i>, or damsel fly, and +that is quite deserved, for the dragon fly is a graceful little +creature, as pretty as pretty can be.</p> + + +<p>See, sticking out of the front of its head are two little feelers,<img src="images/img014.jpg" alt="Feelers" title="Feelers" /> or +antennæ, as we must call them.</p> + +<p>They are very short, but it does not need long ones.</p> + +<p>Insects smell with their feelers, you know, but our dragon flies see so +well they do not need to smell very well, I suppose.</p> + +<p>See how it can turn its head around. That is because it has a little +short neck between its head and its body.</p> + +<p>Its eyes, its mouth, and its antennæ belong to its head.</p> + +<p>Of course our demoiselle can fly well; one need only look at those wings +to know that.</p> + +<p>To fly well is quite as necessary to one of its habits as to see well.</p> + +<p>What would be the use of seeing an insect if it could not fly fast +enough to catch it?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span></p> + +<p>We all like your pretty wings, little dragon fly; they look like glass +and they shine so in the sun.</p> + +<p>How fast the wings can move! See that dragon fly skimming over the pond; +its wings make a whizzing sound as it darts about.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img015.jpg" alt="Dragon Flies" title="Dragon Flies" /></div> + +<p>Why does it zigzag so?</p> + +<p>Why doesn't it fly in a straight line?</p> + +<p>Yes, Mollie, you are right, it goes zigzagging along after insects.</p> + +<p>It sees one it wants off at one side—whizz! around it turns after it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span></p> + +<p>Shouldn't you like to fly like that, children?</p> + +<p>And yet we would not be willing to exchange our arms and hands for +wings.</p> + +<p>We could not whittle a stick nor write a letter if we had only wings.</p> + +<p>In fact we could not do most of the things we now do.</p> + +<p>I am glad I have my hands.</p> + +<p>We are glad, too, that the dragon flies have their pretty, swift wings.</p> + +<p>They have four wings, all nearly the same size and shape, you see, and +they are all stiff and shining.</p> + +<p>Some dragon flies, like this one we have picked up, always keep their +wings spread out.</p> + + +<div class="figright"><img src="images/img016.jpg" alt="Dragon Flies" title="Dragon Flies" /></div> +<p>But over there, standing on the end of that stick, is another kind.</p> + +<p>When it rests its wings are folded together.</p> + +<p>What a pretty one it is! Do you see it?</p> + +<p>It is small, but so pretty.</p> + +<p>It is bright blue and shines as though it had been polished.</p> + +<p>Sometimes birds catch these smaller dragon flies, though birds, as a +rule, are not fond of any of them.</p> + +<p>They are so hard and their wings are so stiff I should think a bird +might almost as well swallow nails.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span></p> + +<p>I am sure no bird could swallow one of the big ones, wings and all!</p> + +<p>But frogs can.</p> + +<p>A frog will try to swallow almost anything it can catch, and it watches +for the dragon flies when they come to lay their eggs in the water.</p> + + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/img017.jpg" alt="Dragon Flies" title="Dragon Flies" /></div> +<p>Suddenly it jumps out, and away goes poor dragon fly into that great +wide frog-mouth.</p> + +<p>Now look at the legs of the dragon fly. It has six.</p> + +<p>Every dragon fly has six legs.</p> + +<p>They are rather short and small for so large an insect, but that is +because it does not need large, strong legs.</p> + +<p>You never saw a dragon fly dig a hole, or run, or even walk, did you?</p> + +<p>Their legs are not arranged for walking. All six of them are directed +forwards as though they were reaching out after something. And so they +are—reaching out after insects.</p> + +<p>Dragon fly catches his prey while he is flying, and he grasps the +insects with his feet.</p> + +<p>He snatches one, and then what?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span></p> + +<p>Does he sit down somewhere and eat it?</p> + +<p>Not he, he is far too hungry for that; he continues his swift flight, +and as he flies he eats.</p> + +<p>As soon as he has finished one fly or gnat, zip! he snatches another.</p> + +<p>He has an insatiable appetite, consuming hundreds of insects in the +course of a day. Nor does he confine his attention to flies and gnats +and mosquitoes and such small fry. He catches what he can. A large +dragon fly will even gorge himself on one of the large-sized +butterflies, and one has been seen calmly chewing away at an enormous +wasp!</p> + +<p>No, indeed, Mabel, the dragon fly does not eat the wings of the +butterfly, it eats only the soft body.</p> + +<p>Probably nothing eats a butterfly, wings and all. Birds and insects +sometimes catch butterflies, and you often see the bright wings lying on +the ground. The wings of insects are not worth eating, and are almost +always cast aside by the creatures that eat the insects.</p> + +<p>Besides catching insects with their legs, the dragon flies cling fast to +things with them, but when they wish to move they do not walk, they fly.</p> + +<p>Yes, indeed, Frank, you are right; their legs are jointed.</p> + +<p>That is so they can move them easily and fold them up when they want +to.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span></p> + +<p>They would find it as hard to get along without joints to their legs as +we should.</p> + +<p>Wouldn't we be stiff if we had no joints!</p> + +<p>See, the legs and wings are fastened to the middle part of the body, the +<i>thorax</i>, we call it.</p> + +<p>All insects have the legs and wings attached to the thorax.</p> + +<p>The rest of the body is the abdomen. See how long it is.</p> + + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/img019.jpg" alt="Dragon Flies" title="Dragon Flies" /></div> +<p>It is the long abdomen that gives the dragon fly its name of spindle, I +suppose.</p> + +<p>The abdomen is jointed, and it can curl up.</p> + +<p>All grown-up insects have a head, a thorax, and a jointed abdomen.<br /><br /></p> + +<p>What are you looking at, Charlie?</p> + +<p>Something moving in the bottom of the pond?</p> + +<p>Let us get it out.</p> + +<p>Here, we will dip it out with this cup.</p> + +<p>What a lot of stuff!</p> + +<p>Sticks and mud—and—what is that?</p> + +<p>Something alive, surely.</p> + +<p>Let us put some clean water in the cup and examine what we have found.</p> + +<p>My! my! what a queer little thing!</p> + +<p>What do you suppose it is?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span></p> + +<p>Ah, I know now, but I do not think you could ever, ever guess, not if +you tried a week.</p> + +<p>It is a young dragon fly!</p> + +<p>It does not look much like its shiny-winged parents.</p> + +<p>It looks like I don't know what, with a face like—well, when you look +right in front of it, like a pug dog.</p> + +<p>Queer! Well, I should think so! What is that, Amy? Am I sure it is a +dragon fly?</p> + +<p>Yes, there is no mistake; a dragon fly one day dropped an egg in the +pond, and out of it hatched—this.</p> + +<div class="figright"><img src="images/img020.jpg" alt="Dragon Flies" title="Dragon Flies" /></div> +<p>It will some day become a shiny-winged dragon fly and catch mosquitoes.</p> + +<p>We will call it larva, and we will watch it a little while.</p> + +<p>Look and see if it has a head, a thorax, and an abdomen.</p> + +<p>Are there antennæ on its head? And has it eyes?</p> + +<p>If you were to look at its eyes with a microscope, you would find that +they are made of six-sided facets, like the eyes of the grown-up dragon +fly.</p> + +<p>They are compound eyes, but they are not as large as the eyes of the +grown-up dragon fly.</p> + +<p>How many legs has it? What are its legs fastened to?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span></p> + +<p>Yes, Nellie, thorax is right.</p> + +<p>Its six legs are fastened to its thorax. I am glad you remembered +thorax.</p> + +<p>Has it a jointed abdomen? and has it wings?</p> + +<p>Look! did you see that?</p> + +<p>It opened its innocent-looking face all of a sudden, just darted it out +into a long-handled spoon, with hooks at the end, and hooked up that +little grub.</p> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/img021.jpg" alt="Dragon Flies" title="Dragon Flies" /></div> +<p>Now it is holding the grub on the hooks in front of its mouth and eating +it as greedily as if it were half starved.</p> + +<p>So that is why its face looks so queer.</p> + +<p>It is its long under lip all folded up in front like a mask that makes +it look like a pug dog.</p> + +<p>When it pleases it darts out that lip, and any unlucky insect or snail +may fall a prey to its greedy appetite.</p> + +<p>It is said that the larvæ of some dragon flies even eat pollywogs and +small fishes.</p> + +<p>Ned wants to know if "larvæ" means the same as "larva."</p> + +<p>Yes, it is the plural form of the word. When we speak of only one we say +"larva"; when we speak of more than one, instead of saying "larvas," we +say "larvæ."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span></p> + +<p>The dragon fly larvæ are terrible gluttons, and hidden under the mask +are strong jaws for chewing up their prey.</p> + +<p>Their legs are quite large and strong, too, for they crawl about the +bottom of the pond or up the stalks of the plants.</p> + +<p>They do not move about very fast, but they do shoot out that under lip +very, very, <i>very</i> fast indeed, so good-by to any little live thing in +the pond that comes within reach of it.</p> + +<p>The dragon fly larvæ do not all look alike. They are different in the +different species of dragon flies, and, like the rest of us, they change +as they grow older.</p> + +<p>Yes, May, you can keep the dragon fly larvæ until they change into +dragon flies.</p> + +<p>You must supply them with fresh water and with enough to eat.</p> + +<p>And you must put a net over the bowl or aquarium in which you keep them, +otherwise as soon as they are able they will fly away.</p> + +<p>How can they fly without wings?</p> + +<p>Oh, but they are going to have wings. You know they are young dragon +flies in spite of their strange appearance.</p> + +<p>Be sure and feed them enough, or else they will eat each other, and that +would be a pity; and be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> sure there are some water plants for them to +hide under and crawl upon.</p> + +<p>You can give them a little fresh fish or a tiny bit of very fresh meat, +though they like best the living things they find in the bottom of the +pond.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img023.jpg" alt="Dragon Flies" title="Dragon Flies" /></div> + +<p>When the dragon fly larva first hatches it is very small and its legs +are rather long and spidery, but it eats and eats and eats,—my, how it +eats!</p> + +<p>And it grows and grows, and one day it finds its skin too tight.</p> + +<p>A tight skin must be rather uncomfortable.</p> + +<p>But the larva does not care much for its skin.</p> + +<p>It merely splits it open down the back and pulls itself out.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span></p> + +<p>Perhaps you think it must be yet more uncomfortable to be without a +skin.</p> + +<p>But it is not without a skin. It is covered by a new and soft one that +soon hardens, and that is larger than the old one.</p> + +<p>It wriggles out of its old skin as though it were an old coat, and +leaves it clinging to the weeds in the pond.</p> + +<p>Sometime you may find these cast-off dragon fly overcoats.</p> + +<p>After it has shed its skin the dragon fly continues to grow. It keeps on +growing until it has outgrown its new skin.</p> + +<p>Then what do you think it does?</p> + +<p>Yes, Charlie, that is right, it sheds this skin too.</p> +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img024.jpg" alt="Dragon Flies" title="Dragon Flies" /></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span></p> + + +<p>When it sheds its skin we say it moults.</p> + +<p>It moults several times, and at last little short wings appear. At first +it has no wings at all, you know.</p> + +<p>Amy wonders how the larva breathes under water.</p> + +<p>Ah, Master Ned, you are laughing too soon. You think insects do not have +to breathe, but you are very much mistaken, sir.</p> + +<p>Insects do have to breathe.</p> + +<p>They would die if they could get no air to breathe.</p> + +<p>Some of the dragon fly larvæ have an odd arrangement for breathing under +water. They have a sort of syringe in the end of the body, and there are +breathing pores or gills in the syringe.</p> + +<p>The water goes in and out of this syringe, and the larva breathes as the +fish does, by means of its gills.</p> + +<p>Yes, May, its gills are in its syringe, which seems very odd,—you see +the dragon fly larva breathes at its tail end instead of at its head +end.</p> + +<p>Mollie thinks it is an upside-down, inside-out sort of a creature +anyway. But it knows what it is about.</p> + +<p>Ned wants to know how it can get any air to breathe when it lives under +water.</p> + +<p>The truth is, there is always air mixed in with water, and it is this +air the larva breathes when the water goes in and out of the syringe.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span></p> + +<p>It uses the syringe for another purpose too. When it pleases it can +shoot out the water with great force, and thus propel itself quite a +distance.</p> + +<p>By means of the syringe it can leap through the water faster than it can +move by its slow-going legs.</p> + +<p>Mollie wants to know if we can see the syringe.</p> + +<p>No, it is inside the body.</p> + +<p>But there is a kind of dragon fly that has a pair of gills outside, at +the end of the abdomen, instead of the syringe inside.</p> + +<p>The best I can do is to show you a picture of one. Some day we may find +it in the pond.</p> + + +<div class="figright"><img src="images/img026.jpg" alt="Dragon Flies" title="Dragon Flies" /></div> + +<p>Those two feather-like parts at the tail end are gills.</p> + +<p>Yes, John, it can propel itself through the water by rowing, as it were, +with these gills.</p> + +<p>There are some species of dragon fly larvæ that swim by moving the tip +of the abdomen from side to side, as a fish moves its body when it +swims.</p> + +<p>But now let us return to our funny larva that lives at the bottom of the +pond. It stays down there, eating and growing and moulting, for nine or +ten months or even longer; then something very wonderful happens.</p> + +<p>It suddenly feels a great desire to get up to the top of the pond.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img027.jpg" alt="Dragon Flies" title="Dragon Flies" /></div> + + +<p>It climbs up a weed or a stick until it is clear out of the water.</p> + +<p>Then its skin splits down the back for the last time, and out there +pulls itself, not a larva, but a weak-looking dragon fly, with soft and +flabby little wings.</p> + +<p>Now is its hour of danger, and now is the time for such birds as like +the taste of young dragon flies to help themselves.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span></p> + +<p>Catbirds seem to have a special fondness for these helpless insects, and +have been known to eat them before the flabby little wings had grown +stiff.</p> + +<p>If the birds do not find the newly emerged dragon fly, it remains +motionless an hour or so, but it does not remain unchanged.</p> + +<p>Its wings stretch out and harden.</p> + +<p>Bright metallic colors begin to play over them and over its body; and +all at once—off it darts, away and away, glittering in the sunshine, a +swift, beautiful winged creature.</p> + +<p>Towards the end of summer you will often see dragon flies darting about +in every direction.</p> + +<p>They seem to come in swarms and I think they usually come where there +are ponds or marshes, for in such places there are many gnats and +mosquitoes.</p> + +<p>Mollie wants to know why it would not be a good plan for people who live +where there are many mosquitoes to raise dragon flies?</p> + +<p>That is a very sensible idea, Mollie, and it has been tried.</p> + +<p>Yes, indeed; some men once collected dragon fly larvæ, and took care of +them until they changed into dragon flies.</p> + +<p>Then what do you think happened?</p> + +<p>As soon as they got their wings, away went those<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> dragon flies,—away +and away, without stopping to catch a single mosquito for the men who +had taken the trouble to raise them.</p> + +<p>The dragon flies will not stay at home.</p> + +<p>They fly so fast and so far there is no use raising them.</p> + +<p>They are among the swiftest and strongest of insects.</p> + +<p>How do the larvæ get in the ponds? Frank is asking.</p> + +<p>I will tell you what I know about it.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img029.jpg" alt="Dragon Flies" title="Dragon Flies" /></div> + + +<p>The winged dragon flies mate, and the female then drops her eggs in the +water or lays them on twigs in the water, where they hatch out into +larvæ.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span></p> + +<p>The dragon flies have to be very careful when they go close to the water +to lay their eggs.</p> + +<p>You all know why.</p> + +<p>Yes, it is because the frogs are on the watch to catch them.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img030.jpg" alt="Dragon Flies" title="Dragon Flies" /></div> + + +<p>The mother dragon fly knows the larvæ have to live in the water, and so +she takes pains to put the eggs there; sometimes she even crawls down +under the water on stems of plants to lay her eggs. Isn't she a wise +little mother?</p> + +<p>There are a good many species of dragon flies.</p> + +<p>Some are large and some are small.</p> + +<p>Some are bright and some are dull.</p> + +<p>There are black ones and bright blue ones, or green ones with blue eyes.</p> + +<p>Some are marked with red and yellow.</p> + +<p>They are a very gay family.</p> + +<p>The dragon fly family is also a very old one.</p> + +<p>Indeed, it is one of the oldest families on earth.</p> + +<p>Long before there were bees or butterflies or dogs or horses or human +beings, there were dragon flies.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span></p> + +<p>Don't you suppose that may be why the dragon fly is such a +strange-looking insect?</p> + +<p>It does not look like other insects; it is very old-fashioned, like the +pine trees.</p> + +<p>Pine trees, too, belong to a very old plant family that lived long ago, +before there were oaks or maples, or other trees that shed their leaves.</p> + +<p>Now we must go home.</p> + +<p>Good-by, green frog, you may come back to your log now.</p> + +<p>Good-by, pretty dragon fly people, we shall never forget you.</p> + +<p>Good-by, pleasant pond and moss-grown log, we hope to see you often +again.</p> +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img031.jpg" alt="Dragon Flies" title="Dragon Flies" /></div> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><span class="smcap">The Fairy May Flies</span></h2> + +<div class="figright"><img src="images/img032.jpg" alt="Fairy May Flies" title="Fairy May Flies" /></div> + +<p>Come, children, and see! Hundreds and hundreds of them are dancing +about.</p> + +<p>What are they? Yes, May, they do make us think of the dragon flies, but +they are like fairy demoiselles.</p> + +<p>They are the May flies, fairy ships sailing in the sea of air.</p> + +<p>See how they are tossed about.</p> + +<p>Many have fallen to the ground, which is covered with them.</p> + +<p>They live but a day, or sometimes only a few hours, and so they are +called day flies, and also ephemeræ, which means short-lived.</p> + +<p>They have eyes, as you can see, little round eyes, but their mouth is so +tiny they cannot eat.</p> + +<p>Strange little beings to come into the world so helpless!</p> + +<p>How different from the strong, fierce dragon flies!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span></p> + +<p>See their dainty little legs. Six, you see, and legs and wings grow out +from the thorax.</p> + +<p>Have they an abdomen?</p> + +<p>See the long threads at the end of it, they look like slender tails. How +they spread these threads out as they fly!</p> + +<div class="figleft"> + <img src="images/img033.jpg" + alt="Dragon Fly Wings" /><br /> + <b><span class="smcap">Dragon Fly Wings</span></b> + </div> +<div class="figleft"> + <img src="images/img033a.jpg" + alt="May Fly Wings" /><br /> + <b><span class="smcap">May Fly Wings</span></b> + </div> + +<p>They have four wings, but the wings are not shaped like those of the +dragon fly, and they are very much more delicate.</p> + +<p>Yes, May, I agree with you, they look like fine lace.</p> + +<p>The fore wings, you see, are larger than the hind ones.</p> + +<p>Richard asks, "Where do May flies come from? and why are they called May +flies?"</p> + +<p>Now, Richard, one question at a time, if you please, and the last shall +come first because it is easier to answer.</p> + +<p>They are called May flies because they often come out in the month of +May, though sometimes not until June, and some species are as late as +July in appearing.</p> + +<div class="figright"><img src="images/img033b.jpg" alt="May Flies" title="May Flies" /></div> + +<p>We shall have to look into the ponds and little streams to discover +where they come from.</p> + +<p>See, John has scooped up some little speckled grubs out of the mud. Is +it possible that <i>they</i><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> are the larvæ of our fairy May flies? <i>They</i> +have a mouth!—see what big jaws for such little creatures.</p> + +<p>And what do you suppose they eat?</p> + +<p>No doubt they, too, live on animal food.</p> + +<p>No doubt they move about in the mud and catch what they can.</p> + +<p>You see, John had to dig them up; they like to burrow in the weeds and +mud, and some of them even make tunnels of mud in which to protect their +soft bodies. Their short, stout legs enable them to dig well.</p> + +<p>Their bodies are soft, but their jaws are not. O dear, no!</p> + +<div class="figright"><img src="images/img034.jpg" alt="May Flies" title="May Flies" /></div> + +<p>The grown-up May flies mate, and then the female drops her eggs on the +surface of the water. When she does this a fish will very often jump up +and seize her, for fish are very fond of May flies, and lucky are the +May flies to escape these ravenous enemies.</p> + +<p>The eggs are heavy and sink to the bottom, where they hatch into these +queer-looking larvæ that eat and grow and shed their skin just like the +dragon fly larvæ.</p> + +<p>Those brushes along their sides are the gills they breathe with.</p> + +<p>See the gills moving swiftly back and forth; they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> look as though the +larva wished to swim with them, but this is not why it moves them so +constantly.</p> + +<p>The continual motion of the gills stirs up the water and keeps our larva +supplied with fresh air.</p> + +<p>Nellie is asking what gills are.</p> + +<p>Well, gills in fishes and in such insects as have gills, and in crabs +and lobsters and other creatures that live in the water, are parts that +often look like fringes or flat plates.</p> + +<p>The gills of fishes have a great many blood vessels running through +them. The walls of these blood vessels are very thin, and the oxygen +from the air that is in the water passes into the blood that is in the +gills, and then this blood, all full of oxygen, circulates through the +fish's body.</p> + +<p>You see in fishes the blood vessels come into the gills and get the +oxygen.</p> + +<p>In insects it is different. There are air tubes running like tiny pipes +all through the gills and into the body of the insect. The oxygen of the +air that is in the water passes out through the walls of these tubes +into the blood of the insect.</p> + +<p>Yes, John, in fishes the blood comes to the air, in insects the air goes +to the blood. The air passes into the air tubes of the insects, and thus +is carried all through their bodies.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span></p> + +<p>The blood takes the oxygen out of the air.</p> + +<p>Without oxygen in the blood no animal could live.</p> + +<p>Now let us go back to our May flies. They remain in the larval state a +year, and some species remain two years. Think of living in the mud for +two long years!</p> + +<p>In the mud they creep about, eating, eating, eating. Then some summer +day they leave the mud and swim to the surface of the water.</p> + +<p>Pop! they are gone.</p> + +<p>They were so quick about it we could not see what happened.</p> + +<p>The larval skin burst open and forth leaped the May fly, like a winged +fairy from a prison cell.</p> + +<p>They do not come out slowly and wait for their wings to dry like the +dragon fly.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img036.jpg" alt="May Flies" title="May Flies" /></div> + + +<p>They spring out all of a sudden and fly away, leaving their cast-off +skin in the pond.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span></p> + +<p>Unless their motions were quick they might be snapped up by the fish +that are so fond of them.</p> + +<p>But though they seem to emerge thus quickly into perfect winged May +flies, they are not quite done with infancy. They are still wrapped +about by a very delicate skin that they have to get rid of. So they fly +to a bush near the water and stay a little while until this skin splits +and comes off, and they are free.</p> + +<p>In spite of their quick motions when they spring from the water, many of +the May flies fall back into it and are caught by the fish.</p> + +<div class="figright"><img src="images/img037.jpg" alt="May Flies" title="May Flies" /></div> + + +<p>It is said that the trout become fat and good-flavored when the May +flies emerge, they eat so many of them. And what the fish do not catch +the birds try to. Swallows and other insect-loving birds have a glorious +feast when the May flies come out. For a season they live in the midst +of more delicacies than they can possibly use.</p> + +<p>Fish like the May fly larvæ, too, which is probably the reason the larvæ +have learned to live in the mud, out of reach.</p> + +<p>Fishermen dig up the larvæ for bait, so you see the May flies have a +hard time to get safely through the world.</p> + +<p>But in spite of difficulties a great many of them live, and some summer +day out they come trooping.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figright"><img src="images/img038.jpg" alt="The Fairy May Flies" title="The Fairy May Flies" /></div> + +<p>They spring all at once from the surface of the water as by magic, +hundreds and thousands, yes, millions of them. They fill the air, they +cover everything.</p> + +<p>The great naturalist Swammerdam, who was the first to make a thorough +study of the May flies, thus tells us how they appeared in France one +year:—</p> + +<p>"I then saw a sight beyond all expectation. The ephemeræ filled the air +like the snowflakes in a dense snowstorm.</p> + +<p>"The steps were covered to a depth of two, three, or even four inches. A +tract of water five or six feet across was completely hidden, and as the +floating insects slowly drifted away, others took their places. Several +times I was obliged to retreat to the top of the stairs from the +annoyance caused by the ephemeræ, which dashed in my face, and got into +my eyes, mouth, and nose."</p> + +<p>These swarms of May flies appear only from three to five days at a +time.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span></p> + +<p>Wherever there are streams there are May flies, and the canals of +Holland make good breeding places for them; no wonder, then, the Dutch, +who you know live in Holland, have a saying, "As thick as May flies."</p> + +<p>Although so many of the May flies perish at once, multitudes of them +drop their eggs into the water to renew the race of May flies.</p> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/img039.jpg" alt="Stone Flies" title="Stone Flies" /></div> + +<p>Is it not wonderful that after so long a period of creeping about in the +mud as larvæ, these graceful and beautiful little creatures have but a +few hours in which to dance joyously about in the upper air on wings of +gossamer? Some, indeed, live less than an hour, and some, that come out +in the evening, finish their dance of life and perish before sunrise, +without ever having seen the beautiful daylight.</p> + +<p>Yes, strange little beings are they.</p> + +<p>They do us no harm and we should not kill them.</p> + +<p>Let them live their short lives and be happy.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><span class="smcap">The Stone Fly Folk</span></h2> + + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/img040.jpg" alt="Stone Flies" title="Stone Flies" /></div> + +<p>John has been fishing.</p> + +<p>What do you think he caught?</p> + +<p>Nary fish, my dears, but a goodly number of stone flies, which he has +brought to show us.</p> + +<p>Yes, Mollie, they do remind us a very little of our May flies, only, of +course, they are many times larger.</p> + +<p>It is rather a clumsy creature in spite of its large wings, and John +says he had no trouble whatever in catching it.