LIBRARY

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
DAVIS

INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

PLATE i NESTS OF MASON-WASP. Frontispiece

Odynerus tunnels into banks and provisions her cells with caterpillars. Whilst the
work is in progress she constructs curved tubes of the excavated material to keep
out the ruby-tailed wasp, which is a parasite. (See p. 7z.)

Drawn by T. Can eras.

INSECT ARTIZANS
AND THEIR WORK

BY

EDWARD STEP, F.L.S.

AUTHOR OF "WAYSIDE AND WOODLAND BLOSSOMS," "MESSMATES," ETC,, ETC.

With &4 Illustrations on Art Paper

NEW YORK
DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY

PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN

CONTENTS

PAGE

INTRODUCTION ..... ix

CHAPTER

I. SPINNERS AND WEAVERS i

II. MINERS . . .• . 19

III. MASONS .65

IV. CARPENTERS AND WOOD-WORKERS . 95
V. UPHOLSTERERS 125

VI. WAX- WORKERS . . . . 137

VII. PAPER-MAKERS . . . 159

III. TAILORS . . . . . 179

IX. HORTICULTURISTS .... 209

X. SANITARY OFFICERS .... 229

XL MUSICIANS . . . . .251

XII. BURGLARS ..... 277

. LAMP-BEARERS . . .' .301

INDEX 313

ILLUSTRATIONS

PLATE

1. NESTS OF MASON-WASP . . . Frontispiece

FACING PAGE

2. COCOONS OF A SILK-MOTH . . . .10

3. MIXERS OF SILK AND WOOD-FIBRE . . .11

4. SILKEN COCOONS ...... 14

5. SOME SCARABS ...... 15

6. MINERS ........ 54

7. NESTS OF A MASON-WASP .... 55

8. YELLOW-FOOTED MUD-DAUBER AND ITS NEST . 76

9. MUD-DAUBERS ...... 77

10. NESTS OF TERMITES OR " WHITE ANTS " . 86

11. TERMITES OR "WHITE ANTS" ... 87

12. NESTS OF CARPENTER-BEE .... 98

13. MINES OF ELM-BORING BEETLES . . .99

14. BORINGS OF A BEETLE GRUB . . . .118

15. THE TIMBERMAN . . . . . .119

1 6. A TIMBER BEETLE — TRACK OF A DESTROYER . 122

17. HORN-TAILED WASPS . . . . .123

1 8. THE LEAF-CUTTER BEE . . . . .132

19. A HUGE HONEYCOMB AND ITS MAKER . . 133

vii

viii ILLUSTRATIONS

PLATE FACING PACK

20. HONEY-BEES COMB-BUILDING .... 146

21. HUMBLE-BEES' NEST .....

22. THE RAW MATERIAL OF WASP-PAPER

23. COMB OF WASP ......

24. STRANGE PORTABLE HOUSES ....

25. Two TAILORS ......

26. CADDIS-FLY AND CADDIS-CASES

27. THE AGRICULTURAL ANT'S CLEARING
•28. NEST OF THE AGRICULTURAL ANT .

29. MUSHROOM-GROWING ANTS ....

30. TERMITES' MUSHROOM GARDEN

31. SEXTONS .......

32. THE BACON BEETLE .....

33. BEE-LIKE DRONE-FLY — GIRDLED DRONE-FLY .

34. THE CICADA'S MUSIC-BOX ....

35. GREAT GREEN GRASSHOPPER ....

36. THE FLYING GOOSEBERRY ....

37. A KATYDID .......

38. Two ICHNEUMON-WASPS . . .

39. THE OIL-BEETLE AND THE SITARIS .

INTRODUCTION

No one who has devoted any considerable part of
his open-air leisure to the observation of living
insects can fail to be struck by the fact that each
species has its own definite method of life, its own
way of doing things, and, in the construction of a
shelter for itself or its progeny, its own preference
for materials and its own mode of using them.
These are the methods and preferences not of the
individual, but of the species ; and the individual
needs no apprenticeship, but goes directly to work
with the experience it has inherited from an enorm-
ously long line of ancestors. In an earlier period of
our civilization the son followed the vocation of
his father, taught by him, and inheriting the
secrets of the craft. Many of our surviving sur-
names are due to this fact, the names of Smith,
Taylor, Fletcher, Bowyer, and the like becoming
permanently attached to the families pursuing these
crafts and mysteries. In the case of the Insects,
the parents cannot instruct their offspring, for as
a rule they never see them. One marvels at the
skill displayed by the bird in constructing its first
nest ; but it may be said that the newly mature
bird has at least a chance of watching a second-
year matron of its kind building, and getting some
hints that way. In the case of the Insects there is,
as a rule, no possibility of such help. In the vast

IX

x INTRODUCTION

majority of species the parent is dead long before
the daughter comes to that stage of existence when
the necessity for making provision for her progeny
arises ; so the knowledge has to pass by way of
transmitted memory. Somewhere in the minute
speck of protoplasm constituting the egg of one of
the Solitary Bees, there is an infinitesimal particle
of nerve matter which contains the secret of how
to cut accurate circles and ovals of rose-leaf so that
a number of them will overlap and curve into a
perfect cylinder. During the greater part of its
life the creature that hatches out from that egg
will have no need of the secret, but the germ of it
will go on developing, and when the insect has
attained to the complete bee form there is the idea
in the memory cells ready to instruct the nerves
that govern the action of wings and legs and cutting
jaws.

Here is a marvel which should make us keen to
follow with interest the industries of these little
creatures. It is only one example of the thousands
of marvels that reward the inquirer into Insect
Economics. With a view to awakening an interest
in these matters, the following pages have been
written; and the better to attract the attention
of those to whom a more systematic treatment
would be considered dry and uninteresting, the
examples chosen have been grouped under headings
borrowed from the human industries that most
nearly correspond to the activities of these Insect
Artizans.