</p> + +<p>See, it has four wings, and the hind ones are the larger.</p> + +<p>Yes, May, they fold up in plaits, like the sticks of a fan.</p> + +<p>See its long antennæ and its compound eyes. Its eyes are not so large as +are those of the dragon fly. It does not spend its time pursuing other +insects, but is more like the May fly after it gets its wings.</p> + +<p>Yes, Ned, it lives longer than the May fly, but it does not live very +long, and it eats little.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span></p> + +<p>It is a pretty little gray thing as it rests on the side of John's box, +with its wings folded like a gossamer cloak over its body.</p> + +<div class="figright"><img src="images/img041.jpg" alt="Stone Flies" title="Stone Flies" /></div> + + +<p>It lays its eggs in the water, and out of them hatch little six-legged +larvæ that are not troubled by want of appetite. If the winged stone fly +does not eat, its larva does; it is like the other larvæ we know, always +devouring something.</p> + +<div class="figright"><img src="images/img041b.jpg" alt="Stone Flies" title="Stone Flies" /></div> + + +<p>Yes, Charlie, it feeds on living creatures, greatly relishing the larvæ +of the May flies, or any other luckless insect infants it can capture.</p> + +<p>It grows fast and moults several times, and when winter comes it hides +away, only to come forth at the first breath of spring and continue its +eating.</p> + +<p>Like other larvæ that live under water, it does its breathing by means +of gills, and these gills are in little tufts just above the base of +each leg.</p> + +<p>It lives under stones, which is why it is called the stone fly, and it +slides quickly around a corner when you lift up its stone.</p> + +<p>Fish are very fond of it, and hunt it as eagerly as it hunts larvæ. +Since it makes good bait for brook trout, its life is always in danger. +It finishes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> its growth in early summer, and emerges from its larval +skin as a perfect winged insect.</p> + +<p>Yes, indeed, John, you can often find dozens of the cast-off skins of +the stone flies along the brook sides in the month of June.</p> + +<p>The stone flies are harmless little people, and we should never kill one +needlessly.</p> +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img042.jpg" alt="Stone Flies" title="Stone Flies" /></div> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><span class="smcap">The Silver Fish</span></h2> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/img043.jpg" alt="Silver Fish" title="Silver Fish" /></div> + +<p>May has something here for us to look at. She says it is a slippery +rascal. Let us see it. Oh, yes, you have it in that little box. See, the +box has a glass top. May cut the top off the box herself, and fastened +in a little pane of glass so we could see the rascal without danger of +its escaping.</p> + +<p>Pretty rascal! Like a little silver fish slipping about the box.</p> + +<p>Yes, Charlie, it is called the silver fish. A land fish? Why, yes, it +would be a land fish if it were a fish at all. But in spite of its name +it is no fish. It is covered with shining scales, though, that are very +much like fish scales, and it is shaped a good deal like a fish.</p> + +<p>Oh, yes, it is an insect. You see it has six legs. But it has no wings.</p> + +<p>No, it is not a young one.</p> + +<p>It never will have any wings, no matter how old it may get to be.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span></p> + +<p>It is flat, you see, and its scales make it very slippery, so that it is +hard to catch and yet harder to hold on to after you have caught it. It +goes flashing about like a little silver dart, and it loves to eat +starch.</p> + +<p>That is why May calls it a rascal. It eats the starch from the paste +that fastens on her wall paper, and from book-bindings, so you see it +makes things fall to pieces. But my! what a pretty rascal it is! Besides +its name of silver fish, it is also called fish moth, though it is not a +moth at all. It is also called bristle-tail, because of the long, +bristle-like parts at the end of its body; and in some places it is +called a slink, because, you know, it loves dark places, and when you +uncover it in the daytime, it slips around a corner into the dark again.</p> + +<p>Yes, it seems to slink about as if it were ashamed of itself, but it is +not ashamed; it does not like the light, and it does not like us to see +it.</p> + +<p>Perhaps it is afraid of us.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span></p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span></p> +<p><br /><br /></p> +<h2>Orthoptera</h2> +<p><br /><br /></p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><span class="smcap">The Old Cockroaches</span></h2> + +<div class="figright"><img src="images/img048.jpg" alt="Cockroaches" title="Cockroaches" /></div> + +<p>Children, here is a cockroach.</p> + +<p>It was one of the first insects that came to live on the earth; +cockroaches were here before people, and they are here yet.</p> + +<p>You do not think it is pretty?</p> + +<p>Neither do I.</p> + +<p>I don't know anybody who thinks a cockroach pretty.</p> + +<p>Oh, no, it won't bite you.</p> + +<p>It will only get into your pantry and eat your food.</p> + +<p>It will walk around in the night and frighten you if you go suddenly +into the kitchen.</p> + +<p>It will not frighten you on purpose, but when it hears you coming, it +will run, and then maybe you will scream and run too.</p> + +<p>What is that, May? You've a good mind to scream and run as it is?</p> + +<p>Very well, scream and run if you want to; the cockroach won't care.</p> + +<p>We do not often see these big black fellows in the North, but sometimes +we do. Down South cockroaches seem to be everywhere.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span></p> + +<p>What, May? You are never going South, then?</p> + +<p>Well, you do not need to go; the cockroaches won't care.</p> + +<p>They have little heads and long antennæ, like threads.</p> + +<p>What is that, May? You don't care anything about their heads? You don't +want to know anything about cockroaches?</p> + +<p>Oh, yes, you want to know about cockroaches. Remember how old they are.</p> + +<p>They have six legs, you see.</p> + +<p>You don't care how many legs they have?</p> + +<p>Oh, yes, you do. They could not walk if they had no legs.</p> + +<p>You wish they couldn't walk?</p> + +<p>Dear me, May; you don't seem to like cockroaches.</p> + +<p>Poor old cockroaches.</p> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/img049.jpg" alt="Cockroaches" title="Cockroaches" /></div> + +<p>Think how old they are.</p> + +<p>What is that you say? They are old enough to know better?</p> + +<p>Why, May, what have they ever done to you?</p> + +<p>Nothing, only you don't like them?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span></p> + +<p>Well, well, they don't like you, either. Poor old cockroaches; nobody +seems to like them.</p> + +<p>Perhaps they don't care.</p> + +<p>Will you let me tell you where they came from?</p> + +<p>They do not belong to this country.</p> + +<p>Their natural home is tropical Asia.</p> + +<p>You see, about four hundred years ago, the ships that bore fruits and +other merchandise from India and other warm countries in Asia, bore, as +well, a number of little, flat, reddish brown stowaways.</p> + +<div class="figright"><img src="images/img050.jpg" alt="Cockroaches" title="Cockroaches" /></div> + +<p>Stowaways, as you know, are people that do not buy their tickets, but +that hide among the ship's cargo, and so get free transportation to +other countries.</p> + +<p>Well, these little flat stowaways were not human beings, they were +insects. Yes, May, they were the cockroaches.</p> + +<p>When they landed from their hot land of Asia in cold England, they must +have wondered what was to become of them. Many of them no doubt died, +for they cannot stand cold weather at all; but some of them were +carried, with the fruits and other things, quite unintentionally, of +course, for nobody guessed they were there, into warm cellars and +kitchen cupboards.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span></p> + +<p><i>Then</i> they felt at home!</p> + +<p>They knew better than to leave the cosey nooks where they could hide +away and sleep all day, and when they came out at night would find a +delicious supper close at hand.</p> + +<p>They are great eaters, you know, so what with the good things in the +pantry and the warmth of the kitchen quarters they prospered wherever +they could find a kitchen to live in.</p> + +<p>Soon they spread all over the large cities of England and finally into +even remote country districts.</p> + +<p>Of course they found their way to the United States of America, and in +many houses in the North they have taken lodging. But down South, where +it is always warm enough, they have prospered greatly, and they are +there in far greater numbers than in the North.</p> + +<p>Besides, there is a large American cockroach that belongs to tropical +America, but that has found its way pretty well over the country. And +there are cockroaches that live in the woods, some of them coming in the +night to visit our houses and help themselves from our pantries.</p> + +<p>Yes, Mollie, the cockroaches eat almost anything they can find, and what +they do not eat they spoil by an ill-smelling liquid they give out when +disturbed.</p> + +<p>It is this liquid that makes the cockroaches so very<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> offensive to us. +We cannot bear to touch one because of it.</p> + +<p>Cockroaches eat one variety of food that nobody objects to their having. +They are fond of bed bugs and greedily devour them.</p> + +<p>Besides the large, dark, reddish brown cockroaches there is a little +tan-colored fellow that is often very troublesome.</p> + +<div class="figright"><img src="images/img052.jpg" alt="Cockroaches" title="Cockroaches" /></div> + + +<p>It is not a native of this country, but is supposed to have been brought +to England by soldiers from the Crimea, and later it found its way to +America.</p> + +<p>We call it the croton bug, but it is not a bug at all, it is a +cockroach.</p> + +<p>It is particularly numerous about water pipes, and, like the rest of the +cockroaches, it hides in the daytime.</p> + +<p>At night out troop crowds and crowds of the little tan-colored water +bugs. They run about the floor, and over the pantry shelves. They get +into everything they can find, and have a beautiful time.</p> + +<p>They are funny little fellows, and if they were not so troublesome, we +might admire them.</p> + +<p>How they can run!</p> + +<p>All the cockroaches run very fast, so that it is hard to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> catch one. And +they are hard and smooth, too, which makes it yet more difficult to +catch them. They are well made to escape their enemies, and they are so +flat they can hide in cracks or almost anywhere.</p> + +<p>No, May, they do not fly very much. You see this one has short wings. It +is a male cockroach. The female of this species of cockroach has no +wings at all, only little hints of wings, as it were.</p> + +<p>Such little useless wings we call "rudimentary" wings.</p> + +<p>John says he thinks that is a long word for short wings.</p> + +<p>Yes, but it is not a hard word,—ru-di-ment-ary, see if you can remember +it.</p> + +<p>The croton bugs have longer wings and they sometimes fly.</p> + +<p>If you were to spread out the wings of a cockroach, you would find it +had four.</p> + +<p>What is that, May? You wouldn't spread them out for anything?</p> + +<p>Yet wise men have been very much interested in our poor, ill-smelling +old cockroaches, and have studied carefully all about them.</p> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/img053.jpg" alt="Cockroaches" title="Cockroaches" /></div> + +<p>If you dislike to touch the cockroach so much, perhaps you will look at +this picture of a croton bug.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span></p> + +<p>See, the upper wings are different; the cockroach does not fly with +them, he merely uses them to cover up the under wings, and we call them +wing covers.</p> + +<p>It is the under wings the cockroach flies with.</p> + +<p>Cockroaches may not be pleasant, but who can say they are not +interesting?</p> + +<p>What other insect lays its eggs in little bandboxes?</p> + +<p>Here is one of the little boxes, shiny and hard.</p> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/img054.jpg" alt="Cockroaches" title="Cockroaches" /></div> + + +<p>This little case is at first a sticky substance that soon hardens. The +eggs lie in it side by side in two rows.</p> + +<p>These cases remain attached to the abdomen of the female cockroach until +the eggs are all laid. Then the case falls off, and soon out runs a +crowd of infant cockroaches.</p> + +<div class="figright"><img src="images/img054a.jpg" alt="Cockroaches" title="Cockroaches" /></div> + + +<p>The case is something like a satchel that shuts with a spring. The +youngsters are packed close together, side by side, with their heads +towards the mouth of the satchel.</p> + +<p>As soon as one hatches it pushes open the side of the case and creeps +out. Then the case springs together again to protect the rest of the +brood.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span></p> + +<p>They are funny fellows when they first come out, little and +white-looking. But they eat and grow of course, and shed their skins, +and after each moult they become darker in color.</p> + +<p>Now, do look again at this cockroach I have taken such pains to catch +for you and put into the tumbler.</p> + +<p>I think even May will own that it has a cunning little head.</p> + +<p>See it turn its head around to look at us.</p> + +<p>After all, the cockroach is a knowing little fellow.</p> + +<p>This one is hungry; it has had nothing to eat for some time. We will +give it this crumb of cake.</p> + +<p>Be careful, or it will get away; it can run very fast, and it is very +quick, you see, in all its motions.</p> + +<p>Ah, it is examining the crumb with the tips of its long antennæ.</p> + +<p>See how daintily it touches the crumb.</p> + +<p>It can smell with its antennæ, you know.</p> + +<p>Now it has decided the cake is good to eat.</p> + +<p>See how eager it is!</p> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/img055.jpg" alt="Cockroaches" title="Cockroaches" /></div> + +<p>It almost stands on its head to reach just the part it wants.</p> + +<p>John says he does not understand how insects smell with their antennæ.</p> + +<p>I can tell you a little about it, John.</p> + +<p>If you look at one of the cockroach's antennæ under<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> the magnifying +glass, you will see it is made up of a good many short pieces, or +segments, as we call them, fastened together end to end.</p> + +<p>Yes, Mollie, that is why it can move about so easily. It can curl up +like a whiplash, you see.</p> + +<p>Next the head is a round segment that fits into a socket.</p> + +<div class="figright"><img src="images/img056.jpg" alt="Cockroaches" title="Cockroaches" /></div> + + +<p>Double up your right fist and fit it into the half-closed palm of your +left hand.</p> + +<p>There! That is like the ball-and-socket joint.</p> + +<p>You see you can move your fist around in all directions.</p> + +<p>The insect can move its antennæ in all directions because they are +fastened to its head by ball-and-socket joints.</p> + +<p>On the segments of the antennæ, particularly towards the tip, are little +dots.</p> + +<p>You cannot see the dots without the help of a strong microscope, but +they are there.</p> + +<p>These little dots are sensitive spots. There is a nerve coming from the +insect's brain to each dot.</p> + +<p>Some of the dots are sensitive to odors, just as the nerves of our nose +are sensitive to odors.</p> + +<p>May thinks it is very funny that the insects smell with antennæ instead +of with noses.</p> + +<p>The insects, no doubt, would think it very funny for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> us to smell with, +noses instead of with antennæ, if they thought about it at all.</p> + +<p>The little dots on the antennæ are extremely sensitive to smells. They +are often much more sensitive than our noses.</p> + +<p>Put a bit of food at some distance from a hungry cockroach, and it will +not be long before a pair of long, sensitive feelers will come waving to +and fro out of some dark corner.</p> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/img057.jpg" alt="Cockroaches" title="Cockroaches" /></div> + +<p>Little Mrs. Cockroach has smelled the dainty morsel, and, as soon as it +is dark, out she will run, her feelers moving eagerly this way and that, +until she has found it.</p> + +<p>Yes, May, insects also feel with their antennæ. That is why the antennæ +are often called "feelers."</p> + +<p>There are other dots on the segments that are sensitive to touch. +Sometimes there are tiny hairs on the antennæ, also sensitive to touch.</p> + +<p>The little fellows feel and smell, yes, and oftentimes <i>hear</i> with their +antennæ.</p> + +<p>Many insects have spots sensitive to sound on the antennæ.</p> + +<p>Yes, indeed, May, it is wonderful that such tiny threads as an insect's +antennæ should hold so many kinds of sensitive spots.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span></p> + +<p>An insect's antennæ are among the most wonderful things in the world.</p> + +<p>And <i>I</i> think a cockroach, in spite of its bad reputation, is a very +wonderful little fellow.</p> + +<p>What is that, May? Our cockroach is drawing one of its antennæ through +its mouth?</p> + +<p>Ah, yes, see it clean its antenna, children.</p> + +<p>It seems to nibble at it as it draws it through its mouth.</p> + +<p>Insects are very careful to keep their antennæ clean.</p> + +<p>It would not do to let these sensitive spots become covered with dust, +you know.</p> +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img058.jpg" alt="Cockroaches" title="Cockroaches" /></div> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><span class="smcap">Neighbor Walking Stick</span></h2> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/img059.jpg" alt="Walking Stick" title="Walking Stick" /></div> +<p>Isn't this a pretty place to sit down and—</p> + +<p>"Ouch! ow! ow! ow!"</p> + +<p>Why, May, what is the matter?</p> + +<p>Anybody would think you had seen a cockroach.</p> + +<p>What has she found, John?</p> + +<p>Oh, it is a walking stick!</p> + +<p>Why do I call it that?</p> + +<p>Look and see.</p> + +<p>Does it not look like a stick?</p> + +<p>And does it not walk?</p> + +<p>Then why is not walking stick a good name for it?</p> + +<p>May thinks its legs look like a collection of pine needles, for they are +green and flat on the upper joints.</p> + +<p>It is as pretty as it is queer, with its brown body and its green legs.</p> + +<p>This is the male walking stick; the female has brown legs. She is brown +all over, just the color of dried leaves, and she is not as slender as +her mate.</p> + +<p>Mollie thinks it is the long and slender thorax that makes the walking +stick look so queer.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span></p> + +<p>See its thorax. Its six legs are attached to its thorax, which is as +long and as slender as the abdomen.</p> + +<p>John thinks it looks queer because everything about it is so long and +slender.</p> + +<div class="figright"><img src="images/img060.jpg" alt="Walking Stick" title="Walking Stick" /></div> + +<p>Long antennæ, long legs, long thorax, long abdomen—that is Mr. Walking +Stick.</p> + +<p>Sir, why do you have such long antennæ? Can you hear and feel and smell +extra well because of them?</p> + +<p>I wish you could tell us about them.</p> + +<p>Now where is it?</p> + +<p>Oh, yes, it is standing on that brown twig. It is so nearly the color of +the twig and so much the shape of a little stick itself, that it is not +easy to find it.</p> + +<p>There, it is walking off again.</p> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/img060a.jpg" alt="Walking Stick" title="Walking Stick" /></div> + +<p>It has a good name, for I am sure that if a stick tried to walk, it +could not do it more awkwardly.</p> + +<p>See now, what it is doing, hanging by one foot from that twig.</p> + +<p>How still it is.</p> + +<p>Who would imagine, seeing it thus for the first time, that it was a +living creature?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span></p> + +<p>The walking sticks feed on leaves, and I suppose their queer shape and +their color protect them from being eaten by birds.</p> + +<p>A bird would have to be very close to a walking stick to tell it from a +twig.</p> + +<p>The female drops the eggs on the ground, and leaves them to hatch out +and make their way in the world as best they can.</p> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/img061.jpg" alt="Walking Stick" title="Walking Stick" /></div> + +<p>The young walking sticks look just like their parents, only of course +they are very small, and they are green in color, like the leaves they +eat.</p> + +<p>Yes, little Nell, I should like to find some too; they must be cunning +little things.</p> + +<p>They eat and grow and moult, and eat and grow and moult, until they are +grown up.</p> + +<p>There are a good many species of walking sticks in the world, +particularly in hot countries; and to their family belong the longest of +known insects, some being nearly a foot long. Just imagine a walking +stick a foot long!</p> + +<p>And some of them are quite prettily colored, though certain species are +not pleasant to handle, as they give forth a bad-smelling milky fluid +when disturbed.</p> + +<p>They are gentle little folk, all of them, and move slowly about over the +leaves and twigs, not wishing to harm any living thing.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span></p> + +<p>Some members of the walking stick family have wings, and these are even +more curious than those that have none.</p> + +<p>Their wings and legs are flattened to look like leaves, so that it is +very difficult to find them among the foliage.</p> + +<div class="figright"><img src="images/img062.jpg" alt="Walking Stick" title="Walking Stick" /></div> + +<p>Yes, May, they are also the color of the leaves they live among.</p> + +<p>Here is a picture of one that will give some idea of these strange +little people.</p> + +<p>We have none of these leaf-like insects in our country, but we do have a +near relative to the walking sticks, though it does not feed on leaves, +I assure you.</p> + +<p>How many of you are acquainted with his lordship, the praying mantis?</p> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/img062a.jpg" alt="Walking Stick" title="Walking Stick" /></div> + +<p>Charlie says he has seen these fellows in Kansas, and Nellie says she +has a cousin in the South who has told her about them.</p> + +<p>Here is a picture of one; is it not a beauty!</p> + +<p>Its wings are green and its body is brown, so that it can stealthily +creep about among the foliage without being noticed.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span></p> + +<p>When at rest it holds its front legs up as though it were raising its +arms in an attitude of devotion.</p> + +<p>But not a thought of devotion lies in that cruel little head. There is +only one idea there; and if any unwary insect were to come along, those +devotional arms would be thrust out with incredible rapidity, and the +unfortunate insect clasped tightly in them.</p> + +<p>Then the mantis, hugging its prey in the strong trap-like clasp of its +spiked legs, would coolly proceed to devour it alive, eating it as a boy +would eat an apple.</p> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/img063.jpg" alt="Walking Stick" title="Walking Stick" /></div> + +<p>This praying mantis is called a "mule-killer" in the South, where the +people think the brown liquor it spits out of its mouth, when disturbed, +is fatal to mules.</p> + +<p>The mantis is also called a devil-horse, a rear-horse, a camel-cricket, +and many other names inspired by its outlandish appearance.</p> + +<p>Some have even thought it looked wise, standing in that knowing attitude +with extended arms, and so it has been called prophet and soothsayer, as +though it could foretell what is going to happen.</p> + +<p>Undoubtedly it never foretells anything but the approaching death of +some insect and possibly a coming change in the weather, for insects +often know<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> when the weather is going to change long before we do.</p> + +<p>Although our mantes are brown or green, there are a great many species +living in hot countries that are much more brightly attired; and when +you find yourself on a visit to the tropics, you must look for the +flower mantis.</p> + +<p>It mimics in color the brilliant hues of the showy orchids in which it +hides.</p> + +<p>It does not seem to wear its gorgeous robes from a love for the +beautiful, however, but rather that it may the better lie concealed in +the heart of the gay flowers, to pounce upon unsuspecting insects that +come there for refreshing draughts of honey.</p> + +<div class="figright"><img src="images/img064.jpg" alt="Walking Stick" title="Walking Stick" /></div> + +<p>In some parts of Africa the mantis is worshipped by the natives, and in +France these fellows are believed to point out the way to travellers by +stretching out one leg when questioned.</p> + +<p>Its strange attitude, with uplifted arms, has won the mantis regard in +all parts of the world, though the insects it clasps in these uplifted +arms would not be likely to share the good opinion held of this hardy +cannibal.</p> + +<p>For it is a cannibal, and enjoys eating another mantis as much as +anything else.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span></p> + +<p>The mantes are terrible fighters, too, and if there is a meeting between +two of them, there is very apt to be a battle in which one is vanquished +and devoured by the other.</p> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/img065.jpg" alt="Walking Stick" title="Walking Stick" /></div> + +<p>Our mantis lays its eggs, thirty or forty in number, on tree twigs, and +they are embedded in a soft substance that soon becomes very tough and +horny. These strange egg-cases of the mantis are easily recognized +because they look as though they were braided on top, as you can see in +the picture.</p> + +<p>Yes, May, the tough covering is to protect the eggs from wet and from +prying birds and hungry insects.</p> + +<div class="figright"><img src="images/img065a.jpg" alt="Walking Stick" title="Walking Stick" /></div> + +<p>The young mantes are similar to their parents, only they have no wings. +But they hold up their spiny front legs and catch insects, and they grow +and moult in the usual way.</p> + +<p>While we have been talking about leaf-like insects and mule-killers our +walking stick has gone off.</p> + +<p>Well, well, let him go, and good luck go with him.</p> + +<p>I am glad you like the walking stick, children.</p> + +<p>And now, May, let me tell you something.</p> + +<p>This queer fellow is a very near relative of your friend, the +cockroach.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span></p> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img066.jpg" alt="Grasshopper Tribes" title="Grasshopper Tribes" /></div> + +<h2><span class="smcap">The Grasshopper Tribes</span></h2> + + +<p>Don't you often wonder where they come from? The swarms of grasshoppers +in the late summer?</p> + +<p>Charlie says he walked across a field last night where he believes there +were as many grasshoppers as there were blades of grass.</p> + +<p>Just think of it! and yet they do not seem to do any harm.</p> + +<p>In some places, however, they do a great deal of harm.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span></p> + +<p>They come flying in swarms that darken the sun, and they settle on the +trees and the crops and eat up every green thing. There is nothing a +Western farmer dreads so much as the passing of the grasshoppers.</p> + +<p>Grasshoppers are funny little fellows, and we like them—when there are +not too many of them.</p> + +<p>Summer would not seem quite like summer unless we heard the grasshoppers +shrilling.</p> + +<p>There are a great many species of them, and we have placed them in two +divisions,—The Shorthorned Grasshoppers and The Longhorned +Grasshoppers.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img067.jpg" alt="Grasshopper Tribes" title="Grasshopper Tribes" /></div> + + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span></p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><span class="smcap">The Shorthorned Grasshoppers</span></h2> + +<p>They have no horns, of course, but some have short antennæ that stick +out like little horns, and those we call shorthorned.</p> + +<p>The right name for the shorthorned grasshoppers is locusts.</p> + +<p>We call another insect a locust, but the shorthorned grasshoppers are +the true locusts.</p> + +<p>Some say it was these locusts that John the Baptist ate with his honey +in the wilderness.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img068.jpg" alt="The Shortened Grasshoppers" title="The Shortened Grasshoppers" /></div> + +<p>A good many people in different parts of the world still eat locusts.</p> + +<p>They are said to be good food when roasted, but I would rather eat +roasted peanuts.</p> + +<p>Come here, little locust, and let us look at you.</p> + +<p>Now, stand still, and show us your short "horns."</p> + +<p>See its eyes!</p> + +<p>Yes, May, they are compound eyes, but I do not know how many facets they +have.</p> + +<p>What a funny little rabbit face it has.</p> + +<p>See it move its little mouth parts.</p> + +<p>It bites bits out of the leaves and chews them up very fast.</p> + +<p>Has it teeth? May is asking.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span></p> + +<p>Well, yes, but not like our teeth. Sometime you must see the mouth parts +of the grasshopper under the microscope. They are very interesting.</p> + +<p>Mollie says the locust has a cape on.</p> + +<p>John says the cape is the top of its thorax.</p> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/img069.jpg" alt="Grasshopper Tribes" title="Grasshopper Tribes" /></div> + + +<p>Frank has been counting its legs; he says it has six.</p> + +<p>See it walk. It uses all six legs to walk with.</p> + +<p>But it does something besides walk with its hind legs.</p> + +<p>Yes, it jumps with them. How long and large they are! Now watch it jump.</p> + +<p>See! It draws those long hind legs close up to its body, then suddenly +straightens them out—and away it goes as though it had been shot from a +spring board.</p> + +<p>John says its hind legs work just like a spring, and so they do. It can +leap several times the length of its body. Amy thinks it should be +called a grass-jumper instead of a grasshopper.</p> + +<p>Suppose we all look carefully at the locust's long hind leg, segment by +segment.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span></p> + +<p>What, John? You do not know what a segment is?</p> + +<p>Well, a segment is the part between two joints. The joints are where +the leg bends, you know.</p> + +<p>May proposes that we draw a picture of the long hind leg.</p> + +<p>It will be fun to try.</p> + +<p>There are two tiny segments close to the body.</p> + +<p>If you are not careful, you will find only one.</p> + +<p>You must look sharp to see both of them.</p> + +<p>How well Charlie has drawn his! He has both the little segments.</p> + +<div class="figright"><img src="images/img070.jpg" alt="Grasshopper Tribes" title="Grasshopper Tribes" /></div> + +<p>The one next the body we will mark I, and we will call it the coxa.</p> + +<p>The next little one we will mark II, and that we will call the +trochanter.</p> + +<p>The long, strong one, III, we will call the femur.</p> + +<p>The next one, long and narrow, we will mark IV, and call the tibia.</p> + +<p>All the rest of the leg, made of several short segments, we will call +the tarsus, and we will mark it V.</p> + +<p>Now how are we to remember all those hard names?</p> + +<p>Here is a jingle that perhaps will help us:—</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Coxa</i> first, and then <i>trochanter</i>,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Number three the <i>femur</i> stands,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">After this, the long, straight <i>tibia</i>,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And last of all the <i>tarsus</i> comes.</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span></p> + +<p>Now let us see who can learn it first.</p> + +<p>Charlie says we are taking a good deal of trouble over the hind legs of +a grasshopper.</p> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/img071.jpg" alt="Grasshopper Tribes" title="Grasshopper Tribes" /></div> + +<p>Very true, Mr. Philosopher, but let me tell you something.</p> + +<p>When we have learned the names of the segments in the grasshopper's hind +leg, we have learned the names of the segments in the legs of all +insects.</p> + +<p>You see all the legs are made on one common plan, and it is very +convenient, as you will soon see, to have the parts named.</p> + +<p>What a fine set of drawings of the grasshopper's hind leg we have!</p> + +<p>Why do you suppose the coxa and trochanter are so small?</p> + +<p>Yes, John, it is in order that the leg can move easily.</p> + +<p>The grasshopper can turn its leg in almost any direction because of +these small upper segments.</p> + +<p>It can put its leg up over its head if it wants to. Next to the little +coxa and trochanter is the longest and largest segment in the +grasshopper's leg; I suppose nobody remembers its name.</p> + +<p>Listen to little Nell,—"number three the <i>femur</i> stands."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span></p> + +<p>So it does, and what a very useful femur it is!</p> + +<p>If it were not for the long femur and the long, slender tibia, the +grasshopper would not be a grasshopper—it could not hop at all.</p> + +<p>Watch the grasshopper, and see how he uses those long segments to jump +with.</p> + +<div class="figright"><img src="images/img072.jpg" alt="Grasshopper Tribes" title="Grasshopper Tribes" /></div> + +<p>First he draws the tibia close up to the femur—now he is off!</p> + +<p>He just straightened those long hind legs out with a jerk, and away he +went!</p> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/img072a.jpg" alt="Grasshopper Tribes" title="Grasshopper Tribes" /></div> + +<p>What do you suppose the two little sharp spines at the end of the tibia +are for?</p> + +<p>What, May? You did not see any spines?</p> + +<div class="figright"><img src="images/img072b.jpg" alt="Grasshopper Tribes" title="Grasshopper Tribes" /></div> + +<p>Look again.</p> + +<p>See, Charlie has drawn them very plainly in his picture of the +grasshopper's leg. Mark them <i>s</i>, Charlie.</p> + +<p>Now we must all look at Charlie's picture.</p> + +<p>He says he thinks he knows what the spines are for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span>—they are to keep +the grasshopper from slipping when he makes his leap forward.</p> + +<p>I have no doubt Charlie is right.</p> + +<p>May wants us to look at the beautiful little hinge x where the femur and +the tibia are fastened together.</p> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/img073.jpg" alt="Grasshopper Tribes" title="Grasshopper Tribes" /></div> + +<p>Let us mark it <i>X</i>.</p> + +<p>See the little ball on the end of the tibia. How well it fits into the +hollow on the end of the femur.</p> + +<p>In order to see this hollow or groove, you must look on the under side +of the leg.</p> + +<p>Yes, John, it reminds us of the ball-and-socket joint, only this is a +hinge joint, and does not move in so many directions.</p> + +<p>The tibia can move towards the femur and away from it on this hinge.</p> + +<p>When our little friend gets ready to jump, he draws the tibia close up +to the femur. When he jumps, he pushes the femur quickly away from the +tibia.</p> + +<p>If you watch the grasshoppers, you will soon understand just how they +use their hind legs in jumping.</p> + +<p>The tarsus bends easily.</p> + +<p>It has three joints.</p> + +<p>The last segment is a cunning little foot.</p> + +<p>What is John doing?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span></p> + +<p>He is looking at the grasshopper's foot through the magnifying glass. +Wise John!</p> + +<p>Let us all look.</p> + +<p>Yes, Charlie, we will try to draw it.</p> + +<p>Mollie has hers drawn already. Do not hurry too much, Mollie. You cannot +draw well if you hurry.</p> + +<p>See the sharp claw on each side of the foot.</p> + +<div class="figright"><img src="images/img074.jpg" alt="Grasshopper Tribes" title="Grasshopper Tribes" /></div> + +<p>Let us mark these claws <i>a</i> and <i>b</i>.</p> + +<p>Between them is a flat little pad which we may as well mark <i>c</i>.</p> + +<p>May says her picture looks like a crazy pond lily.</p> + +<p>Let us see, May. Well, it <i>is</i> rather funny.</p> + +<p>If I were you, I should try again. Any child can learn to draw who will +keep trying.</p> + +<p>Touch the grasshopper's foot with the tip of your finger.</p> + +<p>How the little foot clings to you!</p> + +<p>It clings by the two little claws that have caught in your skin, and +that hold fast.</p> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/img074a.jpg" alt="Grasshopper Tribes" title="Grasshopper Tribes" /></div> + +<p>What do you suppose the little pad between the claws is for?</p> + +<p>It is important, I can tell you.</p> + +<p>John says he has heard there is a little pad in the fly's foot that +enables it to walk on glass.</p> + +<p>Yes, and it is the same with the grasshopper.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span></p> + +<p>The little pad between the claws is fringed with hairs.</p> + +<p>You can see them with a good magnifying glass.</p> + +<p>Out of the tip of each hair comes a little drop of sticky liquid.</p> + +<p>This fastens the foot to any smooth surface.</p> + +<p>Many insects have these sticky hairs on their foot pads.</p> + +<p>When a fly walks up a window pane, it does it by gluing its feet, one +after the other, to the glass.</p> + +<p>I don't wonder you laugh.</p> + +<p>No, Mollie, the glue does not harden and hold it fast.</p> + +<p>The fly can easily pull its foot loose. The grasshopper cannot walk on +glass quite as well as the fly. Its foot pads do not cling so well.</p> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/img075.jpg" alt="Grasshopper Tribes" title="Grasshopper Tribes" /></div> + +<p>Would you not like to know the name of these curious little foot pads?</p> + +<p>We call the foot pad a <i>pulvillus</i>.</p> + +<p>Some insects do not have sticky hairs on the pulvillus.</p> + +<p>There are beetles that simply put the pulvillus so flat against a smooth +surface that it stays there by the pressure of the air above.</p> + +<p>Some people think that is the way the pulvillus on the fly's foot acts.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span></p> + +<p>Perhaps it acts both ways, sucking fast and sticking by hairs.</p> + +<p>John wants to know if the beetle's pulvillus does not act just like the +"sucker" that boys make.</p> + +<p>The sucker, you know, is a round piece of leather with a string attached +to the middle.</p> + +<p>When the leather is wet and laid flat on the floor or on a smooth stone, +all the air below it is pushed out, and the air above presses so hard +that a boy cannot pull the leather up from the floor.</p> + +<div class="figright"><img src="images/img076.jpg" alt="Grasshopper Tribes" title="Grasshopper Tribes" /></div> + +<p>You can peel it up from one edge and let the air under easily enough, +and then a baby could lift it.</p> + +<p>When the insect wants to move, it peels its foot loose.</p> + +<p>It can do this very quickly.</p> + +<p>Mollie wants to know what all these little sharp spines on the back of +the tibia are for.</p> + +<p>Let us look at them.</p> + +<p>There is a double row of them.</p> + +<p>Do they not look a little like a comb?</p> + +<p>I suspect that is what they are, the grasshopper's comb.</p> + +<p>Insects are very neat little folks.</p> + +<p>They are always cleaning their wings and their legs and their antennæ +and their bodies.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span></p> + +<p>The spines on their legs are very convenient for that.</p> + +<p>Charlie says he thinks the grasshopper's legs are as good as a whole box +of tools.</p> + +<p>So they are, and you have not yet heard all they can do.</p> + +<p>The funniest is to come.</p> + +<p>Mr. Grasshopper sings his song with his hind legs!</p> + +<p>He rubs the inside of his femurs against the outside of his wings.</p> + +<p>There is a row of very fine spines down the inside of the femur for the +use of the little fiddler.</p> + +<p>He scrapes away with these on his wing covers.</p> + +<p>Yes, Ned, his femur is his violin bow, and his wing cover is his violin.</p> + +<p>The noise he makes does not sound much like a violin, little Nell +thinks.</p> + +<p>No, indeed, it does not.</p> + +<p>It is the shrilling sound we hear in the grass in the summer time.</p> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/img077.jpg" alt="Grasshopper Tribes" title="Grasshopper Tribes" /></div> + +<p>It is only the male grasshopper that sings.</p> + +<p>The little lady grasshopper sits still and listens to him.</p> + +<p>Now, let us look at the other legs.</p> + +<p>The front pair are the smallest.</p> + +<p>Can you find the little coxa and trochanter?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span></p> + +<p>Yes, Charlie, we will draw the little front leg.</p> + +<p>Let us number the segments as we did those of the hind leg.</p> + +<p>See, the femur is larger than the other segments, but it is small as +compared to the femur of the hind leg.</p> + +<p>The tibia is shorter, too, than the tibia of the hind leg.</p> + +<p>The little tarsus is like the tarsus of the hind leg with its claws and +its pulvillus, only, of course, it is smaller.</p> + +<p>The middle pair of legs is like the front pair, only larger.</p> + +<p>Now, see how the legs are placed on the grasshopper's body.</p> + +<div class="figright"><img src="images/img078.jpg" alt="Grasshopper Tribes" title="Grasshopper Tribes" /></div> + +<p>The front pair are directed forward. When the insect walks, they pull.</p> + +<p>The middle and hind legs are directed backward. When the insect walks, +they push.</p> + +<p>Well, little legs, you all have your own work to do, and you surely do +it very well.</p> + +<p>Let me see, who has front legs as odd as the grasshopper's hind legs.</p> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/img078a.jpg" alt="Grasshopper Tribes" title="Grasshopper Tribes" /></div> + +<p>Yes, Mollie, the mantis has.</p> + +<p>Let us look again at the mantis.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span></p> + +<p>Here is another picture of it.</p> + +<p>Its hind legs are just common walking legs, you see.</p> + +<p>And so are its middle legs.</p> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/img079.jpg" alt="Grasshopper Tribes" title="Grasshopper Tribes" /></div> + +<p>John says they are directed forward instead of backward.</p> + +<p>You can see why.</p> + +<p>They have to take the place of the front legs, that do not touch the +ground at all.</p> + +<p>They have to hold Mr. Mantis up, and pull him along when he wants to +walk.</p> + +<p>Now, let us see if we can make anything out of these front legs.</p> + +<p>The coxa is small and close to the body.</p> + +<p>The trochanter, II, is very large and long.</p> + +<p>Yes, Charlie, it increases the size and strength of the leg very +greatly, by being thus enlarged.</p> + +<p>The femur, III, is large and strong, too, and it has a row of sharp, +spiny teeth down the inside.</p> + +<p>The tibia, IV, is also well supplied with cruel teeth, and at the end of +it is the tarsus, as you see.</p> + +<p>You know how the mantis uses these legs. The joint between the tibia and +femur is a strong hinge joint. If can shut the tibia close to the femur, +the spiny teeth of the one locking into the spiny teeth of the other, +and forming a terrible trap for the insects that are so unfortunate as +to get caught in its merciless grip.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span></p> + +<p>Altogether, you see, it is quite a terrible leg, though it has no more +segments than a common leg.</p> + +<p>The segments are changed in shape and size from the regular leg +segments.</p> + +<p>When any part is changed from the regular shape or size, we say it is +<i>modified</i>.</p> + +<p>The front legs of the mantis are modified to catch and hold its prey.</p> + +<p>Yes, John, the hind legs of the grasshopper are modified too.</p> + +<p>They are modified to jump with.</p> + +<p>Ned says he didn't know there was so much to learn about a little thing +like an insect's leg.</p> + +<p>Yes, indeed, there is a great deal to learn about all living things.</p> + +<p>I wonder how you would like to look at the grasshopper's wings for a +little while.</p> + +<p>Here is one with large wings.</p> + +<div class="figright"><img src="images/img080.jpg" alt="Grasshopper Tribes" title="Grasshopper Tribes" /></div> + +<p>See how they lie along each side of the body.</p> + +<p>They come together on top like the ridge of a sloping house roof.</p> + +<p>Yes, May, they are the roof to the grasshopper's body, and they help to +protect it.</p> + +<p>Let us gently spread them out.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span></p> + +<p>Ah! these roof wings are not what the locust flies with at all.</p> + +<p>See, folded up under them is a pair of delicate gauzy wings.</p> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/img081.jpg" alt="Grasshopper Tribes" title="Grasshopper Tribes" /></div> + +<p>If we are careful, we can spread them out.</p> + +<p>We will use this dead grasshopper that Charlie has found.</p> + +<p>What pretty wings! So dainty! And how cleverly they are folded up, like +little fans.</p> + +<p>Who would imagine such delicate gauzy wings were folded away under the +hard, stiff roof wings.</p> + +<p>The roof wings are called wing covers, because they cover up these +pretty inner wings.</p> + +<p>The locust does not fly with the wing covers.</p> + +<p>It spreads them out wide to get them out of the way.</p> + +<p>It flies with the inner wings.</p> + +<div class="figright"><img src="images/img081a.jpg" alt="Grasshopper Tribes" title="Grasshopper Tribes" /></div> + +<p>How pretty the flying wings are when they are spread out!</p> + +<p>See, over there goes a grasshopper whose flying wings are bright yellow.</p> + +<p>And there goes another with red flying wings.</p> + +<p>Some of the grasshoppers are almost as pretty as butterflies when they +are flying.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span></p> + +<p>They show their gay inner wings only during flight.</p> + +<p>As soon as the grasshopper comes to rest the inner wings close of +themselves.</p> + +<p>The wing joints act like springs.</p> + +<p>The grasshopper does not have to think about shutting up its wings.</p> + +<div class="figright"><img src="images/img082.jpg" alt="Grasshopper Tribes" title="Grasshopper Tribes" /></div> + +<p>John says it has a spring in its wing covers too.</p> + +<p>Open the wing cover.</p> + +<p>There, it locks itself, as it were, and stays open without any effort on +the part of the grasshopper.</p> + +<p>You see the grasshopper wants its wing covers to stay open and out of +the way of the inner wings when it flies.</p> + +<p>So it just opens them, and there they are.</p> + +<p>It moves the inner wings very fast indeed when it is flying. It would +not do at all for them to be fastened open.</p> + +<p>If it did not move them, it could not fly. The wings fairly <i>whirr</i>, +they go so fast. They beat against the air, and thus the grasshopper is +pushed along through the air.</p> + +<p>As soon as it is done flying it stops moving the wings, and they +instantly close of themselves.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img083.jpg" alt="Grasshopper Tribes" title="Grasshopper Tribes" /></div> + +<p>Then it unlocks the wing covers and they shut down over the inner wings. +They shut down very tightly. They overlap, as you can see, just below +where they are fastened to the insect's body. Thus they form a very good +roof.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img083a.jpg" alt="Grasshopper Tribes" title="Grasshopper Tribes" /></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span></p> + +<p>What wonderful wings the grasshopper has!</p> + +<p>And there is something more to be said about them.</p> + +<p>Some species of locusts use their wings as musical instruments. When +they wish to, they rub the upper end of the inner wings against the +upper end of the wing covers when they are flying.</p> + +<p>This makes the crackling sound we sometimes hear when the locusts fly.</p> + +<p>What is that, Mollie? You have caught a locust that has no wings at all?</p> + +<p>Who can guess why?</p> + +<p>Ah, yes, our wise John says he thinks it is because it is a young one.</p> + +<p>What makes you think so, John?</p> + +<p>I know, you remembered the larva of the dragon fly and of the May fly.</p> + +<div class="figright"><img src="images/img084.jpg" alt="Grasshopper Tribes" title="Grasshopper Tribes" /></div> + +<p>Those larvæ had no wings at first, but the wings grew, and finally at +the last moult they were full-sized.</p> + +<p>When first hatched, the locust larva is like the full-grown locust, +only, of course, it is very small, and it has no wings at all.</p> + +<p>It is a little dot of a thing with an enormous head.</p> + +<p>Here are three clinging to a blade of grass.</p> + +<p>Are they not funny little rascals!</p> + +<p>The baby locust eats and grows and moults until, finally, the wings +begin to show as little pads at its sides.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/img085.jpg" alt="Grasshopper Tribes" title="Grasshopper Tribes" /></div> + +<p>It is easy to find these half-grown grasshoppers in the middle of the +summer.</p> + +<p>Here is one that little Nell has caught.</p> + +<p>See its wing pads.</p> + +<p>Mollie says they are rudimentary wings.</p> + +<p>It continues to eat and grow and moult, and the little wings are moulted +off with the rest of the skin—for the wings of the insect are only +modified parts of the skin.</p> + +<p>But there are new and larger wings underneath, and these grow and are +moulted off with the next skin, until, at last, the grasshopper is +full-grown, with full-grown wings.</p> + +<div class="figright"><img src="images/img085a.jpg" alt="Grasshopper Tribes" title="Grasshopper Tribes" /></div> + +<p>It will not moult any more after that.</p> + +<p>When full-grown, the females lay their eggs.</p> + +<p>Where do you suppose they lay their eggs?</p> + +<p>Some of them make a hole in the ground.</p> + +<p>The end of the abdomen is very strong and sharp, and the locust can make +a hole with it quite easily.</p> + +<p>When the hole is made, then the eggs are laid in it, and the locust +covers the opening to the hole with a sticky substance to keep out the +wet.</p> + +<p>The eggs usually lie in the ground all winter.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span></p> + +<p>Just think of the locust eggs there are under our feet as we cross the +fields!</p> + +<p>Millions and millions of little eggs are hidden in the ground.</p> + +<p>Early in the next summer the little eggs hatch, and then tiny locusts +creep up out of the earth and go hopping about everywhere.</p> + +<p>Most of the full-grown locusts die in the fall.</p> + +<p>As you know, the young ones have no wings, and this is why there are so +few winged locusts early in the summer.</p> + +<p>Some locusts make their holes in fence rails or in old stumps.</p> + +<p>It is the locusts, or shorthorned grasshoppers, that sometimes come in +swarms that darken the sun.</p> + +<p>There is nothing the Western farmer dreads so much as a swarm of +locusts.</p> + +<p>I have heard how the grasshoppers came in Kansas one year.</p> + +<p>They appeared all of a sudden in countless millions.</p> + +<p>They were piled up against the fences clear to the top.</p> + +<p>They swarmed into the houses, and in places on the railroad track they +were piled so deep the trains could not run through them.</p> + +<p>Think of a railway train being stopped by grasshoppers!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span></p> + +<p>They stripped every leaf from the trees and left them as bare as in +winter.</p> + +<p>They ate up every blade of grass.</p> + +<p>But in the East they do not do so much damage, though they sometimes +cause the farmers serious loss. When summer comes we may listen to their +cheery din with pleasure.</p> + +<p>I am sure we shall enjoy the merry sounds of the grasshoppers all the +more now that we know something about how they are made, and something +about the little fellow that makes them.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img087.jpg" alt="Grasshopper Tribes" title="Grasshopper Tribes" /></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><span class="smcap">The Longhorned Grasshoppers</span></h2> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/img088.jpg" alt="Grasshopper Tribes" title="Grasshopper Tribes" /></div> + +<p>Probably it was the longhorned grasshoppers that Charlie saw so many of +in the meadow.</p> + +<p>Look, next time, Charlie, and see if the swarms that start up before you +have not long, slender antennæ.</p> + +<p>See, here is one.</p> + +<p>Its antennæ are like threads, and they are longer than its body.</p> + +<p>If you were to look at its tarsus, you would find it had four joints +instead of three.</p> + +<p>Otherwise, the longhorned, or meadow grasshoppers are very much like the +locusts, or shorthorned grasshoppers.</p> + +<p>John says he thinks the meadow grasshoppers are more slender and +delicate in shape.</p> + +<p>That is true, as a rule, though there are some species of the locusts +that are as slender as the longhorned grasshoppers.</p> + +<p>But there is one thing about these longhorned fellows that will amuse +you.</p> + +<p>Some of them have ears on their front legs!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span></p> + +<p>It is not uncommon for insects to have hearing organs on their front +legs.</p> + +<p>You know what an ear is. It is something to hear with. The hearing part +of our own ears is way inside, out of sight.</p> + +<p>The outer part of the ear, that we can take hold of, is only a sort of +funnel to gather up the sound, and we could still hear if this part of +our ears were cut off.</p> + +<p>Way back inside the ear is a little curtain, or eardrum, made of a thin +membrane.</p> + +<p>When sounds enter the ear they cause the eardrum to tremble or vibrate, +and this excites the nerve of hearing that is behind the eardrum.</p> + +<p>Now some grasshoppers have a little flat membrane on the tibia of each +front leg. It is an eardrum. Behind it is the nerve of hearing. When +sounds strike the eardrum it vibrates and excites the nerve of hearing.</p> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/img089.jpg" alt="Grasshopper Tribes" title="Grasshopper Tribes" /></div> + +<p>So you see the insects have <i>ears</i>, though they have no funnel-like +outsides to them.</p> + +<p>So, after all, there isn't so <i>very</i> much difference between the way the +grasshoppers hear, and the way we hear, although they do hear with their +legs.</p> + +<p>Yes, Ned, it is about the same thing when they hear with sensitive spots +on their antennæ.</p> + +<p>The sounds strike the sensitive spots, which are tiny<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> eardrums, and +cause the nerves that come to them to hear.</p> + +<p>You see, after all, an ear is only a membrane able to vibrate when +sounds strike it and a nerve sensitive to those sounds.</p> + +<div class="figright"><img src="images/img090.jpg" alt="Grasshopper Tribes" title="Grasshopper Tribes" /></div> + +<p>It does not matter much where the ear is located. Our ears are on either +side of our head, and so are the ears of all the higher animals.</p> + +<p>But the ears of the insects are more useful to them when on the antennæ, +or the legs, or some have them on the abdomen. An ear is an ear wherever +it happens to be, and the insects hear well enough with theirs.</p> + +<p>In many species of the longhorned grasshoppers, the male has a curious +musical instrument on his wing covers, close to where they grow from the +body.</p> + +<p>Little Mr. Grasshopper sings to his lady-love by rubbing the upper parts +of the wing covers together. You see the round places at <i>X</i>,—those are +the modified parts of the wing cover, by means of which he can make his +music.</p> + +<p>What is that, May? Your grasshopper has a long sword at the end of its +body?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img091.jpg" alt="Grasshopper Tribes" title="Grasshopper Tribes" /></div> + +<p>Yes, that is its ovipositor. Ovipositor means "egg-placer."</p> + +<p>With this long, sharp ovipositor the grasshopper can roughen the bark of +twigs or make holes in the stems of plants or in the earth.</p> + +<p>Then the eggs are guided down through the long ovipositor to the place +prepared for them, and fastened there by a gummy substance.</p> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/img091a.jpg" alt="Grasshopper Tribes" title="Grasshopper Tribes" /></div> + +<p>Only the female grasshoppers have the long, sword-shaped ovipositor.</p> + +<p>The ovipositor of the locust is not long and sword-like.</p> + +<p>It is short, but it is strong and sharp, and you remember how the locust +uses it to dig with.</p> + +<p>Yes, indeed, Mollie, there are a great many species of locusts and +grasshoppers, and some of them are very beautiful.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span></p> + +<p>In hot countries they sometimes grow to an enormous size.</p> + +<p>May is asking why they make molasses.</p> + +<p>No, Ned, of course it isn't molasses. Children call it molasses because +it looks like it.</p> + +<p>Now, May, where does it make its molasses?</p> + +<p>In its mouth, you say, and then it spits it out on your finger.</p> + +<p>What? You don't like its old molasses on your finger?</p> + +<p>No, of course not.