I

SPINNERS AND WEAVERS

SPINNERS AND WEAVERS

FROM very early times man has been acquainted
with, and has made use of, the spinning powers of
insects. The Silkworm, that came originally from
China or India, has been the principal source of
the finest raiment with which the human species
has clothed itself, but the faculty of producing silk
is shared by many insects in a minor degree. In
most of them it is utilized in the final stage of the
grub state to make provision for the security of
the chrysalis, but many caterpillars possess it already
when newly issued from the egg. As an example
of this we may cite the case of the young caterpillar
of the Puss Moth (Dicranura vinula), which feeds
upon the upper surface of the leaves of sallow,
willow, and poplar. The last named are not only
glossy, affording an insecure foothold, but are kept
in a state of constant fluttering by the slightest
movements of the air. The tiny caterpillars, looking
like smuts that have clung to the leaf, and that
might be detached by a breath, at once set to work
to spin a little pad of silk on the leaf, in which the
hooks of their feet may catch and so enable the

4 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

animated particle to feed in safety, no matter how
violent the jerking of the leaf from side to side.

Another simple, but highly useful, example o
the spinning power is exhibited by leaf-rolling
caterpillars (Tortrix) and the elongated caterpillars
known as Geometers from their peculiar manner
of progression, in which they appear to be care-
fully measuring the distance traversed. Som<
caterpillars of these two families, when the bough
upon which they are feeding is rudely jerked, a1
once loose their hold and simultaneously spin a
single thread by which they hang suspended in
mid-air until the supposed danger has passed, when
they ascend the thread and regain their former
station.

These same leaf-rollers depend largely upon their
power of spinning threads for the skill with which
they accomplish the neat leafy tube which is at once
a house and a dining-table. If we walk, in May
or June, through an oak wood, we shall see a number
of these caterpillars hanging by silken threads
which are only made visible to our sight by their
reflecting the sun's rays. Tracing one of these
gleaming threads upward, we shall see that it
depends from the open end of an oak leaf that ha
been rolled into a tube, and if we wait a few minute
we shall see the wriggling larva after climbing up
by its thread disappear into the green tunnel
Plucking a rolled leaf, we find that the coils arc
held in position by a great number of threads which
stretch like tent-ropes from the curved to the

SPINNERS AND WEAVERS 5

flat portions of the leaf. By pressing upon these
threads with the weight of its small body, the
caterpillar gives a further turn to the coil, and
prevents its springing back by attaching a short
new thread at an angle between the old thread
and the leaf. Other threads are attached farther
up the coil and farther out on the leaf, and these
are shortened and tightened in a similar manner,
until the little Green Tortrix larva has rolled up
sufficient of the leaf for its purpose.

If the young leaf has so far hardened that the
midrib has too much spring in it, the caterpillar
overcomes this tendency by reducing its thickness
and its resistance with its jaws. In this tube the
caterpillar lives, feeding upon the inner folds of its
house, and when it has attained to its full develop-
ment, as a larva, spins a slight cocoon and changes
into the chrysalis condition, from which a little
later it emerges as the beautiful little moth with
pale green wings known as the Oak Tortrix (Tortrix
viridana). This is the insect that in some years
almost entirely defoliates our oaks before mid-
summer, though apparently without inflicting any
serious damage to the tree, which is soon well
clothed again.

Similar rolled leaves may be found upon many
trees, the work of other species of Tortrix, which
pursue their industry upon similar lines by the
use of the simple silken thread. In some cases,
however, the same end is attained in a more
simple manner — the edges of the leaf being spun

6 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

together before they expand, so that the result
is a flat bag. Everybody who has grown rose-
trees is familiar with examples of this use of the
silk thread ; another common species treats the
apple-leaf in similar fashion, and in other cases
several leaves are spun together with the same
object in view — the hiding of the destructive
caterpillar until it has developed into a moth.

A most remarkable example of an insect that
cannot make silk using another that can for its
ends is afforded by an Asiatic ant (CEcophylla
smaragdina). This ant haunts the foliage of trees,
and is desirous of having shelters among the leaves ;
but as it is not a spinning ant (there are such), it
has brought what looks like intelligence to its aid,
and got its desires satisfied partly by proxy. Ant-
larvae have the power of spinning silk which is
necessary for the construction of the cocoons in
which they pass the chrysalis stage of their life-
history. A party of ants hold together the edges
of leaves which they have decided are to form the
shelter, and whilst they are so held other ants
come up from the nest, each with an ant-larva in
its mouth. The desire of its adult relations is by
some means conveyed to it, and it produces a
sufficiency of fluid silk to connect the edges of the
leaves together.

Several Indian species of ants (Polyrhachis) build
their nests on the upper side of leaves, or between
two leaves. These consist of a single cell, and
those that are fully exposed on the surface of the

SPINNERS AND WEAVERS 7

leaf are covered with fragments of leaves and
other vegetable matter to make it less obtrusive.
But the point to which we desire to call attention
is that the ant lines these nests with silk of its
own manufacture, and of a texture similar to spiders'
web.

The chief spinners, however, are the caterpillars
of the butterflies and moths, especially of the
moths. As a rule the spinning of butterfly cater-
pillars is restricted to the fabrication of a silken pad,
into which the terminal hooks of the chrysalis
become attached, and of a girdle around what we
may term the waist of the chrysalis. There are
exceptions, as we shall show. The fluid silk is
produced by two large glands, one on each side of
the body, whose ducts unite and are continued
externally as the spinneret, which is a point on the
middle line of the lip, differently developed in the
various families and species. The glands are of
simple structure, and vary in size according to the
amount of silk-production required by the species.
In some of the moth-caterpillars that elaborate
thick cocoons their length and weight are con-
siderable : the Silkworm, for instance, possesses a
pair of silk-glands (sericteria) each measuring five
times the full length of the body.

This length is exceeded in some other species. In
the full-grown Silkworm their weight equals two-
fifths of the insect's total weight. This is not sur-
prising when one considers the great length of thread
that is produced in the weaving of the cocoon.

8 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

The average length of silk wound off from a single
cocoon is 1,526 feet; but there is a difference
between the produce from a cocoon containing
female chrysalis and one containing a male sufficient
to enable the silk-farmers to sort out the sexes by
the weight of the cocoons. In agreement with thi
result it is found that a Silkworm that is to develo]
into a female moth has larger silk-glands than one
that is to become a male moth.

The history of the domestication of the Silk
worm, like that of the Honey-bee, extends so fa
back that its beginnings are hidden in the mist
of antiquity. Silk is known to have been in genera
use among the Chinese at a period compared wit]
which the introduction of the insect to Europ
may be spoken of as recent. Silk tissue reachec
Europe from Asia long before anything certaii
was known here as to its origin, " some supposing
it to be the entrails of a spider-like insect wit
eight legs, which was fed for four years upon a
kind of paste, and then with the leaves of the green
willow, until it burst with fat ; others that it was
the produce of a worm which built clay nests and
collected wax ; Aristotle, with more truth, that
it was unwound from the pupa of a large horned
caterpillar.