</p> + +<div class="figright"><img src="images/img092.jpg" alt="Grasshopper Tribes" title="Grasshopper Tribes" /></div> + +<p>It smells bad, and it is sticky and disagreeable to the touch, and if +you happen to put your finger in your mouth it has a nasty taste.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span></p> + +<p>John says he hates to touch the grasshopper on account of this molasses.</p> + +<p>You <i>all</i> do?</p> + +<p>Well, I guess that is why it makes its molasses; it doesn't want you to +touch it.</p> + +<p>It doesn't want birds to eat it, or other insects to bother it, and so +it smears them with this ill-smelling, sticky liquid.</p> + +<p>Some birds eat it, however, in spite of its molasses.</p> + +<p>Turkeys do.</p> + +<p>What is that, Ned? turkeys are not birds, you think?</p> + +<p>What are they?</p> + +<p>If you think about it, you will have to come to the conclusion that +turkeys are birds.</p> + +<p>Then chickens and ducks and geese must be birds?</p> + +<p>Well, so they are. They are all birds.</p> + +<p>But to return to turkeys.</p> + +<p>A flock of turkeys will spread out in a long line, and go across a +field, driving the grasshoppers ahead of them, and eating them as fast +as they can pick them up.</p> + +<p>It is a funny sight to see a big flock of turkeys hunting grasshoppers +in a meadow.</p> + +<p>It is not funny to the grasshoppers, though.</p> + +<p>What is that, Charlie? The grasshopper somehow reminds you of the +praying mantis?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span></p> + +<p>Do you know it is a near relative of the mantis?</p> + +<p>Now, I will tell you something funny about the mantis.</p> + +<p>It makes "molasses" like the grasshopper. Yes, it is this harmless +"molasses" that has given it the name of "mule-killer."</p> + +<p>I will tell you something else. If you lie down in the grass and watch +the grasshoppers, you will have a good time, and you will see some +strange things.</p> + +<p>Nobody can tell you very much about the grasshoppers—or about the +living creature. The best way is to use your own eyes and watch.</p> + +<p>Just lie down in the grass perfectly still, and soon the insects that +live in the grass will begin to appear.</p> + +<div class="figright"><img src="images/img094.jpg" alt="Grasshopper Tribes" title="Grasshopper Tribes" /></div> + +<p>What they will do you must find out for yourselves; but you may be sure +it will be worth finding out,—the funny, clever, wise little +people!—ah! they are good to watch.</p> + +<p>They will soon go on chirping and shrilling and rasping and kricking and +tapping and whizzing and whirring and buzzing all about you; and if you +listen sharp, perhaps you can understand some of the things they say.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span></p> + +<p>And this I am sure of; if you really watch and listen, you can learn to +know the different insects by their sounds, just as you can know the +birds by their songs. You can even tell whether you are listening to the +meadow grasshopper, or the locust.</p> + +<p>If I thought you were not tired of hearing how grasshoppers are made, I +should tell you some more.</p> + +<p>John says he would like to know some more.</p> + +<p>Well, then, I will tell you about their rings.</p> + +<p>You can see the rings of the grasshopper people very plainly in their +abdomens.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img095.jpg" alt="Grasshopper Tribes" title="Grasshopper Tribes" /></div> + +<p>Here is a picture of a grasshopper. It is not all drawn. The legs and +wings are not shown, and the abdomen is drawn by itself so you can see +it easily.</p> + +<p>There are ten rings, you see.</p> + +<p>The rings are covered with a hard, horny substance.</p> + +<p>This horny substance is what makes the body of the insect so stiff. It +would be soft but for the chitin, as the horny substance is called.</p> + +<p>It is better for the insect to have a chitinous covering.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span></p> + +<p>If you had no bones, you would be glad to have your skin hardened with +chitin.</p> + +<p>You see how it is, you wear your skeleton inside. Your skeleton is of +bones; it is an inside skeleton.</p> + +<p>The grasshoppers and all the insects wear their skeleton outside. It is +made of chitin; it is an outside skeleton.</p> + +<p>Insects have no bones.</p> + +<p>They do not need any. They are kept stiff by the chitin.</p> + +<p>Each ring in the insect's abdomen is made of four pieces, the back +piece, the side pieces, and the under piece. You can see the back piece +and one side piece in the picture, but you cannot see the other side +piece nor the under piece without turning the insect over.</p> + +<p>The rings are made in pieces so the insect can move.</p> + +<p>Suppose each ring were made of one stiff piece like a finger ring. What +a poor stiff, old grasshopper it would be! The rings are called +segments.</p> + +<p>Segment number one has only a back piece, you see.</p> + +<p>All the other segments have four pieces.</p> + +<p>Segments two, three, four, five, six, seven, and eight are alike.</p> + +<p>Segments nine and ten are modified to form the ovipositor.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span></p> + +<p>The segments are fastened together by skin. The skin is soft so the +segments can move back and forth.</p> + +<p>The segments can be crowded close together to shorten the abdomen.</p> + +<p>The segments can be separated from each other to lengthen the abdomen.</p> + +<p>There is no chitin in the skin between the segments. It is soft so the +segments can move.</p> + +<p>Do you know how a telescope is made?</p> + +<p>The abdomen of the insect can lengthen and shorten somewhat like a +telescope.</p> + +<p>It is easy to see the rings in the abdomen of the locust or grasshopper.</p> + +<p>Now, what about the thorax?</p> + +<p>That, you tell me, has no rings.</p> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/img097.jpg" alt="Grasshopper Tribes" title="Grasshopper Tribes" /></div> + +<p>Look again, and look carefully.</p> + +<p>You will have to see another picture.</p> + +<p>This is a picture of the head and thorax of the grasshopper. It is drawn +to show the separate parts of the thorax.</p> + +<p>Yes, John, the thorax has three segments. They are grown so close +together you would not suspect it until you looked very close.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span></p> + +<p>The front legs are fastened to the first segment.</p> + +<p>What is fastened to the middle segment?</p> + +<p>Yes, May, the middle pair of legs and the wing covers.</p> + +<p>Mollie says the long hind legs and the flying wings are fastened to the +third or hind segment.</p> + +<p>Oh, you funny little folks! you are all made up of rings.</p> + +<p>Yes, indeed, little Nell, the segments of the thorax are made of chitin; +they are very stiff.</p> + +<p>Ned thinks the segments of the legs are made of chitin too.</p> + +<p>Their outside shell certainly is.</p> + +<p>The whole outer shell of the insect is made of the horny chitin.</p> + +<p>You hard little chitin-covered, segmented people, you are very different +from us.</p> + +<p>Ah! yes, May, they are like us in many ways.</p> + +<p>Indeed, Mollie, insects do have brains.</p> + +<p>They have muscles, too, to move their little bodies with.</p> + +<p>We have muscles under our skin, you know. The muscles move our arms and +legs and bodies.</p> + +<p>If you clasp your fingers around your arm and then move your arm, you +can feel the muscles.</p> + +<p>The insects have muscles inside their chitinous shells. The muscles move +their bodies.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span></p> + +<p>The muscles are very, very strong.</p> + +<p>They are stronger for their size than the muscles of a horse.</p> + +<p>John, do you know how heavy a load a horse can pull?</p> + +<p>Well, it cannot pull a load equal to the weight of its own body.</p> + +<p>Now, listen to this,—almost any insect can pull a load that is five +times the weight of its body!</p> + +<p>Ah, yes, some insects can pull a much heavier weight than that. The +honey bee, for instance, can pull a load twenty times as heavy as its +body.</p> + +<p>And think how our little insect friends can jump! Why, a kangaroo cannot +begin to jump like a grasshopper.</p> + +<p>No, indeed, Ned, the finest jumper in the world of men cannot begin to +jump as well as a grasshopper, not even with the aid of a spring board. +He is a mere baby in comparison.</p> + +<p>Ah, yes, we can do a great many things better than the grasshoppers, +but, you see, they can do some things better than we can.</p> + +<p>What is that, John?</p> + +<p>You want to know about the mouth parts of the grasshopper?</p> + +<p>Suppose we leave the mouth parts.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span></p> + +<p>They are difficult to understand. We have had a good many new names to +learn lately.</p> + +<p>What, May? You can't remember such hard words?</p> + +<p>Oh, yes, of course you can.</p> + +<p>You don't mind learning "rhinoceros," and "Mississippi," and +"Popocatepetl," and "eenie, meenie, monie mike," and they are quite as +hard as femur and tibia; and, besides, you have a femur yourself! Did +you know it?</p> + +<p>Your thigh bone, like the grasshopper's thigh, is called a femur.</p> + +<p>Yes, Mollie, there is a bone in your leg called the tibia, and you have +a tarsus in your foot.</p> + +<p>So, after all, when you are learning hard words about insects you are +learning a great deal besides, as you will find.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img100.jpg" alt="Grasshopper Tribes" title="Grasshopper Tribes" /></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><span class="smcap">Pretty Katydids</span></h2> + +<div class="figright"><img src="images/img101.jpg" alt="Pretty Katydids" title="Pretty Katydids" /></div> + +<p>Katy did!</p> + +<p>Katy didn't!</p> + +<p>Katy did!</p> + +<p>Well, well, did she or didn't she, and what of it anyway.</p> + +<p>Come here, Katy did and Katy didn't, the children want to see you.</p> + +<p>She's a pretty little Did and Didn't, isn't she.</p> + +<p>Katy, why do you not know your own mind and always tell the same story?</p> + +<p>Krick—krick—krick, there, she is talking; that's her way of saying +"Katy did."</p> + +<p>Krick—krick—krickkrick. Now she has said "Katy didn't."</p> + +<p>Well, we never shall know anything more about it.</p> + +<p>No, little Nell, she doesn't really say Katy did or Katy didn't, but it +sounds like that, and we make believe she says it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span></p> + +<p>John says he is sure the katydids are first cousins to the grasshoppers +and locusts, and so they are.</p> + +<p>They are very closely related to—which division of locusts, do you +think?</p> + +<p>Oh, yes, the longhorned, of course.</p> + +<p>See their long, long antennæ, and the male has the same little musical +places on his wings, little membranes that vibrate and make his song of +Katy did and Katy didn't.</p> + +<div class="figright"><img src="images/img102.jpg" alt="Pretty Katydids" title="Pretty Katydids" /></div> + +<p>No, the little lady katydid cannot sing—only the little male, and he +keeps it up all night long.</p> + +<p>We sometimes wish he would get tired or sleepy and stop, but he never +does.</p> + +<p>Why do you suppose he likes to sing so well in the night?</p> + +<p>The katydids generally live on trees and bushes.</p> + +<p>Yes, they are a beautiful, pale green people, and that is one reason we +do not often see them. It is not easy to find a katydid among the green +leaves.</p> + +<p>The female katydids have a long sword-<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span>shaped ovipositor with which they +roughen the bark on twigs, and place the eggs there, fastening them with +a gummy substance.</p> + +<p>The egg is glued fast so it will not fall off.</p> + +<p>It hatches into a little dot of a katydid that has no wings, but, like +the larvæ of the other insects we know about, it eats and grows and +moults, and at last its wings and the rest of its body are full grown.</p> + +<p>It casts its skin for the last time; it is no longer a larva, but a +full-grown insect.</p> + +<p>Yes, May, we call the young of all insects larvæ.</p> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/img103.jpg" alt="Pretty Katydids" title="Pretty Katydids" /></div> + +<p>See this dainty katydid that Charlie has caught for us.</p> + +<p>How pretty it is!</p> + +<p>Its feelers are like long green threads.</p> + +<p>And how sensitive they are!</p> + +<p>It quickly starts away when we touch one of the feelers.</p> + +<p>Yes, Mollie, the katydid walks more than the grasshopper.</p> + +<p>It can jump well with those long, slender hind legs. How beautiful its +hind legs are! They are longer and more delicate than those of the +grasshopper.</p> + +<p>And its wings, how gauzy and dainty! Its wing covers are not so stiff as +those of the grasshopper.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> They look almost like flying wings, they are +so delicate.</p> + +<p>See, they open, and fasten themselves open, like the wing covers of the +grasshopper; and when they are at rest they overlap like the wings of +the grasshopper.</p> + +<p>The inner wings are like fine lace.</p> + +<p>They look too delicate for use, and yet the katydid flies very well +indeed with them.</p> + +<p>They are a little longer than the wing covers.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img104.jpg" alt="Pretty Katydids" title="Pretty Katydids" /></div> + +<p>When the katydid is at rest you can see the tips of the wings extending +beyond the ends of the wing covers.</p> + +<p>The part of the inner wing that extends beyond the wing covers is green, +like the wing covers, you see.</p> + +<p>But the rest of the inner wing is not green, it is like very thin glass, +or like fine isinglass.</p> + +<p>Look for a moment at the long curved ovipositor of the female katydid.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span></p> + +<p>If you look sharp, you will see teeth on it like a little saw. It is +with these teeth the little katydid is able to rasp the surface of the +twigs, and make a place to fasten her eggs to.</p> + +<p>Her wings are wrapped about her form like an ample cloak of green.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img105.jpg" alt="Pretty Katydids" title="Pretty Katydids" /></div> + +<p>Now, my little katydid, you may fly away if you want to.</p> + +<p>We are very much obliged to you for letting us look at you, and we hope +we have not troubled you too much.</p> + +<p>See her go!</p> + +<p>How prettily the katydids fly.</p> + +<p>They seem almost like little birds.</p> + +<p>I am sure they love to fly about in the bright summer-time.</p> + +<p>Happy katydids.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span></p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><span class="smcap">The Cricket-like Grasshoppers</span></h2> + +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img106.jpg" alt="Cricket-like Grasshoppers" title="Cricket-like Grasshoppers" /></div> + +<p>Now what strange-looking little creature are you?</p> + +<p>John says it looks like a grasshopper, only it has no wings and its body +is not that of a grasshopper.</p> + +<p>May says it looks like a cricket, only it has the long legs of a +grasshopper.</p> + +<p>It is called the cricket-like grasshopper, and it is partly like a +cricket, as you see, and partly like a grasshopper.</p> + +<p>It is a funny little fellow that lives around in dark corners, usually +in the woods.</p> + +<p>Do see those long, spiny legs!</p> + +<div class="figright"><img src="images/img106a.jpg" alt="Cricket-like Grasshoppers" title="Cricket-like Grasshoppers" /></div> + +<p>How he <i>can</i> jump.</p> + +<p>He has strong, short, sharp spines on the femurs and on the tibias.</p> + +<p>He has spines on all his legs, and what long feet he has!</p> + +<p>Yes, Nell, his antennæ are longer than<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> anything else about him. I +should think they would be in his way.</p> + +<p>He has no wings at all, and he never will have any.</p> + +<p>He has two pairs of feelers in front of his mouth that show very +plainly. They show more plainly than the mouth parts of the grasshopper, +though they are quite like them.</p> + +<p>Yes, Ned, they are larger than the mouth parts of the grasshopper.</p> + +<p>There is another little fellow very similar to the cricket-like +grasshopper.</p> + +<p>It has no wings, and the top of the thorax is like a broad shield.</p> + +<p>It is called the shield-backed grasshopper.</p> + +<p>See if you can find one of them.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img107.jpg" alt="Cricket-like Grasshoppers" title="Cricket-like Grasshoppers" /></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><span class="smcap">The Cheery Cricket People</span></h2> + + +<p>Chirp! chirp!</p> + +<p>Chirp! chirp!</p> + +<div class="figright"><img src="images/img108.jpg" alt="The Cheery Cricket People" title="The Cheery Cricket People" /></div> + +<p>Ah, listen to that cheery song. It is the cricket on the hearth singing +thus gayly.</p> + +<p>Dear little cricket; he lives in the corner by the fireplace. When all +is still we hear his cheery chirp! chirp! chirp!</p> + +<p>Sometimes he comes peering out and runs across the hearth, a little +black fireside fairy.</p> + +<p>Do you know one of the prettiest stories in the world has been written +about a cricket?</p> + +<p>Charles Dickens wrote it, and it is called "The Cricket on the Hearth."</p> + +<p>Be sure to read this beautiful story. If you do not own it, ask to have +it for Christmas. It is in the book of "Christmas Tales," a book that +everybody ought to have.</p> + +<p>Grasshoppers and katydids are pleasant people, but they live out of +doors, and they do not seem quite so much like our very own little +friends as the crickets.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span></p> + +<p>Of course the crickets live out of doors, too, only once in a while one +of them comes into the house to live with us.</p> + +<p>We hear them chirping in the grass and among the stones.</p> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/img109.jpg" alt="The Cheery Cricket People" title="The Cheery Cricket People" /></div> + +<p>There is a certain place near the seashore where the rocks are alive +with the black cricket folk.</p> + +<p>They come peeping out at you from all sides. They skip over the rocks, +and you will often see a pair of long feelers and an inquisitive little +head looking around a corner.</p> + +<p>You too, know there are crickets, little Nell?</p> + +<p>Let us go and see them.</p> + +<p>Ah, yes, there is one, looking at us out of inquisitive eyes, over there +by that big stone.</p> + +<div class="figright"><img src="images/img109a.jpg" alt="The Cheery Cricket People" title="The Cheery Cricket People" /></div> + +<p>Of course they are cousins to the grasshoppers. I knew you would guess +that right away.</p> + +<p>Yes, John, the little cricket people have flat backs.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span></p> + +<p>Their wing covers do not make a peaked roof over their backs, but are +flat on top and bent down at the sides like a box cover.</p> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/img110.jpg" alt="The Cheery Cricket People" title="The Cheery Cricket People" /></div> + +<p>They are not so long as the wings of the grasshopper, but they overlap +on top.</p> + +<p>Sometimes they are not so long as the body of the cricket.</p> + +<p>Just watch now!</p> + +<p>How spry the cricket folk are!</p> + +<p>They jump well, but they also run well. They are always running about as +though they enjoyed it.</p> + +<p>It is not easy to catch one of them unless we, too, are "as spry as a +cricket."</p> + +<p>Funny little rascals, to come peeping at us like that, from out the +crevices in the stones.</p> + +<p>When we stir,—pop! they are back out of sight.</p> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/img110a.jpg" alt="The Cheery Cricket People" title="The Cheery Cricket People" /></div> + +<p>They eat leaves, and they enjoy a piece of nice, ripe fruit, or a bit of +juicy vegetable.</p> + +<p>See here, one has jumped on my hand and is sitting quite still.</p> + +<div class="figright"> + <img src="images/img111.jpg" + alt="Male Cricket" /><br /> + <b><span class="smcap">Male Cricket</span></b> + </div> +<p>It is a male cricket.</p> + +<p>How do I know that?</p> + +<p>May says because it has no ovipositor.</p> + +<p>Yes, that is one way to know.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span></p> + +<p>Look at his wing covers.</p> + + +<p>See how they are ribbed.</p> + +<div class="figright"> + <img src="images/img111a.jpg" + alt="Female Cricket" /><br /> + <b><span class="smcap">Female Cricket</span></b> + </div> + + +<p>Now look at this cricket Mabel has caught. It is a female, and its +wings, you see, are not ornamented like those of the male.</p> + +<p>Do you know the meaning of his heavily ribbed wing covers?</p> + +<p>Why, his wing covers are his musical instruments. See one of them +magnified.</p> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/img111b.jpg" alt="The Cheery Cricket People" title="The Cheery Cricket People" /></div> + +<p>It is divided into spaces like so many little drum-heads. The ridge that +runs across the top of the wing is something like a file in structure.</p> + +<p>When little Mr. Cricket is in the mood for chirping, he raises his wing +covers and rubs them together.</p> + +<p>This throws the stiff membranes of which the wing covers are made into +vibration, and the result is the cheery call of our little black fairy.</p> + +<p>Little Nell says the cricket is more like a brownie than a fairy, and +maybe she is right.</p> + +<p>You can easily see the crickets rub their wings together if you watch in +the fall of the year.</p> + +<p>John says, Why do you have to watch in the fall of the year?</p> + +<p>Now who can guess?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span></p> + +<p>Yes, May, it is because the crickets are then full-grown, and have +large wing covers. At first, in the early summer, they have no wings, +and so of course, we could not see them chirp.</p> + +<p>The whole grasshopper tribe is a vocal one; the males all have musical +instruments, and in Japan, the people are so fond of the song of <i>their</i> +grasshopper folk, which are not quite like ours, that they make tiny +cages for them.</p> + +<p>The chirpers are caught and put in these cages, and sold in the city +streets.</p> + +<p>Yes, little Nell, the crickets make molasses. So do the katydids.</p> + +<p>All these little hopping neighbors of ours seem to understand the useful +art of molasses making.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img112.jpg" alt="The Cheery Cricket People" title="The Cheery Cricket People" /></div> + +<p>The mole crickets are different from the others.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span></p> + +<p>They burrow in the ground like a mole, and we do not often see them.</p> + +<p>The strangest thing about them is their hands.</p> + +<p>No, of course they are not really hands, but they look like them.</p> + +<p>All the joints of the fore legs are modified to form strong digging +tools, and they look very much like the paws of the mole.</p> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/img113.jpg" alt="The Cheery Cricket People" title="The Cheery Cricket People" /></div> + +<p>They are troublesome fellows, sometimes, when they eat the tender roots +of the vegetables in the garden.</p> + +<p>You all have seen the little tree cricket, but you might not recognize +it as a cricket, it is such a pale little creature.</p> + +<p>Its light green body may often be seen on bushes in the summer-time, +and, if you look carefully, the form will tell you what the little one +is.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img113a.jpg" alt="The Cheery Cricket People" title="The Cheery Cricket People" /></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>A Large Family</h2> + +<div class="figright"><img src="images/img114.jpg" alt="A Large Family" title="A Large Family" /></div> + +<p>The crickets, grasshoppers, walking sticks, praying mantes, and +cockroaches, strange as it may seem, are all near relatives to each +other.</p> + +<p>They all belong to one large family or order, the <span class="smcap">Orthoptera</span>.</p> + +<p>Or-thop-te-ra, is it not a hard word!</p> + +<p>It will not seem so hard when you know what it means.</p> + +<p>It comes from two Greek words <i>orthos</i>, meaning straight, and <i>pteron</i>, +meaning a wing.</p> + +<p>Straight-wing.</p> + +<p>And do you know, it does not mean that the <i>upper</i> wings are straight, +but that the under wings are folded down in long straight lines.</p> + +<p>Now let us see if we can tell in what ways all of our Orthoptera are +alike.</p> + +<p>They all have—?</p> + +<p>"Four wings"—that is right, little Nell.</p> + +<p>What, John? the walking sticks have no wings?</p> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/img114a.jpg" alt="A Large Family" title="A Large Family" /></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span></p> + +<p>Not our walking sticks, but yet they belong to a winged family. You +remember the tropical walking sticks that have queer leaf-like wings, do +you not?</p> + +<p>Are the four wings alike?</p> + +<p>No, John says, the upper ones are narrow and stiff and serve as wing +covers.</p> + +<p>The inner ones are broader and more delicate. They fold up when not in +use and are used to fly with.</p> + +<p>Very good indeed, John. Now I will tell you something. The Orthoptera +all have mouth parts made to bite with. They do not bite anything but +what they eat, however. They are quite harmless so far as we are +concerned.</p> + +<p>The young Orthoptera look like the old ones, only they have no wings. +They hatch out of the egg with a head, a six-legged thorax, and an +abdomen.</p> + +<p>Now, come, let us look at all of our orthopterous friends again, +cockroaches first.</p> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/img115.jpg" alt="A Large Family" title="A Large Family" /></div> + +<p>How do they get about, John?</p> + +<p>Yes, indeed, they run, the rascals. They run fast too. They are flat and +their six legs are very much alike. They are well built for running and +hiding in cracks.</p> + +<p>Suppose we call them the <i>Running Orthoptera</i>.</p> + +<p>Now, look at our mantis.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span></p> + +<p>He does not run very much. How is he different from the others?</p> + +<p>Ah, yes, he has big front legs, and little Nell says he grabs things +with them.</p> + +<div class="figright"><img src="images/img116.jpg" alt="A Large Family" title="A Large Family" /></div> + + +<p>So he does. Now, what shall we call these grabbers?</p> + +<p>The Grabbing Orthoptera, Ned says.</p> + +<p>Suppose we say instead the <i>Grasping Orthoptera</i>, because grasping +sounds a little better than grabbing. Do you not think so?</p> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/img116a.jpg" alt="A Large Family" title="A Large Family" /></div> + + +<p>Now for Mr. Walking Stick.</p> + +<p>We cannot very well call him a member of the Running Orthoptera, can we?</p> + +<p>Ah, Mollie has it. We must call his kind the <i>Walking Orthoptera</i>.</p> + +<p>His six legs are all long and slender, and he moves them slowly.</p> + +<div class="figright"><img src="images/img116b.jpg" alt="Orthoptera" title="Orthoptera" /></div> + +<p>Now for those fellows with the long hind legs, the locusts and katydids +and crickets. Yes, all of you are ready to name them.</p> + +<p>We call them—what?</p> + +<p>May says, the Hopping Orthoptera.</p> + +<p>John thinks Jumping Orthoptera would sound better.</p> + +<p>And that is what we name them, the <i>Jumping Orthoptera</i>.</p> + +<p>How many kinds of Jumping Orthoptera are we<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> acquainted with, Ned? Now, +think before you speak.</p> + +<p>He says we know the shorthorned grasshoppers, or locusts, the +longhorned, or meadow, grasshoppers, and the crickets.</p> + +<p>Very well done, Ned.</p> + +<p>May wants to know what has become of the katydids and the cricket-like +grasshoppers—she thinks Ned has left them out.</p> + +<p>Ned says they belong to the longhorned grasshoppers.</p> + +<p>Now you shall have a list of the Orthoptera that will help you to +remember them.</p> + +<p>If we can group together things that are like each other, it is easier +to remember them.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;" class="smcap">Order Orthoptera.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;"><i>Running Orthoptera</i>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">Cockroaches, Croton Bugs.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;"><i>Grasping Orthoptera</i>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">Praying Mantis.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;"><i>Walking Orthoptera</i>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">Walking Sticks.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;"><i>Jumping Orthoptera</i>.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">Shorthorned Grasshoppers, or Locusts.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">Longhorned, or Meadow, Grasshoppers.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">Crickets.</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span></p> + +<p>There are a great many species of Orthoptera in the world, and we have +seen but a very few of them.</p> + +<p>But I can tell you, we feel a little better acquainted with you +orthopterous fellows than we did.</p> + +<p>The dragon fly says we have not given him a place.</p> + +<p>But, dear dragon fly, you belong to another family. You are not an +orthopterous insect.</p> + +<p>Your order is called the <span class="smcap">Odo-na-ta</span>.</p> + +<p>The wings of the Odonata are very different from those of the +Orthoptera.</p> + +<div class="figright"><img src="images/img118.jpg" alt="A Large Family" title="A Large Family" /></div> + +<p>You remember how they are?</p> + +<p>Yes, Ned, they are stiff and covered with a close network of fine veins, +and all four of them are alike.</p> + +<p>No wing covers, you see.</p> + +<p>I do not know why they have the name Odonata.</p> + +<p>The young Odonata are not like their parents, excepting that they have a +head, a thorax with six legs, and an abdomen. But they certainly do not +look like their parents!</p> + +<p>No, John, the May flies do not belong to the Odonata. Their wings are +quite different.</p> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/img118a.jpg" alt="A Large Family" title="A Large Family" /></div> + +<p>Do you not remember how small the hind wings are?</p> + +<p>The name of their order is <span class="smcap">Eph-e-mer-i-da</span>.</p> + +<p>There is a big name for a little insect!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span></p> + +<p>It comes from the Greek word <i>ephemeros</i>, and you know what it means.</p> + +<p>What? Has everybody forgotten about the dainty little ephemeræ, that +live but a day?</p> + +<p>That is what <i>ephemeros</i> means, lasting but a day.</p> + +<p>The stone flies have four wings, but they are not like those of the +Odonata, or of the Ephemerida.</p> + +<p>Do you remember how the hind wings are folded?</p> + +<p>Yes, May, in plaits, so these are the plaited wings, or +<span class="smcap">Ple-cop-te-ra</span>, from <i>pteran</i>, a wing, and <i>plecos</i>, plaited.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span></p><p>The little silver fish, as you remember, has no wings at all, so its +order is called <span class="smcap">Thy-sa-nu-ra</span>, from its bristle tail, +<i>thysanos</i>, in Greek, meaning a tassel, and <i>oura</i>, the tail.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span></p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span></p> +<p><br /><br /></p> +<h2>Hemiptera</h2> +<p><br /><br /></p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><span class="smcap">The Great Bug Family</span></h2> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/img122.jpg" alt="The Great Bug Family" title="The Great Bug Family" /></div> + +<p>Now, my children, do you know what a bug is? Most people do not.</p> + +<p>They call every insect a "bug," but bugs are bugs, flies are flies, ants +are ants, and neither flies nor ants are bugs.</p> + +<p>Indeed, no insects are bugs—excepting just bugs!</p> + +<p>Our croton bugs are not really bugs. They do not belong to the bug +family.</p> + +<p>A bug has four wings—when it has any.</p> + +<div class="figright"><img src="images/img122a.jpg" alt="The Great Bug Family" title="The Great Bug Family" /></div> + +<p>But its wings are not like those of the Orthoptera or Odonata or +Ephemerida or Plecoptera.</p> + +<p>Some bugs have no wings.</p> + +<p>Young bugs are like old bugs, only smaller, and they have no wings.</p> + +<p>You remember the Orthoptera and Odonata bite their food.</p> + +<p>They chew it up and swallow it.</p> + +<p>Bugs do not bite, they suck. Their mouth<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> parts are often grown together +in the form of a tube that is sometimes very sharp.</p> + +<p>They stick these sharp tubes or beaks into their food, and suck it up.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><span class="smcap">The Water Boatman</span></h2> + +<p>What, May; you want to see a bug? Well, that is easy enough.</p> + +<p>Here is one in this pond at our feet. Do you know it?</p> + +<div class="figright"><img src="images/img123.jpg" alt="The Water Boatman" title="The Water Boatman" /></div> + +<p>Yes, John; it is the water boatman.</p> + +<p>Nell says she doesn't see it.</p> + +<p>There, Nell, that little thing that shines like silver under the water. +It is clinging to a weed.</p> + +<p>No, we cannot see it very well unless we catch it.</p> + +<p>Ned, do you think you can be spry enough to scoop it out with the net?</p> + +<p>There, he has it,—no, it is off.</p> + +<p>Well, we shall never see that one again; but here, in this corner of the +pond, see, several of them.</p> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/img123a.jpg" alt="The Water Boatman" title="The Water Boatman" /></div> + +<p>Now don't be in too great a hurry, Ned; they are hard to catch.</p> + +<p>He has it!</p> + +<p>Here, don't touch it,—bugs are biters, remember.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span></p> + +<p>Put it in this tumbler of water, and clap the cover over +it—quick—so!—now we have it.</p> + +<p>What is that, Mollie? I just said bugs do not bite, and now I call them +biters?</p> + +<p>I don't wonder you are puzzled.</p> + +<p>They do <i>not</i> bite, but they pierce with their mouth tubes, and that +feels just as though they bit us. So we commonly speak of bugs as +biting.</p> + +<p>If you wish to be very exact, we will hereafter speak of bugs as +piercing or sucking.</p> + +<p>Now, Mr. Water Boatman, we are going to have a good look at you.</p> + +<p>Nell says it is not like silver any more, but just a little black and +gray speckled bug.</p> + +<p>That is because it is now on top of the water. When it goes under it is +surrounded with a layer of air, and that is what makes it look as though +it had on a silver dress.</p> + +<p>May wants to know how it manages to take a layer of air down under the +water. If you were to look at it with a magnifying glass, May, you would +see it is covered with fine hairs; the air becomes entangled in these +hairs. Do you not remember how the leaf of the jewel weed, or +touch-me-not, as it is also called, shines when you plunge it in water? +It, too, is covered with fine hairs that hold air. Many leaves shine in +this way<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> when put under water, and always because of the fine hairs +that prevent the air from being pushed out by the water. You see the +hairs on the bugs serve the same purpose as those on the leaves; they +hold fast the air.</p> + +<p>Our water boatman breathes this air that surrounds him.</p> + +<p>You know how insects breathe do you not?</p> + +<p>Dear me, then I shall have to tell you.</p> + +<p>They have no lungs; of course, so they cannot breathe with lungs as we +do.</p> + +<p>Take a long breath—see how your chest rises—that is because you filled +your lungs full of air.</p> + +<p>Well, the insects have to breathe air.</p> + +<p>Every living thing has to breathe air. Nothing in the world could live +without air.</p> + +<p>Even plants breathe the air, you know.</p> + +<p>Now, there is a little row of holes or pores along each side of the +abdomen of the insect.</p> + +<p>These are the breathing pores. No, May, the insects do not breathe +through their mouths, they breathe through their sides.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img125.jpg" alt="The Water Boatman" title="The Water Boatman" /></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span></p> + +<p>You can see the breathing pores, or spiracles, as they are called, very +plainly in many insects.</p> + +<p>You can see them on the abdomen of the locust, and in some caterpillars +they are bright-colored spots.</p> + +<p>There are spiracles on the sides of the thorax, too, but they do not +show so plainly as those on the abdomen.</p> + +<p>The spiracles open into air tubes that carry air to the blood of the +insect.</p> + +<div class="figright"> + <img src="images/img126.jpg" + alt="Spiracles" /><br /> + <b><i>Spiracles</i></b> + </div> + +<p>If you watch a grasshopper or a bee, you can plainly see it breathe. The +abdomen moves in the bee as though it were panting. These movements of +the abdomen cause the air to go in and out. All insects move their +abdomens to send the air in and out, but it does not show plainly in all +of them, for, though insects need air, some of them can get along with +very little.</p> + +<p>Yes, John, insects have blood. It is not just like our blood, but still +it is blood.</p> + +<p>It is not generally red in color, though sometimes it is reddish, and +sometimes it is brown, or violet, or even bright green.</p> + +<p>Yes, that seems strange to you, but you remember how ears are ears, and +serve to hear with, no matter where on the body of the creature they are +located.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> So blood is blood, and serves the purpose of blood, no matter +what its color. The blood of some insects has a very bad odor, and in +the case of certain beetles, when they are disturbed, this foul-smelling +liquid oozes out of the joints of the legs.</p> + +<p>Yes, Mabel, it is probably used, like the "molasses" of other little +friends we know, to repel enemies.</p> + +<p>But to return to breathing. Some larvæ breathe by gills, and do not have +spiracles until they are grown up, but all grown-up insects breathe by +spiracles.</p> + +<p>Yes, John, the larvæ of the dragon flies and May flies breathe with +gills.</p> + +<p>I thought you would remember that.</p> + +<p>The water boatman breathes by spiracles, and carries his supply of air +with him. All grown-up bugs breathe by spiracles.</p> + +<p>Now look down into the pond. I think you will see some water boatmen +anchored near the bottom.</p> + +<p>Yes, May, they cling by their front feet. Their hind pair of legs are +rather odd-looking; they have a fringe of hairs on the inside.</p> + +<p>John says their hind legs are modified to swim with.</p> + +<p>Very good, John.</p> + +<p>The hind legs are the oars that row these little boats about in the +water.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span></p> + +<p>But why are the little boats that have come to anchor down there moving +their paddles so constantly?</p> + +<p>Ah, yes; it is because they want fresh air to breathe.</p> + +<p>You know there is always air in pond water, and they keep their paddles +moving, so as to change the envelope of air that surrounds them.</p> + +<div class="figright"><img src="images/img128.jpg" alt="The Water Boatman" title="The Water Boatman" /></div> + +<p>They know what to do to take care of themselves, if they <i>are</i> nothing +but little bugs.</p> + +<p>When winter comes, they go down to the bottom of the pond and bury +themselves in the mud. They lie there without moving or breathing until +spring, when out they come, as lively as ever.</p> + +<p>Yes, certain other animals pass the winter in this way; the bears, for +instance, find a snug den and sleep all through the coldest winter +weather. We call this winter sleep of animals hibernation, and many of +the insects hibernate.</p> + +<p>Yes, Ned, hibernating animals can get on with very little air; they +sometimes seem to need none at all, and they take no food.</p> + +<p>May wants to know what these queer water boatmen eat.</p> + +<p>They suck out the juices of other insects.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span></p> + +<p>They must lay their eggs in the water, little Nell thinks.</p> + +<p>And so they do, on water plants.</p> + +<p>Near the city of Mexico there are species that lay enormous quantities +of eggs in the ponds, and what do you think? The Indians mix these eggs +with meal, make them into cakes, and eat them.</p> + +<p>The Mexican bugs are gathered by the ton, too, and sent to England as +food for cage birds, fish, and poultry.</p> + +<p>Little Nell thinks there must be a great many bugs in a ton. Indeed, +there are, probably about twenty-five millions of them; so you can +imagine Mexico is well supplied with water boatmen!</p> + +<p>When the young ones hatch out they look like their parents, only, of +course, they are tiny little dots of things that have no wings.</p> + +<div class="figright"><img src="images/img129.jpg" alt="The Water Boatman" title="The Water Boatman" /></div> + +<p>But they eat and grow and moult like other larvæ until they are +full-grown insects.</p> + +<p>What have you discovered, Ned? You look surprised.</p> + +<p>The water boatman has no antennæ!</p> + +<p>It doesn't seem to have any. But look carefully and I think you will +find some tiny ones tucked away under its head.</p> + +<p>Nell wants to know if the water boatman has a thorax and an abdomen.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span></p> + +<p>Indeed, it has, but you will have to look carefully to see them. Its +abdomen is short and thick and hard. The water boatman is much more +compact in form than the Orthoptera, or any of the other insects we have +studied.</p> + +<p>You are right, John, an insect with a long abdomen, like the +grasshopper, could not get on very well in the water.</p> + +<p>Now, May, take the cover off the tumbler. There!</p> + +<p>Our water boatman was not slow to make use of his wings.</p> + +<p>Well, good-by and good luck to you, little water boatman.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img130.jpg" alt="The Water Boatman" title="The Water Boatman" /></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span></p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><span class="smcap">The Funny Back-swimmers</span></h2> + +<p>What, John? You know a water boatman that swims on its back?</p> + +<p>That makes Nell laugh, and no wonder.</p> + +<p>Yes, there is a little bug that swims on its back.</p> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/img131.jpg" alt="The Funny Back-swimmers" title="The Funny Back-swimmers" /></div> + +<p>It is very much like the water boatman, and it has long paddles made of +its queer hind legs.</p> + +<p>Unlike the water boatman, however, its back is not flat but is shaped +like the keel of a boat.</p> + +<p>This being the case, it just turns over and swims with its keel-shaped +back in the water.</p> + +<p>It is sometimes called the back-swimmer, and most boys are well +acquainted with it.</p> + +<p>What do you think about catching it in your fingers, Ned?</p> + +<p>Ah, you do not like to!</p> + +<p>It has a very sharp beak for sucking the life out of other insects, and +if you succeed in getting hold of it, it will stick that into your +finger.</p> + +<p>And my! how it does sting!</p> + +<p>It is not an easy matter to catch it, however,—it is such a quick +little rascal.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span></p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><span class="smcap">The Giant Water Bug</span></h2> + +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img132.jpg" alt="The Giant Water Bug" title="The Giant Water Bug" /></div> + +<p>A good many kinds of bugs live in the water, but perhaps the oddest of +all is the giant water bug.</p> + +<p>It <i>is</i> a giant!</p> + +<p>Have you ever seen very large, flat brown bugs lying on the ground under +the electric street lamps?</p> + +<p>Those are the giant water bugs.</p> + +<p>They fly in the night from pond to pond, and are attracted by bright +lights.</p> + +<p>They fly into the electric lights, and are killed in great numbers +sometimes.</p> + +<p>This is such a common habit with them that in some places they are +called electric light bugs.</p> + +<div class="figright"><img src="images/img132a.jpg" alt="The Giant Water Bug" title="The Giant Water Bug" /></div> + +<p>A good many people never saw these bugs until they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> were found dead +under the electric lights, and so they imagined they did not exist until +electric lights were invented.</p> + +<p>But that is a very foolish notion; the bugs were here thousands of years +before electric lights were dreamed of.</p> + +<p>The giant water bugs are not pleasant to handle when alive.</p> + +<p>If you ever succeed in catching one in the water, which is not easy, +they slip about so quickly, be sure and not take it in your fingers.</p> + +<p>The California children call a species they have there "toe-biters," and +they say they bite their toes when they go in wading.</p> + +<p>The giant water bugs are the largest of living bugs, and they even kill +and eat fish.</p> + +<p>Their fore legs can shut up like a jackknife. The tibia shuts into a +groove in the femur, and thus the bug is able to seize and hold its +prey.</p> + +<p>It clasps its victim in its arms, as it were, and calmly proceeds to +suck out its blood.</p> + +<p>In some species of the giant water bugs the female does not leave her +eggs in the pond to take care of themselves; she puts them on the back +of her mate, who is obliged to carry all of his progeny about with him +until they relieve him by hatching out and swimming off to see life for +themselves.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span></p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><span class="smcap">Little Mrs. Shore Bug</span></h2> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/img134.jpg" alt="Little Mrs. Shore Bug" title="Little Mrs. Shore Bug" /></div> + +<p>May says she wants to hear more about bugs. Well, there is little Mrs. +Shore Bug. I think you must all know her.</p> + +<p>She is the little bug that flies along in front of you on the seashore, +or, indeed, on the edge of any body of water.</p> + +<div class="figright"><img src="images/img134a.jpg" alt="Little Mrs. Shore Bug" title="Little Mrs. Shore Bug" /></div> + +<p>She flits along just in front of you, and is so quick in her motions +that you will hardly ever catch her.</p> + +<p>She does not fly far—she alights just far enough ahead to make you try +again to capture her, but when you think you have her, she isn't there!</p> + + +<p>She has sped off on one of her short flights, and so she will continue +to do as long as you continue to chase her.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><span class="smcap">The Airy Water Striders</span></h2> + +<div class="figright"><img src="images/img135.jpg" alt="The Airy Water Striders" title="The Airy Water Striders" /></div> +<p>Then there are the water striders.</p> + +<p>They are bugs, and it is easy to guess how they got their name.</p> + +<p>You surely remember the longlegged, dark colored fellows that straddle +about on top of the water, in ponds or in still pools in streams?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span></p> + +<p>Who has not tried to catch them!</p> + +<p>And how very seldom any one succeeds!</p> + +<p>May knows where we can see some water striders close at hand.</p> + +<p>They are on the pond in the meadow. Let us go.</p> + +<p>Ah, you little ones! There you are, scampering over the water on your +airy, fairy feet, as though you were on dry land.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img135a.jpg" alt="The Airy Water Striders" title="The Airy Water Striders" /></div> + +<p>How they flash about! And what cunning dimples their little feet make on +the water when they stand still!</p> + +<p>If we keep very quiet, they will stop darting about in that wild way, +and we can see them better.</p> + +<p>Now, water striders, why do you behave so, and what do you eat?</p> + +<p>Eat? Why, insects, of course. And as to behavior, they may well wonder +more at ours than we at theirs.</p> + +<p>They skate about on the surface of the water all summer, and when winter +comes they hide away at the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> bottom of the pond, right under the water, +or along the edges of the banks.</p> + +<p>When the warm spring sunshine wakes up the sleeping plants, then the +little water striders wake up too.</p> + +<p>Out they come, to resume their endless skating and insect catching, but +now they lay their eggs, gluing them fast to water weeds.</p> + +<p>The young water striders look like their parents, and they, too, like to +go circling and flashing over the top of the water, with their long legs +spread out.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><span class="smcap">A Queer Fellow</span></h2> + +<p>What do you suppose is in this box?</p> + +<p>Little Nell may open it.</p> + +<p>There, out he comes—slowly, as though he were looking around and +thinking about it.</p> + +<div class="figright"><img src="images/img136.jpg" alt="A Queer Fellow" title="A Queer Fellow" /></div> + +<p>May says, "Hello, Mr. Walking Stick, you here again?"</p> + +<p>Ho! ho! <i>is</i> it Mr. Walking Stick?</p> + +<p>You look again.</p> + +<p>Mollie thinks, if she were going to name it, she would call it Mr. +Walking Threads.</p> + +<p>Yes, it is more slender than even the walking stick.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span></p> + +<p>What is that, John? You thought insects had six legs, and this has only +four?</p> + +<p>Now, here is something for us to think about.</p> + +<p>Ned says it has six long threads that might be legs, but it does not +walk on the two front ones.</p> + +<p>It seems to use them as antennæ.</p> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/img137.jpg" alt="A Queer Fellow" title="A Queer Fellow" /></div> + +<p>Ned says those front ones look to him to be jointed just like the +others, and he thinks they are legs.</p> + +<p>Mollie says they have no little feet like the others, and she thinks +they are antennæ.</p> + +<p>Well, well, what are we to do? Think of its having feelers that look +like legs or legs that look like feelers, so that you cannot tell which +they are!</p> + +<p>Now it is beginning to move, and—Oh, ho, that long part in front is not +its head!</p> + +<div class="figright"><img src="images/img137a.jpg" alt="A Queer Fellow" title="A Queer Fellow" /></div> + +<p>See, it separates into two—what?</p> + +<p>Surely, two front legs.</p> + +<p>See, they were folded up, somewhat like the front legs of the mantis, +only these could fold close together, being threadlike.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span></p> + +<p>So the long threads are antennæ after all.</p> + +<p>Now it has raised its head, which we easily see is quite round, with +tiny eyes, and the antennæ are growing out from the front of it.</p> + +<p>What is it? A walking stick? A mantis?</p> + +<div class="figright"><img src="images/img138.jpg" alt="A Queer Fellow" title="A Queer Fellow" /></div> + +<p>Why! why! There it goes, sailing off in the air with a queer little +fluttering motion of its whole body.</p> + +<p>It has wings!</p> + +<p>John has caught it and brought it back.</p> + +<p>Now let us see those wings, you strange little creature.</p> + +<p>You will have to look close, but there they are, narrow, short, such +tiny wings! How <i>do</i> you suppose it flies with them?</p> + +<p>You seem queerer and queerer the more we look at you, little +what-shall-we-call-you.</p> + +<p>But we know you are not a walking stick because our walking sticks have +no wings.</p> + +<p>The truth is you are a—bug!</p> + +<p>Yes, this little threadlike creature belongs to the same order as the +big flat giant water bug.</p> + +<p>It grasps its victim, in its fore feet like the mantis, but instead of +biting its prey it sucks out the juices.</p> + +<p>You would hardly expect such a delicate creature to catch and kill other +insects, yet such is the case.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span></p> + +<p>No, I do not think it will pierce your finger with its beak. I have +often handled them, and have never been stung by one. We often see them +walking about in the grass and along paths.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><span class="smcap">The Well Dressed Lace Bug</span></h2> + +<div class="figcenter"> + <img src="images/img139.jpg" + alt="Hawthorn Twig" /><br /> + <b><span class="smcap">Hawthorn Twig</span></b> + </div> + +<p><span class="smcap">If</span> we pay a visit to that hawthorn bush we shall probably find +a bug to our liking. Yes, here is one.</p> + +<p>It is a tiny thing, I know, but wait until you see it under the +microscope.</p> + +<p>Ah, I thought you would be pleased!</p> + +<p>Nell says it looks as though it had on a lace party dress.</p> + +<p>Is it not a dainty fairy!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span></p> + +<p>We call it the lace bug.</p> + +<div class="figright"><img src="images/img140.jpg" alt="The Well Dressed Lace Bug" title="The Well Dressed Lace Bug" /></div> + +<p>It does not suck the juices of other insects, but instead it sucks the +juices of plants.</p> + +<p>Its eggs are very curious. It lays them on leaves and glues them fast. +They look like little out-growths of the leaf.</p> + +<p>The young lace bugs are like their parents in form, only, of course, +they have no wings and so they are not pretty.</p> + +<p>Fairy lace bug, we are glad to make your acquaintance.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><span class="smcap">A Bad Bug</span></h2> + +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img140a.jpg" alt="A Bad Bug" title="A Bad Bug" /></div> + +<p>Now, here is a bug we all loathe. It is round and flat, and reddish +brown in color, and it has a disgusting odor.</p> + +<p>But though we hate this bug, it is very fond of us. It has a short, +sharp tube folded down under its head, and this tube it likes to raise +up and stick into the skin of people, and suck out their blood.</p> + +<p>It has no wings, only a pair of little scales where its wings should be. +Yes, May, these scales are rudimentary wings, and they are good for +nothing. It once had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> wings, but it preferred to go slipping about in +cracks and hiding in beds, until in course of time no wings grew, which +served it right.</p> + +<p>It has antennæ and eyes and spiracles; indeed, it has everything a bug +should have but wings and good manners.</p> + +<p>We call it the bed bug because its favorite home is in beds, so that it +can sally forth at night and feast upon its sleeping victims.</p> + +<p>It lays its eggs in cracks and crevices, and each egg is like a little +jar with a rim and a lid at the top. When the young one hatches it +pushes off the lid. The young are in shape like their parents, only they +are very light colored, and almost transparent. They look like ghosts of +bugs, but they are very voracious ghosts indeed, and they eat and moult +and grow and become darker colored until they reach maturity.</p> + +<p>One strange thing about them is that they can live a very long time with +nothing to eat, so that houses long vacated may still contain these +nuisances, that sally forth, eager to round out their emaciated forms at +the expense of the new occupants of the house.</p> + +<p>The barn swallow is sadly afflicted by a species of these unwelcome +visitors to its nest, and the poor bats are also victimized by a species +of bed bug.</p> + +<p>The bad odor comes from a liquid poured out of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> back of young bugs, +and from the under side of old ones.</p> + +<p>These insects are very undesirable acquaintances, and they breed so fast +that even one, brought into a house, may cause it to become generally +infested in a few weeks.</p> + +<p>Eternal vigilance and great cleanliness are the housekeeper's only +safeguards.</p> + +<p>There are some species of bugs that closely resemble the bed bugs, only +they have wings, and live on flowers or in the cracks of the bark of +trees.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><span class="smcap">The Troublesome Red Bug</span></h2> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/img142.jpg" alt="The Troublesome Red Bug" title="The Troublesome Red Bug" /></div> + +<p>There are a great many kinds of bugs on the leaves and flowers in +summer, and some of them do much damage by eating the vegetation.</p> + +<p>One of the most troublesome of these is the red bug. Here is a picture +of one.</p> + +<p>Its wings look as if they had an X drawn on them.</p> + +<p>Let us spread out one of the wings.</p> + +<p>Why do you all laugh?</p> + +<p>Sure enough, Ned, how <i>can</i> we spread out the wings of a bug in a +picture?</p> + +<div class="figright"><img src="images/img142a.jpg" alt="The Troublesome Red Bug" title="The Troublesome Red Bug" /></div> + +<p>But there is a way out of that difficulty.</p> + +<p>Yes, another picture.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span></p> + +<p>Only the upper wings are spread out.</p> + +<p>You see, the half of the wing next the body is stiff like a wing cover, +and the other half is thin and silky, and folds up under the stiff part. +When the insect flies it spreads out the under wings, too, for there is +a pair of thin, flying wings folded on the body under these upper wings.</p> + +<p>These upper wings, that are half wing cover and half flying wing, are +characteristic of the bug order.</p> + +<p>Not all the bugs have them, but a great many have.</p> + +<p>The name of the bug order is <span class="smcap">Hem-ip-tera</span>, meaning half-wing. +You see why.</p> + +<p>Yes, John, the word "hemiptera" comes from two Greek words, <i>hemi</i>, +meaning half, and, as you know, <i>pteron</i>, meaning a wing.