" Nor was the mode of producing and manu-
facturing this precious material known to Europe
until long after the Christian era, being first
learnt about the year 550, by two monks, who
procured in India the eggs of the Silkworm moth,

SPINNERS AND WEAVERS 9

with which, concealing them in hollow canes,
they hastened to Constantinople, where they
speedily multiplied, and were subsequently intro-
duced into Italy, of which country silk was long a
peculiar and staple commodity. It was not culti-
vated in France until the time of Henry IV, who,
considering that mulberries grew in his kingdom
as well as in Italy, resolved, in opposition to the
opinion of Sully, to attempt introducing it, and
fully succeeded " (Kirby and Spence).

There are several silk-producing moths of larger
size of which great hopes in a commercial sense
have been held, but, with the exception of certain
Indian species which supply the Tussore silk and
Eri or Arindy silk, the results have been somewhat
disappointing. These big silkworms belong to a
family different from that which includes the
Silkworm. They are more closely related to our
own Emperor Moth (Saturnia car pint), whose
beautiful green-and-pink caterpillar spins an ela-
borate cocoon that has long been famous among
insect structures. The upper part of this cocoon
is so contrived by the untaught caterpillar that its
exit when it becomes a moth will be easy, whilst
entry on the part of any intruder will be the reverse.
At this upper part the cocoon is not closed, but
tapers to a point formed by straight silken hairs con-
verging. These may be pushed against from outside
without yielding, but very slight pressure from
within will serve to separate them and reveal the
opening. At a little distance inside this structure

io INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

is repeated, so that the chrysalis reposes behind
two puzzle-doors which oppose no obstruction to
the moth.

In a North American species of Silkworm (Platy-
samia cecropia) this type of cocoon is improved
upon. There are in fact two cocoons, one inside
the other, with a packing of loosely spun threads
between the two walls, which keeps the inner cocoon
in place, and must protect the contained chrysalis
from great changes of temperature. But this
arrangement, though admirable for the chrysalis
and the moth, is not appreciated by those who
would convert its filaments into woven tissues.
The open upper end of the cocoon makes it a
difficult matter to unwind the silk, and so it does
not appear to have a high commercial value, though
it is said to have been successfully woven into
stockings. As the cocoon is three inches or more
in length and nearly an inch and a half broad, one
would expect that the extra quantity of silk would
make up for this defect. In California, however,
a smaller species of the same family is reared for
the sake of its silk much as the Silkworm of the
Old World is.

The Cecropia Moth, as may be supposed from
the dimensions of its cocoon, is a large insect. When
the moth spreads its beautifully ornamented wings,
the distance between the tips of the forewings is
about six inches ; and the caterpillar that spins
the big cocoon is four inches long and nearly an
inch in thickness. It is gloriously coloured with a

PLATE 2

COCOONS OF A SILK-MOTH.

Page 10

Three cocoons of the Cecropia-moth, theJowest example cut open to show structure

and chrysalis. It will be seen that there are really two cocoons of firm texture

with an intermediate packing of looser silk. The- provisiorrfor easy 'exit- of the

moth is also evident.

Photo by Author.

5 « o -2

§ .a -a t
? fr» I

<n A Si

fl '3
5l

§.§

h/) P^

SPINNERS AND WEAVERS 11

beautiful green shaded with blue, and from each of
the rings or segments of its body there stand out
five stout fleshy spines of red, blue, and yellow,
some of them knobbed, and the knobs supporting
sharp black bristles.

There are several other large moths, both in
America and India, that produce large silk cocoons
of varying texture. In that of the Cecropia Moth
the outer portion is so closely woven and the
interstices filled in with liquid silk that it is as
tough and firm as vellum ; the inner cocoon is of
similar consistence, though thinner. An Indian
species is described as having the cocoon of leather-
like consistence, and Colonel Sykes says it is cut
into strips by the Mahrattas and used as thongs
j; to bind the barrel and stock of their guns together.
Some of the insects that have to make their way
through such resisting cocoons when they reach
maturity are helped by the chrysalis having a sharp
spine in front of the head, with which the more
solid envelope may be pierced. In others the
emerging moth discharges an alkaline fluid which
dissolves the silk at the top of the cocoon and
allows the insect to break through.

Our native Puss Moth (Dicranura vinula) resorts

f to this method of getting free from the strong box

\ in which the remarkable caterpillar immured itself.

To make this cocoon the Puss caterpillar gnaws a

depression or enlarges a crevice in the bark of a

tree, and builds over itself a skeleton dome of silken

net. All over the surface of this net it attaches the

12 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

fragments of rasped bark and cements the whole
with a plentiful supply of liquid silk which sets
very hard. If one of these caterpillars is put into
a glass vessel, so that there is nothing it can gnaw
for this purpose, the resulting cocoon will be
transparent and glass-like.

A section cut from one of these cocoons is not
to be distinguished — even with the aid of a pocket
lens — from actual bark. It may therefore be ques-
tioned whether it should be included among
spinners and weavers ; but the first stage at least is
pure spinning, and the finished article shows how
the product of the silk-glands may be utilized to
elaborate a structure wholly different from the
ordinary web-cocoon. The head end of the cocoon
is said to be made of thinner material than the
rest, the object being to offer less resistance to the
emergence of the moth.

But this is not invariably the case. At the tim<
of writing these lines we have opened a Puss cocoon
from which no moth had emerged, and found th
upper end of the cocoon actually much thicke
than the other parts. The moth had succeeded ir
throwing off the chrysalis skin, but had evident!)
been unprovided with the dissolvent fluid, for there
was no sign of its action on the glazed lining of the
cell. So the insect had perished. To the same
end the front part of the chrysalis skin has a low
sharp ridge with which it cracks the cocoon, and
this part of the skin remains attached to the moth's
head until after emergence. The reason for this

SPINNERS AND WEAVERS 13

appears in the secretion by the moth of a strongly
alkaline fluid which softens the cracked cocoon
sufficiently to enable the insect to push through;
but a fluid sufficiently strong to so act on this hard
material would probably injure the moth if its
head were not protected by this cap. Several of
the near relations of the Puss Moth make similar,
though smaller, cocoons on bark, but others descend
to earth, and these caterpillars spin only a flimsy
cocoon, sufficient to hold the surrounding earth
particles together.