</p> + +<p>The young red bugs are like the old ones, excepting in color.</p> + +<p>What do we call the young of insects, little Nell?</p> + +<p>Yes, we call them larvæ. These red bug larvæ are bright red with black +legs.</p> + +<p>They pierce the cotton plants in the South, and suck out the juices.</p> + +<p>Of course, they grow and moult until they arrive at the adult form.</p> + +<p>What, John? You do not know what "adult" means? Adult means "grown-up."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span></p> + +<p>It is a short way of saying grown-up; and after this, when we mean a +grown-up insect, let us say an adult insect.</p> + +<p>To return to the red bug. When it reaches the adult state, it is not +such a bright red, but rather of a reddish color with brownish wings +striped with light yellow.</p> + +<p>Beside eating the juices of the cotton plants and thus injuring or even +killing them, the red bugs stain the white cotton and spoil it.</p> + +<p>They are also troublesome in some parts of Florida, where they pierce +the skins of the oranges, and cause the fruit to decay.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img144.jpg" alt="The Troublesome Red Bug" title="The Troublesome Red Bug" /></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><span class="smcap">The Ravenous Chinch Bugs</span></h2> + +<p>There are a great many bugs injurious to vegetation, among them the +little chinch bugs.</p> + +<p>They are so small, each one no larger than a plant louse, that you would +not think they could do much harm.</p> + +<p>One of them could not, but when they appear in millions, then they are +terrible.</p> + +<p>Here is one magnified to show the white wing covers with black markings.</p> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/img145.jpg" alt="The Ravenous Chinch Bugs" title="The Ravenous Chinch Bugs" /></div> + +<p>Would you believe that this tiny insect has destroyed millions of +dollars' worth of grain in the United States?</p> + +<p>What, Charlie? you should think they could be killed out? That is a very +difficult task. You see they are so small, and they breed so fast. There +are two broods of them in one year, and when they have eaten one grain +field they start off, millions strong, to another.</p> + +<p>Of course a great many methods have been tried for getting rid of them, +and one very curious method you will like to hear about.</p> + +<p>You know insects are subject to diseases.</p> + +<p>What, Nell, you never heard of a sick bug?</p> + +<p>Yet it seems they are sick sometimes, and certain diseases kill them. +Chinch bugs are not as healthy in some places as in others.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span></p> + +<p>There is a contagious disease that kills them off in very great numbers.</p> + +<p>Ned says he can guess what remedy the people apply to the healthy chinch +bugs that are eating their grain.</p> + +<p>Yes, they introduce diseased chinch bugs into the grain fields with the +healthy ones. The contagion spreads and the bugs die!</p> + +<p>There is another way of getting rid of some kinds of troublesome +insects. That is, to introduce an insect not injurious to vegetation, +that will prey upon the injurious ones.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><span class="smcap">The Well Protected Stink Bug</span></h2> + +<p>One of the bugs we know the best and like the least is the stink bug.</p> + +<p>It deserves its name.</p> + +<p>John says he had one on his hand this morning.</p> + +<p>How did you like it, John?</p> + +<p>Did any of you ever pick berries where these bugs were?</p> + +<p>See what a face Mollie is making! It is very evident that <i>she</i> has.</p> + +<div class="figright"> + <img src="images/img146.jpg" + alt="Red raspberry" /><br /> + <b><span class="smcap">Red raspberry</span></b> + </div> + +<p>What a nasty taste they give the delicious fruit.</p> + +<p>Even the flavor of the red raspberry is spoiled if one of these bugs +pollutes it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span></p> + +<p>What makes them smell so? May is asking.</p> + +<p>The disgusting odor is caused by a liquid that is ejected out of little +pores on the under side of the thorax.</p> + +<p>The bug can eject this liquid when it pleases.</p> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/img147.jpg" alt="The Airy Water Striders" title="The Airy Water Striders" /></div> + +<p>Most members of the bug order can eject a disagreeable liquid, though +few of them do it so successfully as the stink bug.</p> + +<p>If the stink bug is not disturbed, it does not give forth the bad odor; +but when we jostle the bushes in getting the berries, that startles it, +and we get the benefit of its alarm.</p> + +<p>Yes, undoubtedly the bugs make a bad odor for the same reason the +grasshoppers make molasses. They wish to repel their enemies.</p> + +<p>Very few birds ever touch a stink bug.</p> + +<p>Nell thinks a bird would be crazy to eat a stink bug.</p> + +<p>Mollie says if it were not crazy when it began, it surely would be +before it got through!</p> + +<p>Not only the bugs make these disagreeable odors.</p> + +<p>Many other insects do.</p> + +<p>The cockroaches, as we know, and one reason we dislike them so is +because of this offensive odor.</p> + +<p>Some species of crickets, too, and indeed many, many insects give forth +odors from glands that exist just for that purpose.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span></p> + +<p>No, indeed, these odors are not all alike. Some have a strangling +quality like ammonia, and sometimes the odors are not disagreeable. Some +insects have sweet odors, like perfumes.</p> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/img148.jpg" alt="The Well Protected Stink Bug" title="The Well Protected Stink Bug" /></div> + +<p>The pleasant odors are not used to repel, but to attract.</p> + +<p>If an insect wishes to see its mate, it may be able to give forth a +pleasant odor that will reach a long way through the air, and the mate, +smelling it, will follow it to its source. You see, this pleasant odor +is one way of talking; at least it is one way of sending a message.</p> + +<p>Insects can detect odors much better than we can.</p> + +<p>No doubt many insects produce odors that affect other insects, but that +are so faint we cannot smell them at all.</p> + +<p>The sense of smell, even in the human being, is very wonderful. It is +the keenest of all the senses.</p> + +<p>You have studied weights and measures, and you know how small a quantity +a grain of anything is. Well, you will be astonished to know that your +nose can detect the presence of 1/2,760,000,000 of a grain of mercaptan, +a substance having a very bad smell.</p> + +<div class="figright"><img src="images/img148a.jpg" alt="The Well Protected Stink Bug" title="The Well Protected Stink Bug" /></div> + +<p>So you see, insects that can smell very, very much better than we would +be greatly influenced by the odors of other insects.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span></p> + +<p>Some of the stink bugs, although so disagreeable if disturbed, are very +useful to us, as they eat other insects injurious to vegetation.</p> + +<p>Most of them, however, eat fruits and vegetables, and some species do a +vast amount of mischief.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><span class="smcap">The Louse</span></h2> + +<p>Yes, John, lice are bugs, and very mean bugs too.</p> + +<p>They have lived at the expense of other creatures so long that they +cannot exist unless they have a living body to feed on.</p> + +<p>Here is a picture of one very much enlarged. No wings, no beauty, a pale +white thing, all claws and mouth.</p> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/img149a.jpg" alt="The Louse" title="The Louse" /></div> + +<p>It has a long sucking tube by which it pierces the skin, and a sucking +stomach by which it pumps the blood into its mouth.</p> + +<p>Such creatures are called parasites.</p> + +<p>Yes, bed bugs are parasites too.</p> + +<p>Besides the lice that live on human beings, there are species that +infest animals.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><span class="smcap">Bird Lice and Book Lice</span></h2> + +<p>Bird lice are not lice!</p> + +<p>That is, they do not belong to the bug order.</p> + +<p>They belong to a small order by themselves, but they are parasites like +the lice.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span></p> + +<p>The little white book lice that scurry away when we open an old book +that has been standing on the back shelf, are not lice, either; they +also belong to a little order of their own, and are constructed very +differently from the true lice.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><span class="smcap">Friend Cicada</span></h2> + +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img150.jpg" alt="The Airy Water Striders" title="The Airy Water Striders" /></div> + +<p><span class="smcap">Whir-r-r-r-rrrrr</span>!!</p> + +<p>May says she wishes that locust would keep quiet. It makes her warmer +than ever to hear him carrying on so this hot day.</p> + +<p>John says it is the weather that is warm, not the song of the locust.</p> + +<p>And yet, locusts generally sing during the hottest part of the summer, +so that we have learned to associate them with warm weather.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span></p> + +<p>Since we must listen to its shrill out-cry, I wish we could also see +it.</p> + +<p>Ah, that is a wish soon gratified! Here comes one out of John's pocket.</p> + +<div class="figright"><img src="images/img151.jpg" alt="Friend Cicada" title="Friend Cicada" /></div> + +<p>John says it is <i>not</i> a locust.</p> + +<p>Ah, yes, the shorthorned grasshoppers are the real locusts, and this +fellow has somehow got the name.</p> + +<p>But it is not a locust.</p> + +<p>It is also called the dog-day harvest fly, but it is not a fly, though +it looks considerably like one.</p> + +<p>Really, you know, it is a—bug!</p> + +<p>Yes, it belongs to the bug order.</p> + +<p>Its true name is cicada, and its shrill midsummer song has been famous +from the beginning of time.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img151a.jpg" alt="Friend Cicada" title="Friend Cicada" /></div> + +<p>It looks like an enormous fly, but its mouth parts are the mouth parts +of the bug, and in other respects it resembles the members of the bug +order, when it is examined closely.</p> + +<p>What glassy wings!</p> + +<p>Let us spread them out carefully. Four of them it has.</p> + +<p>The cicada, you see, has no wing covers. Nor are its<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> upper wings, half +wing cover, and half wing, like those of so many of the bugs.</p> + +<p>No, all four of its wings are alike, and all four are flying wings.</p> + +<p>When it is at rest, the inner wings slip out of sight under the outer +ones, which fold down like a roof over its body.</p> + +<p>See how beautifully the wings, are veined.</p> + +<p>You think cicada has a very broad back, Nell?</p> + +<p>So it has, and a broad head.</p> + +<div class="figright"><img src="images/img152.jpg" alt="Friend Cicada" title="Friend Cicada" /></div> + +<p>See its black eyes on the corners of its head!</p> + +<p>How many facets have its eyes?</p> + +<p>I wish I knew, but I do not. This, however, I can tell you. If you look +on the top of its head between its compound eyes, with a magnifying +glass, you will find it has three little eyes there.</p> + +<p>These small eyes are simple, and are called <i>ocelli</i>.</p> + +<p>Many insects have ocelli, indeed, some of the grasshoppers have these +extra eyes on top of their head.</p> + +<p>May says the grasshoppers are very astonishing insects.</p> + +<p>You think you know all about them, and you are all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> the time finding out +something new. You would not be apt to notice these little ocelli on the +grasshopper's head, they are so small, and besides, some of the +grasshoppers do not have them.</p> + +<p>Yes, Mollie, it is the same with the crickets and katydids. Some species +have ocelli, and some have not.</p> + +<p>If you look full in the face of a cicada, <img src="images/img153.jpg" alt="Compound eyes" title="Compound eyes" />you can see the three little +round ocelli between the compound eyes.</p> + +<p>They show very plainly with a magnifying glass.</p> + +<p>Indeed, it is difficult to explain what the ocelli are for.</p> + +<p>Some think they are to see objects close at hand, while the compound +eyes see more distant objects.</p> + +<p>Others think the ocelli are only capable of distinguishing light from +darkness.</p> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/img153a.jpg" alt="The Airy Water Striders" title="The Airy Water Striders" /></div> + +<p>Yet others think they are merely a "survival" of the eyes of the worms. +You know, way back in time, before there were winged insects there were +worms. In some way the insects are descended from the worms, and though +they have got rid of many of their wormlike parts they still retain some +of them, and probably among these are the ocelli.</p> + +<p>When an animal of any kind keeps organs that belonged to its ancestors, +but that are of no use to it,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> we say these organs are "survivals." They +have not yet had time wholly to disappear.</p> + +<p>Yes, John, the time may come when the ocelli will disappear from the +insects. A good many insects have lost them already.</p> + +<p>Indeed, you are right, May; they have lost them because they did not use +them. When an animal ceases to use an organ in course of time, for lack +of exercise, that organ dwindles away and disappears. It generally takes +a very long time for this to happen.</p> + +<p>Yes, Mabel, thousands or even millions of years may pass before an organ +that has gone out of use entirely disappears. As generations succeed +each other each generation loses a little power in that organ until, +finally, there is no organ left.</p> + +<p>John is puzzled to know just what is meant by an organ. It is some +particular part of the creature. An arm is an organ, a stomach is an +organ, an eye is an organ. The whole creature is made up of organs, and +is called an <i>organism</i>.</p> + +<p>Your whole body, John, is an organism, but your legs and arms are +organs. Now, I think you understand.</p> + +<p>Our cicada has one organ that is very interesting; it is the little +apparatus by which it sings.</p> + +<p>Turn it over, Ned, and all of you look at the two<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> thin plates lying +against the abdomen just below the thorax.</p> + +<p>Those membranes are like two little kettle drums, and they are its song +organs.</p> + +<p>There are other membranes beneath them, and large muscles within the +body to move the membranes.</p> + +<p>The membranes being set in rapid vibration we get the shrill cry of the +locust.</p> + +<p>Only the male has the kettle drums. In the female these organs are +rudimentary, and she is dumb.</p> + +<div class="figleft"> + <img src="images/img155.jpg" + alt="Kettle drum" /><br /> + <b>Kettle drum</b> + </div> + +<p>Cicada, you are a pretty little thing with your clear, glasslike wings +and your black body with red and green trimming. See its mouth lying in +that little groove under its head. It is a tube, and sharp. The cicada +sticks it into a leaf or young twig to suck out the juice.</p> + +<p>Nell wants to know if the young cicadas are like the old ones. Indeed, +they would be cunning little things if they were, and—yes, they <i>would</i> +look very much like flies.</p> + +<p>But the young cicadas are queer babies, indeed. They do not look very +much like their parents, although they have a head, a thorax, and an +abdomen.</p> + +<div class="figright"><img src="images/img155a.jpg" alt="Friend Cicada" title="Friend Cicada" /></div> + +<p>The female cicada makes a slit in the bark of the tree twig with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> her +ovipositor and lays the eggs there. As soon as they hatch out, the tiny +cicadas drop down to the ground and burrow into the earth.</p> + +<p>You would not know that they are cicadas, they are such queer-looking +little things. But they have strong, sucking mouth parts with which they +pierce holes in the roots of trees and suck out the juices.</p> + +<p>Of course these larvæ grow and moult and continue to do so until they +have moulted a good many times and grown quite large.</p> + +<p>They stay down under the ground two years.</p> + +<p>At the end of that time they crawl up to the surface of the earth in the +early summer.</p> + +<p>They climb trees, or weeds, or fence posts, and then the skin splits +down the back for the last time, and out comes a full-grown cicada with +bright glassy wings.</p> + +<p>The wings of the larva do not grow at each moult like the wings of the +grasshopper.</p> + +<p>The larva never gets beyond short little wing pads. See John's eyes +twinkling! I believe—yes, he has! He has brought us the cast-off skin +of a cicada to look at.</p> + +<div class="figright"><img src="images/img156.jpg" alt="Friend Cicada" title="Friend Cicada" /></div> + +<p>Why, John, you are like a good fairy to us to-day, giving us just the +things we want just when we want them.</p> + +<p>Now, see this little shell. See the front legs, like<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> strong paws to dig +with. And see its little glassy eyes, and its little wing pads!</p> + +<p>It is a perfect cast of the cicada larva.</p> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/img157.jpg" alt="The Airy Water Striders" title="The Airy Water Striders" /></div> + +<p>Yes, May, this little cast is made of chitin, and it will last a long +time. Chitin is a very indestructible substance; even fire will not +destroy it, but in course of time the moisture and the acids in the +earth destroy it, so that at last the millions of cicada shells and +grasshopper cast-off skins, which are also of chitin, and cricket +moults, and all the other little cast-aside chitinous overcoats of the +insects, return again to the earth and the air whence they came. The +minerals and gases that compose them let go of each other, as it were, +and the chitin is no longer chitin.</p> + +<p>Amy says she has seen these little cicada shells hundreds of times but +did not know what they were.</p> + +<p>Yes, we are sure to find them almost every summer.</p> + +<p>If we look, we will also find other larvæ shells. Down in the grass are +the cast-off coats of the grasshoppers and the crickets.</p> + +<p>All we need do is to look, and we shall be sure to find them—like +unsubstantial ghosts of the active little wearers.</p> + +<p>No doubt you all have heard of the seventeen-year locusts. They, too, +are cicadas, and they look very much<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> like this one, only it takes the +young ones seventeen years to complete their growth.</p> + +<div class="figright"><img src="images/img158.jpg" alt="Friend Cicada" title="Friend Cicada" /></div> + +<p>Think of living in the ground and sucking the juices out of the earth +and of tree roots for seventeen years!</p> + +<p>How would you like to do it?</p> + +<p>But no doubt the cicada is quite happy living in this way.</p> + +<p>At the end of seventeen years the cicadas come up out of the earth in +great swarms.</p> + +<p>They cast their skins for the last time. The queer little shells are +seen everywhere, and the air resounds with the songs of the freed +prisoners.</p> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/img158a.jpg" alt="Friend Cicada" title="Friend Cicada" /></div> + +<p>In the South it takes only thirteen years for these cicadas to develop.</p> + +<p>I once went up the side of a beautiful mountain in North Carolina, where +was such a mighty host of cicadas in the trees that I could not hear my +companion speak, and a little way off the noise sounded like a torrent +of rushing water.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><span class="smcap">The Odd Spittle Insect</span></h2> + +<p>Why, little Nell! What is the matter?</p> + +<p>You do wish the frogs would stop spitting on the grass?</p> + +<p>Let me see; why, poor child, she is all covered with frog spittle.</p> + +<p>That is kind, Ned. See, he is wiping her apron off with some fresh, +clean leaves. Let us rest awhile under this shady tree.</p> + +<p>John, pick that grass blade with the frog spittle on it. Be careful not +to disturb it.</p> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/img159.jpg" alt="The Odd Spittle Insect" title="The Odd Spittle Insect" /></div> + +<p>There is a surprise in store for you; this white frothy substance that +is so abundant in some places in the summer and that looks like spittle +is—guess what?</p> + +<p>Frog spittle, May says. So you think the frogs spit on the grass do you? +They must be tall frogs to reach up so high.</p> + +<p>With this little twig let us carefully brush away the white froth.</p> + +<p>Now see.</p> + +<p>Yes, there is something in the centre of it.</p> + +<p>It is the larva of a—bug!</p> + +<div class="figright"><img src="images/img159a.jpg" alt="The Odd Spittle Insect" title="The Odd Spittle Insect" /></div> + +<p>The female bug, and here is one of the little things, lays the egg on +the leaf or twigs, and when it hatches the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> young bug sucks out the sap +of the plant which finally appears as this white froth.</p> + +<p>The larva remains surrounded by the froth until its transformations are +complete.</p> + +<p>Just before the last moult it stops sucking out sap. The froth dries +about it in the form of a little room, and in this it undergoes its last +moult and comes out—an adult bug.</p> + +<p>The froth is supposed to be used as a protection, and it may be against +some enemies, but there are certain wasps that delight in invading the +frothy masses and hauling out the unwilling morsels within to feed to +their young.</p> + +<p>No, little Nell, the frogs have nothing whatever to do with this frothy +substance which was called frog spittle before people understood about +the little insect that made it.</p> + +<p>They really thought the frogs did it.</p> + +<p>The adult spittle insect is called a frog hopper, and it has the power +of leaping very well.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img160.jpg" alt="The Odd Spittle Insect" title="The Odd Spittle Insect" /></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><span class="smcap">Pretty Leaf Hoppers</span></h2> + +<p>Just see this bush! Be careful not to shake it.</p> + +<p>It is covered with such pretty, bright-colored little insects.</p> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/img161.jpg" alt="Pretty Leaf Hoppers" title="Pretty Leaf Hoppers" /></div> + +<p>There, May ran against the bush and see—they are hopping wildly off in +every direction.</p> + +<p>Yes, little Nell, they do sound like rain drops pattering on the leaves.</p> + +<p>They are prettier than the spittle insects and more slender, but they +hop about in very much the same way.</p> + +<p>The larvæ do not make froth, however.</p> + +<p>These are the leaf hoppers.</p> + +<p>What big heads they have!</p> + +<p>And how daintily their green forms are pencilled with red lines.</p> + +<p>There are a great many species of the leaf hoppers, and not all of them +are as pretty as these.</p> + +<p>Some of them are very small indeed, and some do great damage to the +grain crops and the fruits.</p> + +<p>They suck out the juices of the plants.</p> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/img161a.jpg" alt="Pretty Leaf Hoppers" title="Pretty Leaf Hoppers" /></div> + +<p>If you sweep the insect net over bushes or through<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> the grass in +midsummer, you will be pretty sure to draw in a good collection of leaf +hoppers.</p> + +<p>Most of us are only too well acquainted with the rose-leaf hopper that +swarms on rose bushes and kills the leaves. If we have not noticed the +insect itself, we have not failed to notice the little white skins that +it has cast off and left clinging to the leaves.</p> + +<p>Yes, these are the little skins it discards when it moults.</p> + +<p>John says we can kill them by washing the bushes with strong soap suds.</p> + +<div class="figright"><img src="images/img162.jpg" alt="Pretty Leaf Hoppers" title="Pretty Leaf Hoppers" /></div> + +<p>Ned says it is better yet to spray them.</p> + +<p>It is better and also easier to spray them than to wash them.</p> + +<p>You know there are machines for spraying trees and other plants. They +consist of a tank to hold the liquid that is to be sprayed and a pump to +force it through a rubber pipe with a sprinkler at the end.</p> + +<p>Very often a mixture of soap and kerosene oil, known as "kerosene +emulsion," is used to spray with.</p> + +<p>Paris green and blue vitriol, both very poisonous, are often used on +grape vines before the grapes are formed,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> and very gaudy vines they are +for a little while after this bright poison has been sprayed upon them.</p> + +<p>Although insects are so very interesting, we have to protect ourselves +against many species in order to live.</p> + +<p>Yes, John, it is oftentimes merely a question which shall profit by the +crops we plant, the insects or ourselves.</p> + +<p>Sometimes the insects win, sometimes we win, but it is a closely +contested warfare all the time.</p> + +<p>We plough the land and take care of it, we plant the seeds and keep out +the weeds. Then, when we have a fine crop growing, along come certain +destructive insects, feeling very happy, no doubt, to have found such a +feast.</p> + +<p>Now the fight begins. They attack the crop, we attack them. We spray +them with poisons, burn up their eggs, do everything we know how to get +rid of them.</p> + +<p>Wise men have spent many years of close study finding out the habits of +the insects destructive to grains and fruits, in order to be able to +destroy them.</p> + +<p>Although many of the plant hoppers are such nuisances to us, there is +one family of hoppers that is seldom a nuisance.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><span class="smcap">The Comical Tree Hoppers</span></h2> + +<p>Do you know the tree hoppers,—absurd little jokers that they are?</p> + +<p>Oh, yes, they are hard and three cornered, like animated beechnuts, as +somebody has said.</p> + +<p>Yes, some of them have humps on their backs and some have horns.</p> + +<div class="figright"><img src="images/img164.jpg" alt="Pretty Leaf Hoppers" title="Pretty Leaf Hoppers" /></div> + +<p>John says he once made a collection of tree hoppers and put them in a +box with a reading glass over the top, and showed them to his friends to +make them laugh.</p> + +<p>May says she saw them, and they reminded her of Brownies.</p> + +<p>Would it not be fun to have a tree hopper Brownie book!</p> + +<p>The tree hoppers jump about on the bushes and eat the juices of the +plants, but there are not usually enough of them to do damage. They +seldom come in swarms like some of the leaf hoppers, though sometimes +they do.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><span class="smcap">The Jumping Plant Lice</span></h2> + +<p>The jumping plant lice are nearly related to the tree hoppers, but they +do not look at all like them.</p> + +<p>Under the magnifying glass they look like tiny cicadas.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span></p> + +<p>See, here is a picture of one enlarged.</p> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/img165.jpg" alt="Pretty Leaf Hoppers" title="Pretty Leaf Hoppers" /></div> + +<p>Their natural size is no larger than a plant louse.</p> + +<p>Have you not often seen them clustered close together on the young twigs +of pear trees—tiny, light-colored things that jumped in all directions +when you touched the twig?</p> + +<p>The name of the plant louse that infests pear trees is the pear-tree +psylla. It is very destructive to pear trees, sucking out the juices of +the young shoots.</p> + +<p>The pear trees can be saved by spraying them with kerosene emulsion as +soon as the young leaves have opened in the spring.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><span class="smcap">The Aphids</span></h2> + +<p>Now, let us go in search of the aphids, or aphides, as they are also +called. We shall not have to search far.</p> + +<div class="figright"><img src="images/img165a.jpg" alt="The Aphids" title="The Aphids" /></div> + +<p>In a very dry season we generally need not search at all. All we need do +is to examine the nearest weed to find plenty of aphides.</p> + +<p>Yes, they are the little plant lice that seem at times to cover every +growing thing.</p> + +<p>Sometimes they are green, sometimes brown, or gray, or reddish, in +color.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span></p> + +<p>They are tiny creatures, but what they lack in size they more than make +up in numbers.</p> + +<p>Go now, and find some aphides.</p> + +<p>Ah, here you all come, each bearing a leaf or a twig on which are +aphids.</p> + +<p>There was no trouble in finding them!</p> + +<p>They do not hop like the jumping plant lice when they are disturbed. +They remain where they are unless they are very much shaken up.