One of the caterpillars of the Puss Moth group —
the Dragon (Hybocampa milhauseri) — constructs a
cocoon of the solid silk kind, and to effect the exit
of the moth the chrysalis is provided with a
hard head-spine. The cocoon is made to fit the
chrysalis closely, so that when the time comes for
the emergence of the moth the chrysalis is able to
rotate the fore-part of its body, and the spine thus
travels over the same part of the cocoon until it
has cut out sufficient space to allow of the moth's
exit. The process — which has 'been fully described
by Dr. T. A. Chapman — is helped by the pouring
out of a softening fluid guided to the right place
by the same spine.

The caterpillars of the Oak Egger family spin
firm, close-textured cocoons of an oval shape,
mostly attached to twigs or leaves, and with the
hairs from the spinner's body interwoven with the
silk. These cocoons are in some cases given the
appearance of egg-shell by the caterpillar ejecting

H INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

on the silk a fluid containing okalate of lime, whic
hardens and gives the chalky appearance. Th
caterpillars of the Tussock Moth family, whic
includes the Gold-tail, the Gipsy, and the Vapourer
also mix hairs with the silk, but the cocoons are les
substantial than those of the Eggers ; and in th
Tiger Moths they are still more flimsy, the chrysali
in some cases being plainly visible through them.

The butterfly-like moth Castnia eudesmia, o
Chili, comes from a caterpillar that is still mor
sparing in its use of silk. Though its cocoon i
five inches long, it is composed mainly of twigs
leaves, and other vegetable matter merely bounc
together with silken threads. In this respect i
comes close to our Goat Moth (Trypanus cornus)
whose huge and strong-smelling caterpillar, afte
several years spent in the interior of trees, wander
out and constructs a cocoon which is largely mad<
of rotten wood fragments held together by silk.

The two little moths known as the Festoon
(Limacodes testudo) and the Triangle (Heterogena
asella) issue from roundish cocoons attached to
leaves and twigs of oak, that look more like vegetabl<
galls than silken structures. The cocoon is fur-
nished with a distinct hinged lid which opens on
the pressure of the emerging moth. The related
American species, Lagoa opercularis, constructs a
similar cocoon.

In the familiar Burnet Moths (Zyg&na) the silk
is so closely woven and varnished with liquid silk
that the long spindle-shaped cocoons are parch-

0, 3

I

S

.sl

••I

SPINNERS AND WEAVERS 15

menty, and crackle when touched. The chrysalis
contrives to force its way half out of the upper
end just prior to the emergence of the moth.

Although the butterflies as a class are contented
with a pad of silk for the chrysalis to hook its tail
in, and a silken girdle round its middle, there
are a few whose caterpillars spin cocoons. Such is
the case with the Grayling Butterfly (Satyrus
semele), although it must be confessed that the silk
is reduced to the minimum — just sufficient to hold
the earth particles together. The caterpillars, too,
of the Skipper Butterflies spin a slight cocoon, as
a rule drawing together a few of the leaves of the
plant upon which they feed.

The caterpillars of some moths as soon as they
leave the egg -combine to weave an extensive sheet
of silk around the twigs of their food-plant, enclosing
a considerable number of leaves upon which they
can feed in safety. A very familiar example of this
class of spinner is the little grey moth Hypono-
meuta padella^ which often strips hawthorn hedges
completely of their leaves, and the twigs are bare
save for the caterpillars' extensive sheets of webbing.
It is remarkable that, throughout their larval
existence, the caterpillars hatched from one batch
of eggs will keep together under the protection of
their own common tent. An allied species, Hypono-
meuta cagnagella, makes havoc of the spindle- tree,
and of the garden Euonymus, under similar pro-
tective webs.

Other species construct these webs for their

16 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

protection during their infancy only; later the
caterpillars disperse, and each continues to lead a
separate existence thereafter. Of this group is the
caterpillar of the Lackey Moth (Malacosoma neus-
tria), which, however, keeps up the communal
habit until it is of considerable size. They issue
from the tent to feed upon the surrounding leaves.
Often when the sun is shining they may be seen
clustered on the exterior of the tent as though
enjoying a sun-bath. When about to change
their skins they usually seek the retirement afforded
by the tent. These structures do not present
the finished appearance of the cocoon and do not
suggest the skilled worker as that does. In fact,
they are generally passed by as being of the same
character as the dusty sheets spread across obscure
corners by the big house spider.

The young caterpillars of several of our butter-
flies construct similar tents for common protection.
Thus the larvae of the Marsh Fritillary (Melitaia
aurinid) soon after they escape from the eggs in
July spin together the leaves of devil's-bit scabious,
connecting them by sheets of gauzy webbing, and
under the tent so formed they feed in company.
When all the leaves in this tent have been robbed
of their nutritive parts, the company abandons this
dwelling and moves off to another plant, which
they surround with a larger structure than the
first. Towards the end of summer they leave this
in turn and retire to the lower parts of the plant,
where they construct another web, become sluggish,

SPINNERS AND WEAVERS 17

and pass the autumn and winter in an inactive
condition; but as soon as vegetation becomes
active in spring these caterpillars throw off their
sluggishness and leave their winter shelter. Each
now goes his own way and lives independently of
his fellows. The caterpillars of the Glanville
Fritillary (Melitcea cinxia) adopt a modification of
this plan. They live in company, and when about
a month old spin a common tent in which they
pass the winter, leaving it in spring, when they
separate somewhat.

The eggs of the Small Tortoiseshell Butterfly
(Vanessa urtica) are laid in a batch of sixty or
more on a terminal leaf of stinging nettle, and as
soon as they are hatched the tiny caterpillars set
to work spinning a tent which includes a number
of leaves, and as these are eaten by them they
extend the bounds of their tent to include more
food. Here they remain in company until more
than half-grown, when they separate. The Peacock
Butterfly (Vanessa id) and the Camberwell Beauty
(Vanessa antiopa) follow a similar method in the
larval stage ; but the caterpillars of the Red Admiral
(Pyrameis atalanta) and the Painted Lady (Pyrameis
cardui), whose eggs are laid singly, naturally follow
a different course, though they are both spinners.
Each young caterpillar constructs a habitation for
itself, by connecting the edges of the leaf upon
which it was born with another leaf on the stem of
the plant — the Red Admiral on the nettle, the
Painted Lady on the thistle.

2

1 8 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WOR]

Though we propose to deal with bees in a later
chapter, under the head of workers in wax, it should
be noted here in passing that the bee grub, or
larva, is a spinner. The worker bees provide it
with a cell of wax and with its food, but before
becoming a chrysalis the larva constructs a cocoon
by lining its cell with fine silk.

II

MINERS

II

MINERS

THE mining industry is very strongly represented
among the insect races. Its exponents practise
many diverse forms of the art, some crude, others
highly specialized. Some insects are miners from
their birth, others take up the craft only when they
have reached maturity, and do so then not as a
means of subsistence for themselves, but solely for
the purpose of providing for a progeny that they
will never see. One of the most astonishing things
to an observant entomologist is the sight of the
little bees of the genus Andrena busy sinking their
vertical mine-shafts into a path that has been
beaten down to make it uniformly firm and level,
and trodden by feet innumerable. Try with your
fingers or your pocket-knife to excavate such a
hole yourself, with all a man's strength, and you
will acknowledge that your best efforts only make a
very sorry job of it. The little bee has only her
slender legs and her jaws to help her in this work,
but she loosens the little stones and the hard com-
pacted soil, and gets it out bit by bit, and in a
remarkably short space of time has sunk her mine
to a depth of four inches or more.

21

22 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

Well might Kirby and Spence exclaim : " No
circumstance connected with the storge of insects
is more striking than the herculean and incessant
labour which it leads them cheerfully to undergo.
Some of these exertions are so disproportionate to
the size of the insect, that nothing short of ocular
conviction could attribute them to such an agent.
A wild bee or a Sphex, for instance, will dig a hole
in a hard bank of earth some inches deep and five
or six times its own size, and labour unremittingly
at this arduous undertaking for several days, scarcely
allowing itself a moment for eating or repose. It
will then occupy as much time in searching for a
store of food ; and no sooner is this task finished,
than it will set about repeating the process, and
before it dies will have completed five or six
similar cells or even more. If you would estimate
this industry at its proper value, you should
reflect what kind of exertion it would require in a
man to dig in a few days, out of hard clay or sand,
with no other tools than his nails and teeth, five or
six caverns twenty feet deep and four or five wide
— for such an undertaking would not be compara-
tively greater than that of the insects in question."

If we carefully dig around one of these mine-
shafts — no easy matter, for any tools we use appear
to be too clumsy for the purpose — we shall find that
they end in a round or oval chamber at the side
of the shaft. In this, if the miner's work is finished,
there is a compact ball of pollen, on which is an
egg or a newly hatched grub. The pollen is just

MINERS 23

that amount of food necessary for the grub until it
attains to that stage of development when it is fit
to enter upon the fasting pupal period in which
will be formed the wings and other organs of the
perfect bee.

The species of Andrena are much like small
Honey Bees, but they are solitary in their habits,
and have short tongues. They form a large genus
—about fifty species are found in the British Islands
—but their habits are very similar. They are very
noticeable in spring, for it is then that they set
about their mining operations ; when they are
busy collecting pollen from the early flowers they
are more likely to be set down as Honey Bees and
therefore too ordinary to be particularly noticed.
The mines in the different species vary from five
to ten inches deep. The little black bees of the
small genus Panurgus agree generally in their habits
with Andrena.

The Hairy-legged Miner (Dasypoda hirtipes), a
near relation of the Andrenas, has had its industrial
operations chronicled at length by Hermann Miiller,
who says the excavating work is performed by the
bee's jaws. It sinks a perpendicular shaft like
Andrena^ only much longer — in this case extending
to a length of a foot, or even two feet. Its hairy
body and limbs are useful adjuncts, for after loosen-
ing the soil with its jaws it carries the particles out
of the burrow by walking backwards and so sweeping
them out at the entrance. Before going back for
another spell of digging it distributes the expelled

24 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

material over a comparatively wide area, so as not
to be incommoded by it being too near the pit
mouth at this stage. This is effected very rapidly,
but methodically, by means of its fore and hind
legs, whilst the movements of the bee, as a whole,
depend upon the middle pair of limbs. The front
pair of legs in one second make four distinct move-
ments backwards, throwing the soil under the body
where it can be reached by the hind legs, which are
stretched outward in a manner that sweeps the
earth to each side. Then the bee returns to the
hole, digs out more earth, hoists it out, and distri-
butes it as before.

Miiller found that each excavating operation took
a minute or two, but the distribution of the soil
was effected in fifteen seconds. As the shaft gets
deeper, so a corresponding increase of the time is
required for getting up the debris ; and when at
length the full depth has been reached there are
the brood-chambers to be excavated. These number
from three to six, and the first made is at the
bottom of the shaft. The provisioning of this cell
with pollen is completed before the second one
is dug out. For this work Dasypoda is well organized.
Her hind legs are densely coated with long hairs,
and able to hold a great quantity of pollen. It
has been ascertained that a normal load of pollen
is equal to half the bee's own weight, and six of
such loads are required to properly provision one cell.
With a little honey to bind it, this pollen is kneaded
into a ball. Then a further load of pollen is

MINERS 25

gathered, mixed with honey and spread as an outer
layer over the mass, which now has three feet,
fashioned apparently to prevent its rolling and
injuring the bee-grub.

Dasy-poda now lays an egg on the top of it, and
leaves it whilst she excavates her second chamber.
With the material resulting from this work she
closes up the entrance to the first chamber, and
so saves the labour of carrying it up to the top.
In like manner she excavates and provisions the
other chambers, laying an egg in each. The pollen-
mass is in each case over a hundred times the bulk
of the egg, and is just sufficient to satisfy the food
cravings of the grub that is to issue from the egg
a few days later. The outer layer of the food-
ball,, with its extra proportion of honey, is evidently
more suited for the first digestive efforts of the
infant grub, for k eats evenly all round before
attacking the less sweetened pollen of the central
mass. All the waste due to the vital processes is
retained by the grub until all the food is consumed,
and then it is voided en bloc. By this arrangement
there is no danger of the unconsumed food being
polluted, as must otherwise happen. The larva
having finished eating, casts its skin, and lies quiescent
until the following year, when it becomes a chrysalis
and finally a bee.