</p> + +<p>See, most of them are without wings, though here are a few with +beautiful transparent wings.</p> + +<p>Antennæ they have, long and threadlike. And see, the knowing little +eyes!</p> + +<p>They seem to be anchored to the leaf.</p> + +<p>Hold the leaf up to the light, and see if you can discover what they are +doing.</p> + +<p>Ah, see those mouth tubes firmly stuck into the leaf. There they stand +all day long and suck out the juice.</p> + +<div class="figright"><img src="images/img166.jpg" alt="The Aphids" title="The Aphids" /></div> + +<p>Ned says he should think they would burst.</p> + +<p>But they do not; they grow. And they also get rid of a large part of the +superfluous sap in a curious way.</p> + +<p>They use what they need to grow on, and the rest escapes from the +insect's body in the form of "honey dew." It is a sweet liquid of which +ants and bees are very fond.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span></p> + +<p>What, John, you have heard that the aphids give out honey dew from two +little horns near the tip of the abdomen?</p> + +<p>Let us see if we can find these horns. Yes, we can see them plainly, and +<i>very</i> plainly with a magnifying glass.</p> + +<p>But now listen; the honey dew does not come from the horns. On the end +of some of the horns, or tubes, we can see a drop of clear liquid.</p> + +<p>For a long time people believed this was honey dew, but instead, it is a +waxy substance which is not sweet.</p> + +<p>It has been very carefully studied by wise men who tell us it contains +no sugar and is probably used as a means of defence, as aphides have +been seen to smear the faces of insect enemies with this wax.</p> + +<p>There are a great many species of aphides, and not all of them have the +little tubes or horns on their backs. But probably many that have no +horns give forth honey dew.</p> + +<p>It is really a waste substance from the body of the aphid.</p> + +<p>Ants are so fond of the honey dew that certain species of aphides have +been called the <i>ants' cows</i>, because the ants take care of them for the +sake of the honey dew.</p> + +<p>Some ants protect the aphids from their enemies.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> They drive off those +insects that would devour the aphids, and when winter comes these ants +carry the aphids down into their warm nests under ground, and keep them +safe through the cold weather.</p> + +<p>The aphides cannot stand wet weather, but after a long spell of dry +weather they will be found in great abundance.</p> + +<div class="figright"><img src="images/img168.jpg" alt="The Aphids" title="The Aphids" /></div> + +<p>Sometimes they eat so fast and so much that the honey dew falls like a +shower from the trees upon which they are. It covers the ground beneath +and the leaves of plants, and makes everything very sticky and +disagreeable to the touch. The dust settles on it, too and a growth +something like mould often turns it black—as we find to our discomfort.</p> + +<p>But when the honey dew is fresh the bees love it. They collect large +quantities of it and make it into honey. Squirrels like it to.</p> + +<p>It is great fun to watch the nimble squirrel folk sitting in the trees +and holding a leaf between their little hands while they lick off the +honey dew.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span></p> + +<p>Children sometimes suck the honey dew from the leaves in back country +places, where sugar is scarce and where candy is seldom to be had.</p> + +<p>Which side of the leaf does the aphid prefer?</p> + +<p>Yes, it is on the under side always.</p> + +<p>I wonder why.</p> + +<p>John says the aphides would be better protected in case of a shower.</p> + +<p>Ned says the skin is tenderer on the under side and easier to pierce.</p> + +<p>Mollie thinks they want to be in the shade out of the hot sunshine.</p> + +<p>I should not wonder if all of these reasons were right.</p> + +<p>My little aphid, how many wings have you when you have any?</p> + +<p>Yes, little Nell, they have four of the daintiest, prettiest little +wings you ever saw.</p> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/img169.jpg" alt="The Aphids" title="The Aphids" /></div> + +<p>True enough, most of them have no wings at all.</p> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/img169a.jpg" alt="The Aphids" title="The Aphids" /></div> + +<p>John thinks those must be young ones.</p> + +<p>Sometimes they are, but not always. Many of the adult aphids have no +wings.</p> + +<p>The aphids are very curious insects, and when you are older I hope you +will remember to study them carefully.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span></p> + +<p>No, John, not all species of aphides make honey dew.</p> + +<p>Some form instead a white, powdery substance that is seen scattered over +the body.</p> + +<p>May says that must be the kind she has.</p> + +<p>Let us see. Yes, May's aphids produce the white powder instead of honey +dew.</p> + +<p>That is <i>their</i> way of getting rid of the waste matter.</p> + +<p>May says she is glad to know that; she thought her aphids had something +the matter with them. They seemed to be falling to pieces.</p> + +<p>No, May, they are not falling to pieces; that powder can all be rubbed +off, and there are your aphids whole and sound beneath it.</p> + +<p>Do you know that some species of your funny little tree hoppers secrete +honey dew also, and even have ants to attend them? See if you can find +some of these this summer.</p> + +<p>Sometimes aphids live on the roots of plants as well as on the leaves.</p> + +<p>Yes, indeed, May, they are very destructive insects. We have to spray +our house plants to get rid of them, and often our garden flowers as +well, and they do a great deal of damage to fruits and vegetables, and +one of them, the phylloxera, has nearly destroyed the vineyards of +France. It lives on the leaves of some species of grapes and on the +roots of others. We have to be very careful<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> about getting grape vines +from Europe to plant in this country on account of the phylloxera.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img171.jpg" alt="The Aphids" title="The Aphids" /></div> + +<p>What have you found now, John? Ah, yes, an alder branch, with a white, +cottony substance on it. You have been poking into it with a little +stick, and you think there are insects beneath it.</p> + +<p>What, May, you always thought that white stuff was a plant growth, like +mould?</p> + +<p>We can easily find out. Get out some of the little things inside if you +can, John. It is not easy to separate them from their cottony covering +without crushing them, but now we can see quite well with the magnifying +glass—and yes—you see they are little insects.</p> + +<p>We call them the woolly aphids.</p> + +<p>They also secrete honey dew.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span></p> + +<p>You say the ground below the alder bush was all sticky and black, John?</p> + +<p>That was the honey dew, blackened by a little plant something like +mould, that grows on it.</p> + +<p>We often see woolly plant lice in the summer-time on different plants, +and one species injures apple trees. It gets on the roots as well as on +the tender bark of young trees and kills them.</p> + +<p>Yes, indeed, Mollie, the aphids are bugs. They belong to the bug order, +which is a very large and important insect family, and contains some +members that are exceedingly troublesome to us.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><span class="smcap">Scale Bugs</span></h2> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/img172.jpg" alt="Scale Bugs" title="Scale Bugs" /></div> + +<p>What, May, you are tired out?</p> + +<p>What have you been doing?</p> + +<p>Oh, yes, washing the scales off the leaves of your mother's window fern.</p> + +<p>It must indeed have been a task; what did you wash them off with? Why +did you use soap suds?</p> + +<div class="figright"><img src="images/img173a.jpg" alt="The Airy Water Striders" title="The Airy Water Striders" /></div> + +<p>Because your mother told you to; well, that is a good reason, but why do +you think she told you to use soap suds?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span></p> + +<p>You say you don't know, but you think very likely these scales are some +sort of bug, as everything nowadays seems to be bugs.</p> + +<p>Well, I don't know about everything being bugs, but those scales +certainly are. They are scale bugs.</p> + +<p>Did you stop to look at them under the magnifying glass?</p> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/img173.jpg" alt="Scale Bugs" title="Scale Bugs" /></div> + +<p>No, but you brought a piece of the fern for us to look at.</p> + +<p>It will be necessary to put it under the microscope.</p> + +<p>There, now look.</p> + +<p>Yes, that scale looks like a tiny mussel shell; but look carefully, and +you will see it has legs.</p> + +<p>Lift it up with the point of a pin, and under it you will find a mass of +eggs. Yes, Ned; it is like a quantity of eggs under a dish cover.</p> + +<p>The cover is the female scale bug, and she has laid all those eggs.</p> + +<p>Yes, the scales we see on so many plants are the scale bugs.</p> + +<p>They are not all alike in shape, or size, or color; here is a different +kind, you see.</p> + + +<p>But they are all very prolific; that is to say, they produce a great +many young, and do it in a short time.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span></p> + +<p>Yes, John, the tiny, dark-colored scales that look like little oyster +shells on the skins of oranges are a form of scale bug, and a very +troublesome one, too, to the orange grower.</p> + +<p>But though most of these insects are troublesome, the family is redeemed +by a few members that are of great value to us.</p> + +<p>One of these is the scale bug that supplies shellac, and all that comes +from it to our markets. These curious bugs give forth a resinous +substance that envelops the eggs and glues them to the twigs whose +juices the bug sucks out. It is this resinous substance that is +collected by breaking off the twigs where the insects are. It is used +for varnishes, as you know, and for polishing wood and other substances.</p> + +<p>There are other scale bugs that secrete wax, and some of them produce it +so abundantly, and of such good quality, that it has become an article +of commerce. China wax, which is wax of a very fine quality, is secreted +by a Chinese scale bug, and the wax is used for making fine candles, as +well as for other purposes.</p> + +<p>In Mexico we have the cochineal insect, which is a scale bug that lives +on a cactus that grows in Mexico.</p> + +<p>Like many others of the scale bugs, the cochineal males have wings and +are not so scalelike as their helpless mates.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span></p> + +<p>But they are of no use to us. It is only the female cochineal we use.</p> + +<p>She is raised in great numbers in cactus gardens planted on purpose.</p> + +<p>Here is the picture of a cactus with cochineal insects upon it.</p> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/img175.jpg" alt="Scale Bugs" title="Scale Bugs" /></div> + +<p>These insects contain a very brilliant, red coloring matter that is used +by us in dyeing leather and wool, and in making paints. The insects are +gathered and dried, and thus sent to market.</p> + +<p>Although a few of them are useful to us, the scale bugs, on the whole, +are a serious pest; and they are found on nearly all kinds of plants all +over the world.</p> + +<p>You should think all the plants would soon be gone, so many insects eat +them?</p> + +<p>Well, they would, only other things eat the insects.</p> + +<p>Insects have a great many enemies, after all.</p> + +<p>Sometimes the weather is bad for them, the season is too hot or too +cold, too wet or too dry, and then they do not appear in large numbers.</p> + +<p>Sometimes one kind of insect eats another kind.</p> + +<p>Sometimes tiny plants, like moulds, grow on the insects and kill them; +and birds destroy a very large number.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span></p> + +<p>If the farmers only knew how much good the birds do them, they would +never allow one to be killed. Even the crows that pull up their corn are +worth many times the corn they eat in the insects they destroy. There is +scarcely a bird but what is of value to the farmer.</p> + +<p>The hawks that catch his chickens catch more mice and moles in his +fields, than chickens in his barn-yard.</p> + +<p>And as for the robins, the blue jays, and all the small birds, they do +more to save the growing plants, than all the soap suds and kerosene +emulsion that were ever made.</p> + +<p>No one should ever shoot a bird. The birds are our natural protectors +against the vast armies of insects, that, but for the birds, would soon +destroy us by eating up our food plants.</p> + +<p>What is that, May? You belong to an Audubon Society for the protection +of the birds?</p> + +<p>Yes, I know you do, and so do John and Ned and Mollie and little Nell.</p> + +<p>I wish every child in the United States belonged to the Audubon Society. +Then our birds would be safe. They would never be killed as they are now +for foolish women to wear on their hats.</p> + +<p>When the Audubon Society children grew up they would not wear dead +birds, of course, and their children<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> would be taught better, so that +after a while the Audubon Society people would be the only ones left, +and so the birds would be safe.</p> + +<p>Let us get as many people to belong to the Audubon Society as we can.</p> + +<p>What is that, Amy? You have learned more interesting things about birds +in the Audubon Society than you ever knew in your life before?</p> + +<p>Yes, I am sure you have, and what could be lovelier to study about than +the birds.</p> + +<p>What is that you are saying, Ned? You love to go bird hunting? Ah, I see +your eyes twinkle, sir; I know how you go hunting. You hunt with your +mother's opera glass! That is the proper way to hunt birds.</p> + +<p>We can learn more from watching one bird with a glass than we could from +shooting a hundred.</p> + +<p>But you do shoot them, John? Yes, I know about that, too. I know what +kind of a shooting instrument you got for Christmas, sir, and I have +seen the birds you shot!</p> + +<p>Yes, nearly all of us have seen them, and how well he does it!</p> + +<p>What, Amy, you think John ought to be ashamed of himself to go about +shooting birds, and we ought to be ashamed of ourselves to talk so about +it?</p> + +<p>There, now, don't be vexed with Amy, children. She<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> has known us but a +little while, and she has not seen John's birds, so I do not wonder she +feels indignant.</p> + +<p>What is that, May? You have one of John's birds right here in your +school-bag? Show it to Amy.</p> + +<p>Isn't it pretty! It is a very charming photograph of a catbird on its +nest.</p> + +<p>You see John shoots birds with a camera! His father gave him a beautiful +one for Christmas, and he has made good use of it.</p> + +<p>How long did it take you to get that bird, John?</p> + +<p>Just hear! He spent more than a week getting acquainted with the bird so +it would sit still on the nest while he took its picture.</p> + +<p>I am sure that was a week well spent.</p> + +<p>John says he feels better acquainted with the catbird than he would have +been if he had read fifty books about it.</p> + +<p>And I am sure he is right. The only way to enjoy a bird and to know it, +is to watch it alive.</p> + +<p>A camera is the very best gun in the world for catching birds. And it is +really much better fun to take their pictures than to shoot and kill +them.</p> + +<p>It seems to me we have strayed a long way from bugs.</p> + +<p>May says she thinks birds are much more interesting than bugs.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span></p> + +<p>That may be, but still we want to know about bugs, too.</p> + +<p>Do you think you will know a bug when you see it now?</p> + +<p>No, I do not believe you can be sure of that. But at least you know +something about a few bugs.</p> + +<p>Some day you will study more carefully how insects are formed, and then +you will understand better how we decide what order they belong to.</p> + +<p>We group together the insects that are most like each other.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img179.jpg" alt="Scale Bugs" title="Scale Bugs" /></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><br /><br /></p> +<h2>Neuroptera</h2> + +<h2>Trichoptera</h2> +<p><br /><br /></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><span class="smcap">The Horned Corydalus</span></h2> + +<div class="figright"><img src="images/img182.jpg" alt="The Horned Corydalus" title="The Horned Corydalus" /></div> + +<p>No more bugs, if you please.</p> + +<p>We are to make the acquaintance of another order of insect folk this +time.</p> + +<p>I think we can find some worthy members of this new order if we go with +John to a brook he knows of.</p> + +<p>Here we are, and it certainly is a lovely brook, whether we find a +dobson in it or not.</p> + +<p>Yes, Nell, the dobson is the new insect we shall try to find.</p> + +<p>Now, be careful and not get your clothes too wet, but we have to turn +over the stones along the edge of the brook until we find what we are +after.</p> + +<p>Mollie wants to know how she is to know it if she finds it.</p> + +<p>Well, Mollie, whatever you find that is interesting you must show us. +Even though it is not what we are searching for, we shall enjoy seeing +it.</p> + +<p>Look at little Nell! She has tumbled into the brook. Her foot slipped, +and down she went.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span></p> + +<p>Don't cry, deary, you are not wet enough to do any harm. The warm sun +will soon dry you.</p> + +<p>No, indeed, you will not have to go home.</p> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/img183.jpg" alt="The Horned Corydalus" title="The Horned Corydalus" /></div> + +<p>Perhaps you will be the first one to find a dobson after all.</p> + +<p>Hurrah! hurrah! hear John shout!</p> + +<p>He must have found the first dobson.</p> + +<p>Yes, he has.</p> + +<p>What, May? It is a horrid monster, and you have a good mind to scream?</p> + +<p>Well, scream if you want to; that won't do any harm.</p> + +<p>It <i>isn't</i> pretty! but we shall like to look at it. You see it is a +larva and a big one, dark gray in color and with a thick leathery skin.</p> + +<p>Mollie says it reminds her a little of the larva of the May fly; that +is, in shape.</p> + +<p>Let us look at a picture of the May-fly larva.</p> + +<p>You see it has a head, a thorax to which is attached the six legs and +the rudimentary wings, and an abdomen, all distinctly separated from +each other.</p> + +<div class="figright"><img src="images/img183a.jpg" alt="The Horned Corydalus" title="The Horned Corydalus" /></div> + +<p>The dobson has a head, but no thorax.</p> + +<p>The body behind the head is divided into segments that all look very +much alike, and there is a pair of legs attached to each of the first +three segments.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span></p> + +<p>The dobson eats other larvæ that it chews up with its strong jaws.</p> + +<p>It lives almost three years in the larval state, so you see it has +plenty of time in which to grow. Of course it moults. It is usually to +be found under stones in swift, running water. Those two pairs of hooks +at the tip of its body are its anchors.</p> + +<p>It clasps them about a bit of stone or a stick that is firmly lodged, +and then it can bid defiance to the swirling stream.</p> + +<p>Ned wonders why it is always found hiding under stones.</p> + +<p>Listen to John, he says fishes are very fond of dobsons, and that is why +they hide away.</p> + +<p>Fishermen hunt the dobsons for bait; so you see they have a hard time in +spite of their large size and their strong jaws.</p> + +<p>When they have lived nearly three years in the water they crawl out on +the bank and hollow out a place under a stone.</p> + +<p>Here they lie, apparently dead, but they are not dead.</p> + +<p>They are undergoing a wonderful transformation.</p> + +<p>It takes about a month for this transformation, or <i>metamorphosis</i>, as +it is called, to be completed.</p> + +<p>All of our other insect friends have changed grad<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span>ually from larval to +adult form. At each moult they became a little more like their parents, +and finally at the last moult, without any resting period, out sprang +the perfect insect.</p> + +<p>Not so the dobson. It goes into its hole in the bank a larva, almost +exactly like the larva that hatched from the egg, only, of course, it is +larger. There is no hint of wings. It has no separate thorax and +abdomen. Could we see under the bank where it has crept, to undergo its +great metamorphosis, we should find, not a larva, but a strange-looking, +motionless object.</p> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/img185.jpg" alt="The Horned Corydalus" title="The Horned Corydalus" /></div> + +<p>Here is the picture of one. See its little wing pads. And now it has a +thorax and an abdomen.</p> + +<p>It seems to have changed and been turned to some hard substance.</p> + +<p>In this state it is called the <i>pupa</i>, which means doll. Is it not a +cunning insect doll? But it is not really a doll. Although so still and +apparently lifeless, yet it lives.</p> + +<p>Some day it will burst its pupa shell and pull itself out—not a larva +now, not a pupa, but a strong-winged insect.</p> + +<p>In its adult form, it is known as the horned corydalus.</p> + +<p>There! I thought John was saving one for us. He<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span> had it in a box in his +pocket. Now see what a—a—what shall I say? A beauty? or a monster? +That is just as you feel about it.</p> + +<p>It certainly is an alarming-looking insect.</p> + +<div class="figright"> + <img src="images/img186.jpg" + alt="Male Corydalus" /><br /> + <b><span class="smcap">Male Corydalus</span></b> + </div> + +<p>This one is a male, as we can tell by the long, curved jaws that look +very dangerous; but in this instance the creature's appearance is worse +than its bite, and the real biter is the female whose jaws are smaller +but very useful in nipping tormentors or biting prey.</p> + +<p>Now here she is—a fit mate for her formidable-looking companion.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"> + <img src="images/img186a.jpg" + alt="Female Corydalus" /><br /> + <b><span class="smcap">Female Corydalus</span></b> + </div> + +<p>John, you were fortunate in your hunting.</p> + +<p>In spite of its terrifying appearance, see what wonderful wings the +corydalus has.</p> + +<p>See! John has spread out the wings of the female.</p> + +<p>They are indeed beautiful.</p> + + +<p>May cannot understand how those great wings came out of those little +wing pads.</p> + +<p>When the wings were first pulled out of the wing pads they were small, +but they rapidly expanded and became thin and broad and long as the air +touched them.</p> + +<p>You will understand that better after a while.</p> + +<p>The corydalus differs from all the other insects we have studied, in its +metamorphosis.</p> + +<p>It begins life far more unlike its parents than the other insects we +have been looking at, for they had the thorax and abdomen distinct from +the beginning. Instead of changing gradually and remaining active all +the time up to the final metamorphosis, our corydalus goes into the pupa +state, and in that motionless condition transforms to the perfect +insect.</p> + +<p>This is called a complete metamorphosis.</p> + +<p>When the change is gradual, without any pupa form, any stopping place as +it were, the change is said to be an incomplete metamorphosis.</p> + +<p>Yes, the metamorphosis of the grasshoppers is incomplete, and of the +katydids and the crickets and all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> the other insects we have studied +until we came to the dobson.</p> + +<p>Another name for the larva of insects that undergo an incomplete +metamorphosis is <i>nymph</i>. Some books speak of the nymph of the +grasshopper, and never of the larva of the grasshopper. Such books use +the word <i>larva</i> only in speaking of the young of insects that undergo a +complete metamorphosis.</p> + +<p>Yes, Ned, they would speak of the nymph of the dragon fly, and the nymph +of the May fly and the nymph of the cricket and the katydid, but they +would speak of the larva of the corydalus.</p> + +<p>Egg, nymph, adult,—those are the stages of insects that have an +incomplete metamorphosis.</p> + +<p>Egg, larva, pupa, adult,—those are the stages of insects that have a +complete metamorphosis.</p> + +<p>No, it is not wrong to say larva instead of nymph. I only want you to +know how the word nymph is used, so that when you see it in reading +about insects you will know what it means.</p> + +<p>The corydalus lays its eggs near the water, and it lays a great +many—sometimes nearly three thousand. Think of that! The young larvæ +crawl into the water as soon as they are hatched, and those that escape +the hungry fishes grow into these large larvæ and finally metamorphose +into the big-horned corydalus.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span></p> + +<p>It is such a remarkably fierce-looking creature that it has received +many names that are neither complimentary nor beautiful, such as +conniption bug, alligator, and dragon, and numerous others equally +expressive.</p> + +<p>Now, we must go home. Let us put the dobson back into the brook.</p> + +<p>It does no harm, and we will not kill it.</p> + +<p>Yes, Ned, there are smaller insects like the corydalus that are near +relatives to it, and I am sure you have often seen them.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><span class="smcap">Fairy Lacewing</span></h2> + + +<div class="figright"><img src="images/img190.jpg" alt="Fairy Lacewing" title="Fairy Lacewing" /></div> + +<p>Here is our little Lacewing.</p> + +<p>May says it is a darling, like a woodland fairy clad all in green.</p> + +<p>And, oh, its eyes! Are they not beautiful? They shine like gold.</p> + +<p>Do its wings not remind you a little of the wings of the corydalus?</p> + +<p>May says no, indeed; that has ugly brown wings.</p> + +<p>But look again, May. See how these wings are veined, and do you not +remember how you admired the silvery wings of the corydalus when we +spread them out?</p> + +<p>Yes, it belongs to the same order as the corydalus.</p> + +<p>The name of the insect order to which they both belong is Neuroptera, +from <i>neuron</i>, a nerve, and <i>pteron</i>—who remembers what <i>pteron</i> means?</p> + +<p>Yes, a wing. Nerve-winged.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span></p> + +<p>What does that mean?</p> + +<p>It means that the wings are crossed by many nerves or veins. Yes, that +is what gives them their lacelike appearance.</p> + +<p>Pretty golden eye, why do we not oftener see you on the trees and +bushes? It is only by accident we found you to-day, down in the grass.</p> + +<p>The truth is, this pretty fairy hides by day and comes out at night to +lay its eggs. Like the May fly, the adult lacewing does not eat. It is a +helpless little beauty, though it has one powerful means of defence, as +you will discover if you touch it.</p> + +<p>Ah, yes; you have already detected it! It gives forth such an offensive +odor that nothing, one should think, could have the hardihood to eat it.</p> + +<p>May says she supposes the larva of the lacewing is a little monster like +that of the corydalus.</p> + +<p>But you will not expect to find it as large as a dobson.</p> + +<p>I think if we hunt about a little, we can find one.</p> + +<p>Here is one on the leaf. See what a little fellow! And how fast it runs!</p> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/img191.jpg" alt="Fairy Lacewing" title="Fairy Lacewing" /></div> + + +<p>We shall have to take it captive, in order to get a chance to see it.</p> + +<p>It is a funny little larva, with jaws that are <i>tre-men-dous</i> for one of +its size.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span></p> + +<p>Why do you suppose it has such jaws?</p> + +<p>May says, for the usual reason, to eat up other larvæ.</p> + +<p>Yes; but wait till I tell you another name for this larva.</p> + +<p>It is also called the aphis lion.</p> + +<p>Aphis, you know, is the same as aphid, or plant louse. In other words it +is the plant-louse lion.</p> + +<p>Ah, yes; you are quite willing it should devour the aphids.</p> + +<p>And it does. It is very fond of them, though it will also devour any +unlucky insect it is strong enough to overcome.</p> + +<p>It has a terrible appetite, this child of the pretty lacewing.</p> + +<p>It would even eat its brothers and sisters before they hatched out of +the egg if it could get at them.</p> + +<p>The pretty lacewing knows what an appetite her ever hungry larvæ will +have, and so she protects them against each other.</p> + +<p>Clever little mother! she lays the eggs in such a way that the larvæ +that hatch out first cannot devour the rest of the eggs.