Another group of these short-tongued solitary
bees is the genus Halictus, whose numerous species
are all small, some indeed being the smallest of
all bees. Some of these may be seen on emerging

26 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

from the underground cells where they have lain
dormant through the winter. There is this differ-
ence in the habits of Halictus and Andrena, that
certain work is done by Halictus in common. A
number of females unite in excavating the shaft,
and then each one builds her own set of cells
unaided. Instead of each cell being a separate
chamber opening out of the shaft at different
levels, the cells of one worker form a mass in a
common vault — an enlargement of one part of
the shaft which, however, is continued far below
the level of the vaults. The object of this down-
ward extension is probably the better drainage of
the vault. The entrance shaft is only wide enough
for one bee to pass in or out at one time, but as
several workers are engaged, this would lead to
much loss of time and confusion if special provision
were not made. This takes the form of an enlarge-
ment of the width not far from the entrance, and
allows two bees going in opposite directions to pass
each other. Some species make branch corridors
from which the vaults of each worker open. The
cells are oval and lined within by a coat of liquid
silk or varnish. The winged bees emerge from
these cells in September ; but the males are all
killed by the autumn frosts, whilst the females
continue to live underground through the winter,
emerging from their mine- shafts in spring and
setting to work at once to enlarge the colony or
to start new ones. Their mining operations are
pursued at night, especially in moonlight.

MINERS 27

Bees of the genus Colletes dig burrows often
eight or ten inches deep. Although solitary bees
in the sense that each sinks her own shaft and
provisions only her own cells, yet they are gregarious,
large numbers of them mining into one small area.
Sometimes it is a clay- bank, a vertical face of
weathered sandstone, or the mortar between the
masonry of an old wall. The shafts are filled with
a succession of cells in line — from two to eight —
each provisioned with a paste of pollen kneaded up
with honey. The cells themselves are formed by a
secretion from the bee's mouth, which dries and
hardens into a film much like gold-beater's skin.
Three or four layers of this delicate substance can
be separated with care from each cell — more from
the ends. When the last cell is completed the
shaft is closed with grains of sand or earth. Panur-
gus, of which we have two species, sinks vertical
shafts, each containing six cells.

Eucera longicornis, whose male is notable for the
length of its antennae — as long as its body — fre-
quents loamy and sandy soils, and sinks a shaft
six or eight inches deep. At its termination it
hollows out an oval cell, and apparently treats the
walls with its saliva to prevent the absorption of
the mixture of pollen and honey that is stored for
the grub. Like Colletes it is gregarious in some
localities, though not in all. Three of our species
of Anthophora likewise mine in the ground, but the
other is a carpenter and mines into wood. The
former from the main shaft of their mine construct

28 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

several elliptical cells and line these with saliva
which dries into a delicate membrane. The cell
is then stored with pollen and honey, an egg laid,
and the cell is sealed up.

One of our species of leaf-cutting bees (Megachih
argentata) mines in the earth, unlike its near rela-
tions, but as it forms its cells of leaf-cuttings we
have included it under the heading Upholsterers,
with the other members of the genus.

Some of the solitary wasps share this habit of
mining in order to make provision for their young.
In these it is not a mass of pollen that is provided
for the food of the future grub. Wasp-grubs
require animal matter for their aliment, so the
wasp has to hunt for caterpillars or spiders with
which to stock the larder. Certain species restrict
themselves entirely to spiders, others to grass-
hoppers, others again to caterpillars of a particular
family of moths. The catching of caterpillars is
a simple matter to a wasp, for its prey has no means
of protecting itself ; the grasshopper's activity
and leaping powers give it a sporting chance ; but
the spider has to be approached warily, for its
poison- fangs might put it upon equal terms with the
wasp, were it not for the wings of the latter, which
give it considerable advantage in manoeuvring.
However, the wasp has a due sense of the respect
to be paid to those poison-fangs, the additional pair
of legs, and the possibility of having strong cords
wound round'pne ; she, therefore, resorts to strategy
when hunting spiders.

MINERS 29

One of these spider-hunters is Calicurgus, but
although it belongs to the group of burrowing
Hymenoptera it mostly seeks for a ready-made hole
in which to deposit its prey and its eggs. The
Spider-wasp (Pompilus) is a true miner, but it
reverses the order of operations followed by the
solitary bees we have mentioned. Instead of first
sinking a shaft and forming cells, and then seeking
for provisions for the future grub, Pompilus first
captures its spider and then excavates a hole in
which to accommodate it. It is probable that this
plan may frequently lead to the nest being ready
first, owing to the first secured prey being carried
off by another wasp whilst the mining operations
are in progress.

Fabre gives a detailed account of some experiments
he made in order to test Pompilus9 sense of locality,
and to ascertain how she would behave under certain
conditions. A Pompilus that he had watched catch
and sting a spider to render it helpless left her prey
on a tuft of vegetation whilst she proceeded to
make a burrow. She does not wait until the burrow
is finished before looking for the spider, but leaves
off work at intervals in order to visit the spider,
to touch it and so assure herself that it is her spider,
and that it is quite safe. In this case, as soon
as the wasp had set to work on her mining operations,
Fabre removed the spider to a distance of about
eighteen inches. When Pompilus had worked for
a spell she left off and flew straight to the spot
where she had left her treasure, and exhibited grave

30 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

concern at its absence. She carefully walked over
the surrounding ground as though to make sure that
her memory was not at fault, then, satisfying herself
that it was not there, she extended her survey and
at length found her spider. But her actions showed
that she was greatly astonished at the change of
position, and she appeared to be unable to account
for it. It was incomprehensible that she could
have left a spider in that position ; but seizing
one of its legs she removed it to a tuft of vegetation,
and resumed her digging. Fabre again removed it,
and when the wasp next rested from her digging she
flew straight to the place where she had last left
it, and, failing to find it, quartered the immediate
surroundings as she had done in the first place.

Five times the naturalist removed the spider,
and every time Pompilus went through the same
performance, seeking her treasure where she had
last kid it, showing that her sense of locality was
perfect. Had she been guided by scent she would
probably have gone to one of the places where the
spider had previously lain, but this she never did.
Nor could sight have played anything more than a
subordinate part in the discovery, for Fabre found
that, though the spider was only a couple of inches
from the wasp in some of her searches, she passed
without seeing it. When, however, her sense of
locality had brought her to the exact spot where
she had left her prey, it was clear that the sense
of vision came into play, for when Fabre placed
the spider in a slight depression of the ground

MINERS 31

and covered it with a leaf, the wasp could not
find it.

Kirby and Spence have left us an account of the
doings of a Pompilus which one of them saw hauling
a spider to its shaft. " The attitude in which it
carried its prey, namely, with its feet constantly
upwards ; its singular mode of walking, which
was backwards, except for a foot or two when it
went forwards, moving by jerks and making a sort
of pause every few steps ; and the astonishing agility
with which, notwithstanding its heavy burden, it
glided over or between the grass, weeds, and other
numerous impediments in the rough path along
which it passed — together formed a spectacle
which we contemplated with admiration. The
distance which we thus observed it to traverse was
not less than twenty-seven feet ; and great part
of its journey had probably been performed before
we saw it. Once or twice, when we first noticed
it, it laid down the spider, and making a small
circuit, returned and took it up again. But for
the ensuing twenty or twenty-five feet it never
stopped, but proceeded in a direct line to its
burrow with the utmost speed. When opposite
the hole, which was in a sand-bank by the wayside, it
made a sharp turn, as evidently aware of being in
the neighbourhood of its abode, but when advanced
a little farther laid down its burthen and went to
reconnoitre. At first it climbed up the bank, but
as if discovering that this was not the direction,
soon returned, and after another survey, perceiving

32 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK
the hole, took up the spider and dragged it in after

it."

All the species of Pompilus are not to be reckoned
among miners, for some of them look about for a
hole that has been mined by some other insect.
They are all spider-hunters, and some of them
secure their prey before they have prepared a
nest. They take the precaution to sting their
spider and then hang the helpless body in the forking
of some plant until they have excavated their
mine, which they do with such speed that the fine
earth flies out of the hole like a fountain, so rapid
are the movements of their limbs in digging. The
Peckhams tried several experiments of substituting
healthy spiders for those that had been stung,
whilst Pompilus was digging her nest ; but the
attempt never succeeded — the wasp always knew
that some trick had been played upon her, and
always refused to be a party to the exchange. Even
when a spider that had been stolen by them from
one Pompilus was dropped near the mouth of
another Pompilus^ nest, her interest in it extended
only as far as a tactile examination. She refused to
accept it, though this would probably have saved
her from a tedious hunt for a fresh specimen.

The mining of one of these — Pompilus quinqueno-
tatus — has been described by these observers : " She
was working away as furiously as though she had
studied the poets and knew her carpe diem by heart.
Faster and faster went the slender little legs ;
higher and higher rose the jet of dust above her.

MINERS 33

Then suddenly there was a pause. The burrower
had met with some obstacle. A moment more
and she came backing out of the hole, her feet
slipping on its crumbling edges. In her mandibles
she carried a pebble, which was taken to a distance
of four or five inches. Then, moving quickly, she
swept away the dust that had accumulated near
the mouth of the nest, re-entered the hole, and
resumed the labour of excavation. We thought
that the rate at which she worked was too violent
to be kept up very long ; and sure enough, before
ten minutes had passed, the nest was deep enough
for her purposes. . . . The wasp came out, circled
round the spot three or four times, and then flew
off like a hurricane. Never have we seen a creature
so fiery, tempestuous, cyclonic. Before we knew
her proper title we took to calling her the tornado
wasp, and by that name we shall always think of her."
She was back in a minute with her spider, dug
out a little more earth, then seizing her victim by
one leg, she dragged it backward into the nest.
" She remained hidden for about two minutes, then
reappeared, and, seeming to be in as great a hurry
as ever, filled the hole with dirt. To disguise the
spot and render it indistinguishable from the rest
of the field was her next care. Hither and thither
she rushed, now bringing little pellets of earth
and placing them above the nest, now sweeping
away the loose dust which might suggest the
presence of the cache, and now tugging frantically
at a stone which she wanted to place over the

3

34 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

hidden treasure, but which was too deeply embedded
in the earth to yield to her efforts. She did her
work faithfully, although with such eager haste
that all was completed at the end of twenty minutes
from the time we saw her first. So well was the
place hidden that it was only by careful orientation
that we could be certain of its exact locality."

An allied insect, Sphex, has had its doings chron-
icled at length by Fabre. Spbex is a strenuous
worker, for during the four weeks or so to which
its activities as a winged insect are restricted it
sinks no fewer than ten deep perpendicular shafts
each with three or four separate chambers at the
bottom, stored with food and each furnished with
an egg. It selects a slight elevation of the soil, and
into this it bores a horizontal gallery two or three
inches in length. At the end of this gallery it sinks
the perpendicular shaft, also for a depth of about
three inches, and at the bottom the oval cells are
made side by side. These are so constructed that
the longer axes of the ovals are horizontal ; and the
first formed is provisioned and sealed up before the
second one is dug.

The provisions for each cell consist of three or
four field crickets, and these are carefully stung in
the three principal nerve centres of the body, which
has the effect of completely paralyzing the cricket
without killing it. It is carried by the Sphex
to the mouth of the burrow, where it is dropped
whilst the wasp goes in to ascertain that all
is right. Then* grasping the cricket by its antennae,

MINERS 35

the wasp, going backwards, draws its victim into
the cell. A cricket so treated will remain alive,
though utterly incapable of any movement, for three
or four weeks, a much longer period than it takes
the wasp-grub to consume it.

The cricket is laid on its back, and on one of the
crickets in each cell a Spbex egg is deposited between
the second and third pairs of legs. As soon as the
egg is hatched, the young grub attacks the cricket
at this point and burrows into its body, eating out
all the interior in a week, and leaving nothing but
the cricket's skin. The other crickets are similarly
disposed of in turn, but, owing to the greater size
of the wasp-grub, the pace is accelerated, so that
in less than a fortnight from the hatching of the
egg all the food is consumed. The grub then con-
structs an elaborate cocoon of two separate cases
of white or yellowish silk, and within these a case
of firmer texture and dark colour with a glossy
surface. This is apparently formed of a mixture
of fluid silk with the excrementitious matter that
has been stored in the intestines all through the
feeding period, and its purpose appears to be to
protect the grub from damp during the nine months
of its incarceration, prior to its assumption of the
winged condition.