</p> + +<p>How do you think she manages it?</p> + +<p>Here are some of her eggs on this leaf.</p> + +<p>Yes, John; each one is on top of a slender stalk.</p> + +<p>The stalk is of stiff silk.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span></p> + +<p>There they are, like a little forest, with an egg for each tree top.</p> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/img193.jpg" alt="Fairy Lacewing" title="Fairy Lacewing" /></div> + +<p>When an egg hatches the young aphis lion drops down to the leaf and runs +about like a ravening lion seeking some living thing to devour.</p> + +<p>Above his head, quite unsuspected by him, are the eggs out of which his +brothers and sisters have not yet hatched.</p> + +<p>What a feast he could have if he knew about it!</p> + +<p>And what a sad little cannibal he would be!</p> + +<p>The larva of the aphis lion has no distinct thorax. Its legs are +attached to the upper segments of the body, and its metamorphosis is +like that of the corydalus.</p> + +<p>When about to become a pupa, it makes for itself a little covering of +white silk. Here it lies quite motionless and undergoes the final +transformation.</p> + +<p>Yes, its metamorphosis is complete.</p> + +<p>It bites an opening through its silken walls, and out steps—not the +hungry, little, all-devouring aphis lion, but this elegant lady with her +pale-green lacelike wings and her large, golden eyes.</p> + +<p>You see the aphis lion is our very good friend.</p> + +<p>It helps us get rid of the aphids, and we should never kill a lacewing +or a child of the lacewing.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><span class="smcap">The Ant Lion</span></h2> + + +<p>John has found something he wants us all to see.</p> + +<p>We will go with him.</p> + +<p>Now we will sit down on this sand bank and look at what he has to show +us. See! those smooth little funnels in the sand.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img194.jpg" alt="The Ant Lion" title="The Ant Lion" /></div> + +<p>Those are what we have come out to see.</p> + +<p>Let us watch them a while.</p> + +<p>Mollie says an ant is walking close to the rim of the funnel she is +watching. Now the ant slips over the edge and slides down the smooth +sides of the funnel.</p> + +<p>And see! from the bottom of the funnel leap out two curved jaws +and—good-by, ant!</p> + +<p>The ant has been dragged down out of sight through a hole in the bottom +of the funnel.</p> + +<p>What a strange proceeding!</p> + +<p>Who can be living down there at the bottom of the funnel?</p> + +<p>We are sorry to disturb such a pretty piece of work,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> but we shall have +to dig out one of the funnels. We shall have to be quick, too.</p> + +<p>There, there, under the trowel! No, it is gone. There it is again. Dig +fast, Ned. That is right. He has put it with a trowelful of sand into +our box.</p> + +<p>We will gently shake out the sand until we uncover it.</p> + +<p>Mabel says it is just what she thought it was—a larva.</p> + +<p>Yes, it is a larva.</p> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/img195.jpg" alt="The Ant Lion" title="The Ant Lion" /></div> + +<p>You see it looks a little like the lacewing larva, and it, too, belongs +to the Neuroptera.</p> + +<p>What jaws!</p> + +<p>How do you suppose it makes its tunnel?</p> + +<p>If we give it plenty of sand, and keep very quiet, perhaps it will go to +work.</p> + +<p>There! it is throwing the sand about.</p> + +<p>May says it is using its own head as a trowel. Yes, it is shovelling the +sand away with its head.</p> + +<p>Why is Ned laughing? Oh, see the ant lion he is watching! An ant slid +part way down its funnel and tried to climb out again, and the ant lion +down below is flinging sand at it.</p> + +<p>There! it has succeeded in making the poor ant slip; down it goes, and +now the ant lion has seized it and dragged it down under the ground.</p> + +<p>It is easy to find these pit-falls of the ant lion in sand banks in the +summer-time.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span></p> + +<p>Yes, May, the ant lions eat many ants, and they moult and grow, and, +finally, they, too, make a little cocoon about themselves.</p> + +<p>Yes, the little silken room they weave we call a cocoon, but the ant +lions make theirs of silk and sand.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img196.jpg" alt="The Ant Lion" title="The Ant Lion" /></div> + +<p>Within the cocoon they become motionless pupæ, and finally appear as +silver-winged little creatures that bear no resemblance to the +large-jawed, ever hungry, ant lion.</p> + +<p>May says she thinks the Neuroptera differ from all the other orders in +the way the larvæ transform.</p> + +<p>That is true, May, they do.</p> + +<p>In no other order that we have studied do the insects go into the pupal +state to undergo the final transformation.</p> + +<p>Who remembers what the young of insects that undergo an incomplete +metamorphosis are sometimes called?</p> + +<p>Dear me, you all remember!</p> + +<p>Yes, the young are sometimes called nymphs.</p> + +<p>The nymphs do not change into pupæ.</p> + +<p>The young grasshoppers do not change into motionless pupæ, they just +keep on growing until they are perfect adults.</p> + +<p>Young grasshoppers are sometimes called nymphs instead of larvæ.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><span class="smcap">The Little Caddice Flies</span></h2> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/img197.jpg" alt="The Little Caddice Flies" title="The Little Caddice Flies" /></div> + +<p>Here we are in the woods again.</p> + +<p>How sweet it smells!</p> + +<p>Let us sit down by this brook and look into it.</p> + +<p>It is such a clear little stream, with fine sand and little pebbles at +the bottom.</p> + +<p>What has Nell found that pleases her so?</p> + +<p>She says she sees some little bars of sand moving about.</p> + +<p>Ned says they are not sand bars but tubes of sand, containing a little +live thing.</p> + +<p>The truth is, this sand bag is a house, and its occupant is a larva.</p> + +<div class="figright"><img src="images/img197a.jpg" alt="The Little Caddice Flies" title="The Little Caddice Flies" /></div> + +<p>See the black head come popping out, and the tiny fore legs.</p> + +<p>The larva does not come entirely out, you see, but pulls its house along +with it, and when it is frightened it pops back into its little stone +case.</p> + +<p>Mollie says it reminds her of a hermit crab.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span></p> + +<p>A hermit crab, you know, lives on the seashore and takes possession of +an empty snail shell for a house.</p> + +<p>It comes partly out dragging its house with it, but if you disturb it, +it draws back, sometimes quite out of sight.</p> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/img198.jpg" alt="The Little Caddice Flies" title="The Little Caddice Flies" /></div> + +<p>This little larva lives in a house, too, but it is a house of its own +making.</p> + +<p>It is the larva of the caddice fly, or case fly.</p> + +<p>Let us put one of these little sand cases in the saucer here.</p> + +<p>Please fill the saucer about half full of water, John. Thank you.</p> + +<p>Now, Mollie, I see you have picked up a fine big caddice case.</p> + +<p>Put it in the saucer, and let us watch the larva crawl about.</p> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/img198a.jpg" alt="The Little Caddice Flies" title="The Little Caddice Flies" /></div> + +<p>It never comes entirely out of the case, you see. It holds on to it with +the hinder part of its body.</p> + +<p>Its little black head is hard, but its body is soft, and that is why it +does not like to expose itself to hungry larvæ that might be living in +the water.</p> + +<p>May says she wants to see the whole larva.</p> + +<p>Suppose we carefully break away the little sand case.</p> + +<p>No, indeed, little Nell, we are not going to hurt the larva; we are only +going to open its house.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/img199.jpg" alt="The Airy Water Striders" title="The Airy Water Striders" /></div> +<p>There, the larva is outside now, and you can see what a tender, pale +little thing it is.</p> + +<p>It does not like to have its soft body exposed.</p> + +<p>See! it is already gathering little bits of sand together.</p> + +<p>It seems to be sticking them fast to its body.</p> + +<p>It is really binding them together by a saliva-like substance from its +mouth.</p> + +<p>It draws out little glistening threads that harden into silk as soon as +they touch the water.</p> + +<p>Queer saliva you think.</p> + +<p>But the caddice larva does not find it queer. It is used to saliva that +hardens into silk.</p> + +<p>Yes, that is the way the larva of the aphis lion and of the ant lion +made their cocoons. They spun out silk in this manner.</p> + +<p>The caddice larva makes its house of silk and sand and also lines it +with a beautiful covering of fine silk.</p> + +<p>Yes, May, it papers its walls with silk.</p> + +<p>You see it did not hurt the caddice larva to take away its house; it +immediately went to work to build another.</p> + +<p>Why not pull it out, instead of breaking its house to pieces?</p> + +<p>Because if it had been pulled hard enough to come out, it might have +been torn to pieces, it is such a tender little thing, and it holds fast +so tightly.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span></p> + +<p>So the best way to remove it safely is to break its case bit by bit from +around it.</p> + +<p>It does no harm to break its case if one is careful. It will soon build +another.</p> + +<p>Yes, this larva has no distinct thorax. It is like the larvæ of the +dobson, the aphis lion, and the ant lion in that respect.</p> + +<div class="figright"><img src="images/img200.jpg" alt="The Little Caddice Flies" title="The Little Caddice Flies" /></div> + +<p>See! John has found one whose tube is made of quite large stones as +compared with this tube of fine sand that we have broken open.</p> + +<p>Some caddice larvæ build houses of wood instead of stone. They stick +little twigs together, and some use little pieces of leaves.</p> + +<p>Others again use tiny snail shells which, as you can imagine, make very +pretty cases.</p> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/img200a.jpg" alt="The Little Caddice Flies" title="The Little Caddice Flies" /></div> + +<p>Our little caddice has made a neat little house of fine sand grains very +nicely put together.</p> + +<p>Some others make much rougher houses.</p> + +<p>You will be apt to find the caddice larvæ in any brook and in some +ponds, and I hope you will always look for them.</p> + +<p>Notice the tracery in the soft mud of the brook.</p> + +<p>Those lines that look as though some one had been ornamenting the bottom +of the brook are made by our caddice larvæ.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img201.jpg" alt="The Little Caddice Flies" title="The Little Caddice Flies" /></div> + +<p>They drag their cases along and thus make these lines.</p> + +<p>Sometimes such lines are made by the little fresh-water snails; but you +can always find the decorator by following along the lines he makes.</p> + +<p>What, May? How is the delicate larva able to cling to the case tightly +enough to pull it along? If you look at it very carefully, you will find +a pair of tiny hooks at the tail end by which it can hold on to the silk +lining; and some caddice larvæ have hard points on their backs which +help them to hold fast.</p> + +<p>The caddice larvæ are carnivorous; that is, they eat animal food.</p> + +<p>Yes, May, their food is usually the larvæ of other insects, but you will +be glad to know that some of them eat plants too.</p> + +<p>They eat the larvæ of the May flies when they can find them and no doubt +they build these strong cases about themselves to prevent the May fly +larvæ from returning the compliment.</p> + +<p>Frank has found some empty cases, yes, and some that are closed at both +ends.</p> + +<p>Now, let us look at this one closed at both ends. What do you suppose is +in it?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/img202.jpg" alt="The Little Caddice Flies" title="The Little Caddice Flies" /></div> + +<p>We will open just one of these closed cases.</p> + +<p>There! It is a pupa! Yes, Nell, a very pretty doll is this.</p> + +<p>It has a thorax, you see, and an abdomen. Its long antennæ lie close to +its body as do its little wing pads.</p> + +<p>Yes, the caddice larva grows and moults in the usual way. It keeps +adding to its house as it grows longer. Finally, it closes the end of +its little tube and lies quite still.</p> + +<p>You know what happens next. Its wormlike form divides into thorax and +abdomen. Legs and wings appear, attached to the thorax. In short, it is +no longer a wormlike creature.</p> + +<p>Finally, it comes forth from its case. It never goes into it again.</p> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/img202a.jpg" alt="The Little Caddice Flies" title="The Little Caddice Flies" /></div> + +<p>It does not need to, for now it is a dainty little nun, with a long, +tan-colored cloak. Its cloak, of course, is its wings folded down about +its body. Like the fairy May flies it has no mouth and eats nothing in +the adult form.</p> + +<p>It looks like a dainty brown moth as it flutters about the bushes and +goes flying up and down the brook.</p> + +<p>You will always find these little brown-cloaked figures flitting about +the brooks, where the caddice larvæ live.</p> + +<p>You see the caddice undergoes a complete metamorphosis.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span></p> + +<p>No, it does not belong to the Neuroptera.</p> + +<p>Examine its wings very carefully. Look at them through the magnifying +glass, and you will see they are clothed with hairs.</p> + +<p>So these are the hair wings.</p> + +<p>The name of the order to which they belong is Trichoptera, from +<i>pteron</i>, a wing, and <i>thrix</i>, a hair.</p> + +<p>Sometime you must take a caddice larva from its house and put it in a +saucer of water with fine bits of mica, which you know is another name +for the isinglass that makes the little windows in our stoves.</p> + +<p>If you are fortunate, your caddice will build for itself a little glass +house, through whose walls you can look and see what is going on inside.</p> + +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img203.jpg" alt="The Little Caddice Flies" title="The Little Caddice Flies" /></div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span></p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span></p> +<h2>GLOSSARY</h2> + + +<p><b>Abdomen</b> (ab-dō'-men). The lower part of an animal's body. The part +behind the thorax in insects.</p> + +<p><b>Adult</b> (ă-dult'). (L. adultus = grown up.) Grown to full size and +strength.</p> + +<p><b>Anchor</b> (ang'-kor). (Gr. = a hook.) Anchors are used to fasten ships by +a line to the bottom of the sea. Applied to anything that holds a +movable body fast in one place.</p> + +<p><b>Antenna</b>; pl. <b>Antennae</b> (an-ten'-nee). The feeler in front of the +insect's head with which it hears and smells as well as feels.</p> + +<p><b>Aphis</b> (ā'-fis) pl. <b>Aphides</b> (af'-i-dēz).</p> + +<p><b>Aphid</b> (af'-id) The plant louse, of which there are a great many +kinds.</p> + +<p><b>Apparatus</b> (ap-a-rā'-tus). Tools or machinery used in working or in +making things.</p> + +<p><b>Aquarium</b> (a-kwā'-ri-um). (L. aquarium = watering-place for cattle.) +A vessel of water for keeping water plants or water animals.</p> + +<p><b>Attract</b> (at-trakt'). (L. attractus = draw to.) To draw toward.</p> + +<p><b>Audubon</b> (aw'-do-bon), John James. A very famous student of birds and +their ways. In his great book, "The Birds of America," which was +published in 1827, there are many large colored drawings made by +himself.</p> + +<p><b>Beech-nuts</b> Small, three-cornered nuts that grow on beech trees, and +that are very sweet and good.</p> + +<p><b>Breeding-place</b> The place where young animals are born.</p> + +<p><b>Brood</b> A family of young animals.</p> + +<p><b>Caddice</b>, or <b>Caddis fly</b> (kad'-is flī). Sometimes called "case +fly," from the case or shell which the larva makes about itself; +"caddice" is another way of saying "case."</p> + +<p><b>Camera</b> (kam'-e-ra). An instrument for taking photographs.</p> + +<p><b>Cannibal</b> (kan'-ĭ-bal). A human being who eats human flesh. Any +animal that eats others of its own kind.</p> + +<p><b>Cargo</b> (kar'-go). The goods or merchandise or whatever is carried in a +ship.</p> + +<p><b>Carnivorous</b> (kar-niv'-ō-rus). (L. carnivorus = flesh-eating.) +Applied to animals that feed on flesh, and plants that feed on insects.</p> + +<p><b>Cast</b> The cast-off skin of an insect that keeps the form of the +insect's body.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span></p> + +<p><b>Characteristic</b> (kar-ak-te-ris'-tik). Showing the peculiar qualities of +a person or thing.</p> + +<p><b>Chitinous</b>(kī'-tin-us). Hard, horny, and shell-like.</p> + +<p><b>Cicada</b> (si-kā'-dä). (L. cicada = tree cricket.) A popular name for +insects, like the grasshopper, locust, and cricket, which make a +creaking or chirping noise.</p> + +<p><b>Cochineal</b> (koch'-i-nēl or koch-i-nēl'). A crimson dyestuff made +of the dried bodies of certain small insects. The insect is also called +cochineal.</p> + +<p><b>Cocoon</b> (ko-koon'). (L. concha = a shell.) The silky envelope which the +larvæ of many insects spin to cover themselves.</p> + +<p><b>Compact</b> (kom-pakt'). (L. compactus = joined together.) Closely and +firmly united.</p> + +<p><b>Compound</b> (kom'-pound). Made up of two or more parts.</p> + +<p><b>Coxa</b> (kok'-sa). (L. coxa = the hip.) The first segment of an insect's +<i>leg</i>, sometimes called the hip.</p> + +<p><b>Crevices</b> (krev'-is-es). (L. crepare = to break, burst, crack.) Narrow +openings or cracks.</p> + +<p><b>Descendant</b> (dē-sen'-dant). (L. descendere = to descend.) People or +animals who have come from earlier people or animals.</p> + +<p><b>Ear drum</b> (ēr' drum). A membrane stretched across inside the ear.</p> + +<p><b>Ejected</b> (ē-jekt'-ed). (L. ejicere = to throw out.) Thrown out, +driven away.</p> + +<p><b>Emaciated</b> (ē-mā'-shi-āt-ed). (L. emaciare = to make lean.) +Very thin and wasted.</p> + +<p><b>Emerge</b> (e-merj'). (L. emergere = to rise out.) To appear, to come into +sight.</p> + +<p><b>Ephemeridæ</b> (ef-ē-mer'-i-dē). (Gr. word = "lasting but a day.") +The name of the May fly order.</p> + +<p><b>Facets</b> (fas'-ets). Little faces; small surfaces.</p> + +<p><b>Femur</b> (fē'-mer). (L. femur = a thigh.) The long bone of the upper +leg above the knee. The third segment in the insect's leg.</p> + +<p><b>Formidable</b> (for'-mi-da-bl). (L. formidabilis = causing fear.) Hard to +deal with; difficult to overcome.</p> + +<p><b>Fry</b> (frī). The young of fishes; used for any small animals.</p> + +<p><b>Funnel</b> (fun'-el). The shape of a hollow cone.</p> + +<p><b>Gauzy</b> (gaw'-zi). Very fine, thin, and transparent.</p> + +<p><b>Ghosts</b> (gōsts). The spirits or shadows of the dead.</p> + +<p><b>Gills</b> The breathing organs of any animal that lives in the water.</p> + +<p><b>Gorge</b> (gorj). To feed greedily; to stuff one's self.</p> + +<p><b>Gossamer</b> (gos'-a-mer). A fine filmy substance, like the cobweb of +spiders.</p> + +<p><b>Grub</b> The larva of an insect.</p> + +<p><b>Hearth</b> (hărth). The part of the floor of a room where the fire is +built.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span></p> + +<p><b>Hemiptera</b> (hē-mip'-te-ra). (Gr. = half-wing.) The name of an insect +order including many kinds, all known as bugs.</p> + +<p><b>Incomplete</b> (in-kom-plēt'). Not fully finished or developed.</p> + +<p><b>Injurious</b> (in-jew'-ri-us). (L. injuriasus = acting unjustly or +wrongly.) Something wrong or harmful.</p> + +<p><b>Inquisitive</b> (in-kwiz'-i-tiv). Curious and prying.</p> + +<p><b>Insatiable</b> (in-sā'-shi-a-bl). (L. insatiabilis = that cannot be +satisfied.) Not easily satisfied; very greedy.</p> + +<p><b>Isinglass</b> (ī'-zing-glas). Thin, transparent sheets of mica.</p> + +<p><b>Joint</b> The place where two things or parts of one thing are joined or +united.</p> + +<p><b>Keel</b> (kēl). The lowest part of the bottom of a ship.</p> + +<p><b>Kettle drum</b> (ket'-l drum). A musical instrument made of a hollow brass +hemisphere over which is stretched parchment. This is sounded by blows +from a mallet or stick.</p> + +<p><b>Larva</b> (lar'-va); pl. <b>Larvæ</b> (lar'-vē). The young insect.</p> + +<p><b>Lock</b> To fasten in place.</p> + +<p><b>Locust</b> (lō'-kust). A shorthorned grasshopper.</p> + +<p><b>Mantis</b> (man'-tis); pl. <b>Mantes</b> (man'-tēz). (Gr. = prophet.) An +orthopterous insect that holds its arms as if in prayer.</p> + +<p><b>Membrane</b> (mem'-brān). (L. membrana = thin skin.) A thin, soft +tissue that connects two parts, or lines a body.</p> + +<p><b>Mercaptan</b> (mer-kap'-tan). (L. mercaptans = taking mercury.) A +vile-smelling liquid that gets its name because of its strong action on +mercury. It seizes upon mercury, so to speak.</p> + +<p><b>Metallic</b> (me-tal'-ik). Made up of metals, or like metals.</p> + +<p><b>Metamorphosis</b> (met-a-mor'-fō-sis). (L. metamorphosis = change, +transformation.) A change of form; a development, as the change of the +caterpillar into the chrysalis.</p> + +<p><b>Mica</b> (mī'-ka). A transparent mineral that can be separated into +thin sheets or layers.</p> + +<p><b>Microscope</b> (mī'-krō-skōp). An instrument that magnifies, or +makes objects look larger when placed beneath it.</p> + +<p><b>Moult</b> (mōlt). (L. mutare = to change.) To shed or cast off the +feathers, hair, or skin.</p> + +<p><b>Muscle</b> (mus'-l). Bundles of fibres that have the power of growing +longer or shorter. The body is moved by means of the muscles.</p> + +<p><b>Nary</b> (ner'-i). "Ne'er a," a contraction of "never a."</p> + +<p><b>Nerve</b> (nerv). (L. nervus = a fibre <i>or</i> tendon.) The nerves are fibres +or threads that carry impressions to the brain. Nerved = having fibres, +as in the wings of insects.</p> + +<p><b>Neuroptera</b> (nū-rŏp'-te-ra). (Gr. = nerve-wing.) The name of an +insect order.</p> + +<p><b>Nymph</b> (nimf). (L. nympha = a bride, a young girl.) The young<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span> of +insects that undergo an incomplete metamorphosis.</p> + +<p><b>Ocelli</b> (o-sel'-le), pl. of Ocellus. (L. = a little eye.) The tiny, +simple eyes of insects.</p> + +<p><b>Odonata</b> (ō-dō-na'-ta). The name of an insect order to which +belong the dragon flies.</p> + +<p><b>Odors</b> Pleasant or unpleasant smells.</p> + +<p><b>Opera-glass</b> (op'-e-ra-glas). Magnifying glasses used at the theatre or +opera to make things seem nearer.</p> + +<p><b>Organism</b> (or'-gan-izm). A member of the animal or vegetable kingdom.</p> + +<p><b>Orthoptera</b> (or-thop'-tē-ra). (Gr. = straight-wing.) An insect order +to which belong the grasshoppers.</p> + +<p><b>Ovipositor</b> (ō-vĭ-poz'-ĭ-tor). (L. ovum = egg, <i>and</i> ponere = +to place.) The end of the abdomen of some insects, with which they are +able to put their eggs in a good place to be hatched.</p> + +<p><b>Oxygen</b> (ok'-si-jen). A part of the air that is necessary to all animal +and vegetable life.</p> + +<p><b>Parasites</b> (par'-a-sītz). Animals or plants that live on others.</p> + +<p><b>Phylloxera</b> (fil-ok-sē'-ra). (Gr. = leaf <i>and</i> dry.) An insect very +destructive to grape vines.</p> + +<p><b>Plaited</b> (plāt'-ed). Folded length-wise like the plaits of a closed +fan.</p> + +<p><b>Plecoptera</b> (plē-kŏp'-tē-ra). (Gr. = twist <i>and</i> wing.) An +insect to which belong the stone flies.</p> + +<p><b>Pollute</b>(pō-lūt'). (L. polluere = to make unclean, to soil.) To +make foul or unclean.</p> + +<p><b>Pores</b> (porz). (L. porus = a way, a passage.) Small openings in the +skin to help in breathing.</p> + +<p><b>Prey</b> (prā). (L. præda = property taken in war.) An animal in the +chase; game.</p> + +<p>Prolific (prō-lif'-ik). Fruitful; producing young in abundance.</p> + +<p><b>Propel</b> (prō-pel'). (L. propellere = to drive, or push forward.) To +urge onward by force.</p> + +<p>Prophet (prof'-et). One who tells of the future.</p> + +<p><b>Pulvillus</b> (pul-vil'-us); pl. <b>Pulvilli.</b> (L. = a little cushion.) A +little pad or cushion on an insect's foot.</p> + +<p><b>Ravenous</b> (rav'-n-us). Greedy, furiously hungry.</p> + +<p><b>Repel</b> (re-pel'). (L. repellere = to drive back.) To drive back, to +check.</p> + +<p><b>Resinous</b> (rez'-i-nus). Like resin, which is made from pine pitch.</p> + +<p><b>Rudimentary</b> (rew-di-men'-ta-ri). (L. rudimentum = a first attempt.) +Imperfectly developed or in an early stage of development.</p> + +<p><b>Saliva</b> (sa-lī'-va). Spittle. The liquid formed in the mouth, which +mixes with food, and helps it to digest.</p> + +<p><b>Segment</b> (seg'-ment). (L. secare = to cut.) A part cut off, a section.</p> + +<p><b>Seize</b> (sēz). To grasp, to clutch.</p> + +<p><b>Sensitive</b> (sen'-si-tiv). Quick to feel. The nerve of the eye is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span> +sensitive to light, quick to feel light.</p> + +<p><b>Shellac</b> (she-lak' or shel-ak'). It is made from a coloring matter in +the bodies of certain insects. A polish which is used with varnish.</p> + +<p><b>Silk</b> (sīlk). A fine, soft, strong thread made by the larvæ of +certain insects.</p> + +<p><b>Skeleton</b> (skel'-e-ton). (Gr. = <b>dried</b> up.) The dry bones of the body +taken together.</p> + +<p><b>Socket</b> (sok'-et). Any hollow thing or place which receives or holds +something else.</p> + +<p><b>Soothsayer</b> (söth'-sā-er). One who pretends to know what the future +holds for us.</p> + +<p><b>Source</b> (sōrs). The place where anything begins.</p> + +<p><b>Species</b> (spē'-shez). A group of closely related animals or plants.</p> + +<p><b>Spine</b> (spīn). (L. spina = a thorn). Anything sharp and slender like +a thorn.</p> + +<p><b>Spiracle</b> (spir'-or spīr-a-kl). (L. spiraculum = a breathing hole). +An air-hole.</p> + +<p><b>Survivals</b> (ser-vī'-valz). (L. supervivo = to live over.) Those +outliving the larger number.</p> + +<p><b>Swammerdam, Johannes</b>. A Dutch entomologist, born in Amsterdam in 1637. +He published several books on the natural history of insects.</p> + +<p><b>Syringe</b> (sir'-inj). (Gr. = a pipe <i>or</i> reed.) A little instrument for +drawing in water, and forcing it out again.</p> + +<p>Tarsus (tar'-sus); pl. <b>Tarsi</b>. (Gr. = the sole of the foot.) The little +segments that make up the insect's foot. Also the little bones of the +instep.</p> + +<p><b>Telescope</b> (tel'-e-skōp). (Gr. = to view afar off.) An instrument by +which distant objects are made to appear nearer and larger.</p> + +<p><b>Thorax</b> (thō'-rax). (Gr. = armor for the breast.) That part of the +body of animals between the head and the abdomen.</p> + +<p><b>Thysanura</b> (this-a-nū'-ra). (Gr. = tassel and tail.) An insect order +to which belong the scale fishes.</p> + +<p><b>Tibia</b> (tib'-i-a). (L. tibia = a slender pipe, a musical instrument.) A +long, slender bone in the leg, below the knee. The fourth segment in an +insect's leg, generally long and slender.</p> + +<p><b>Transformation</b> (trans-for-ma'-shon). (L. transformare = to change the +shape of.) A change in form or nature.</p> + +<p><b>Transparent</b> (trans-par'-ent). (L. trans-parere = to appear through.) +Easily seen through.</p> + +<p><b>Transportation</b> (trans-por-ta'-shon). (L. trans-portare = to carry +over.) Carrying from one place to another.</p> + +<p><b>Tremendous</b> (tre-men'-dus). (L. tremendus = fearful, <i>from</i> tremere, to +tremble.) Very wonderful, astounding.</p> + +<p><b>Trichoptera</b> (trī-kop'-te-ra). (Gr. = hairy-wing.) An insect order +to which belong the caddis flies.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span></p> + +<p><b>Trochanter</b> (tro-kan'-ter). (Gr. = the ball on which the hip bone turns +in its socket.) The second segment of an insect's leg.</p> + +<p><b>Unlock</b> (un-lok'). To unfasten something that has been closed.</p> + +<p><b>Unsubstantial</b> (un-sub-stan'-shal). Not real or solid, without +substance.</p> + +<p><b>Vacated</b> (vā'-kat-ed). (L. vacare = to be empty or vacant.) Emptied; +possession given up.</p> + +<p><b>Vegetation</b> (vej-e-tā'-shon). (L. vegetare = to quicken.) Living +plants.</p> + +<p><b>Veined</b> (vānd). (L. vena = a vein.) Marked as with veins, streaked.</p> + +<p><b>Vibrate</b>(vī'-brāt). (L. vibratus = set in motion.) To swing; move +to and fro.</p> + +<p><b>Vibration</b> (vī-brā'-shon). Motions back and forth. Vibrations may +be too small for us to see.</p> + +<p>Victimized (vik'-tim-īzd). Made a victim of, deceived, badly treated.</p> + +<p><b>Voracious</b> (vō-rā'-shus). (L. vorax = devouring greedily.) Eating +food in large quantities.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span></p> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Insect Folk, by Margaret Warner Morley + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE INSECT FOLK *** + +***** This file should be named 18790-h.htm or 18790-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/8/7/9/18790/ + +Produced by Joseph R. 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