The Sand Wasps (Ammophila) have a similar
predilection for the vertical shaft and the insect-
stocked larders, only this time it is caterpillars that
are used. The Ammophilas have the hind body
connected to the fore body by a very long and

36 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

slender " pedicel." A well-known species is Ammo-
pbila sabulosa, which is entirely black save for a
band of red which includes half the hind body and
a third of the pedicel. There are many other
species in different parts of the world, and their
habits appear to be very similar, except that each
species seems to have its own favourite caterpillar
with which to provision its nest.

Spbex, during the time it is not excavating or
hunting, occupies the vestibule afforded by the
horizontal burrow, and passes the night there.
Ammo-phila does not. When her work is over for
the day, she literally " shuts up shop " by stopping
the entrance with a small stone. In recent years
we have had accounts of its operations from Fabre
and Marchal, but as long ago as the summer of 1667
our countryman, John Ray, and his friend Wil-
lughby, were observing it, and Ray has told us
in his History of Insects what they saw.

The Sand Wasp was dragging along a green
caterpillar three times its own size. When it had
dragged this load for a distance of about fifteen feet, it
came to a hole previously dug in the sand, and left the
caterpillar beside it whilst it set to work to remove
a pellet of earth that blocked the mouth of the
shaft. The wasp descended into the cavity, but
soon reappeared and took the caterpillar again in
tow. They both disappeared below, and the wasp
came up alone after an interval and busied itself
in rolling pieces of earth into the hole — " at intervals
scratching the dust into it like a dog with its fore

MINERS 37

feet, and entering as if to press down and consolidate
the mass, flying once or twice to an adjoining fir-
tree, possibly to procure resin for agglutinating the
whole. Having filled the burrow to the level of
the surrounding earth so as to conceal the entrance,
it took two fir-leaves lying at hand, and placed
them near the orifice, as if to mark the place."

Mr. and Mrs. Peckham have given us most
interesting accounts of two American species of
Ammophila — A. urnalis and A. gracilis — agreeing in
the main with Fabre's observations of A. hirsuta
and A. sabulosa^ but, of course, with variations
which mark the specific difference of the insects.
One individual urnalis whose behaviour they watched
was so precise in all she did that we cannot refrain
from quoting part of their account :

" We remember her as the most fastidious and
perfect little worker of the whole season, so nice
was she in her adaptation of means to ends, so busy
and contented in her labour of love, and so pretty
in her pride over the completed work. In filling
up her nest she put her head down into it and
bit away the loose earth from the sides, letting
it fall to the bottom of* the burrow, and then,
after a quantity had accumulated, jammed it down
with her head. Earth was then brought from the
outside and pressed in, and then more was bitten
from the sides. When, at last, the filling was level
with the ground, she brought a quantity of fine
grains of dirt to the spot, and picking up a small
pebble in her mandibles, used it as a hammer in

38 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

pounding them down with rapid strokes, thus
making this spot as hard and firm as the surrounding
surface. Before we could recover from our astonish-
ment at this performance she had dropped her
stone and was bringing more earth. We then threw
ourselves down on the ground that not a motion
might be lost, and in a moment we saw her pick
up the pebble and again pound the earth into
place with it, hammering now here and now there
until all was level. Once more the whole process
was repeated, and then the little creature, all
unconscious of the commotion that she had aroused
in our minds — unconscious, indeed, of our very
existence and intent only on doing her work and
doing it well — gave one final, comprehensive glance
around and flew away."

Dr. S. W. Williston records a somewhat similar
experience with Ammo'phila yarrowii.

There is only a single cell at the bottom of the
Sand Wasp's shaft, and some species fill this with
several small or medium-size caterpillars ; others
with a single large caterpillar. All of these, of
course, are stung in order to paralyze them. Fabre
says of Ammophila hirsuta, that she provisions her
cell with only one caterpillar, that of one of the
Noctuids, which is an underground feeder and,
therefore, cannot be found by sight. This cater-
pillar she stings about nine times in as many for-
ward divisions of its body. She waits until she has
secured this caterpillar before she sets to work at
her mining operations.

MINERS 39

Another genus of these " fossorial wasps " is
Tachytes, which resembles Sphex in its habits.
It sinks vertical shafts in the ground, and uses
insects of the order Orthoptera for the stocking of
its pantries. Some species take field crickets, some
grasshoppers, others mole crickets ; and one has
the courage and skill to use the murderous mantis,
whose scissor-like fore legs could easily cut Tachytes
into little bits. But Tachytes appears to know its
risk and relies on strategy : it flies around the
mantis for a time, just out of reach, and the rapid
turning of the latter's head to enable it to keep
at least one eye on Tachytes produces confusion
in its nerve-centres. Then is Tacbytes' chance : it
swoops down and thrusts its sting between the
bases of the formidable fore legs, paralyzing the
nerves that operate them. The other legs are
served in like fashion, and the mantis is at once
in a condition to be hauled off to Tachytes*
larder.

In another genus of small mining wasps — Astata
— a strange taste is exhibited — judged from the
human standpoint we should have to call it a
depraved taste. These wasps for the sustenance
of their progeny select two of the most repulsive
of insects — one, a plant-bug (Pentatoma), the other
a small cockroach. Nearly all the bugs are pro-
vided with stink-glands which emit the most
disgusting odour, and Pentatoma is not one of the
exceptional kinds. Some people say, however, that
the smell given off by the cockroach is even worse

40 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

than that of bugs. The burrow of Astata ends in a
single cell.

The whole of these mining wasps that we have
mentioned so far agree in the fact that they lay
up provisions for a progeny they will never see,
and having sealed up the cells or the burrows they
manifest no further concern in them. In the genus
Bembex^ however, we find an advance upon this
condition of things, and an approach to the care
with which the social wasps feed the grubs of the
community continuously, or at least as frequently
as they require food. Bembex is not represented
among the wasps of Britain, but one species —
Bembex rostrata — is found in Southern Europe, and
Fabre has made it the subject of one of his remark-
able insect biographies, which should be read in
full by all interested in wasp life. Only the merest
summary can be given here, in the hope that the
full account will afterwards be sought by our
readers.

The wasp drives her burrows in fine loose sand
and makes no effort to give them permanence by
cementing the walls. Instead of provisioning her
cells with sufficient food to last the grub until it
reaches its full size, she merely catches a two-winged
fly, which she does not paralyze, but kills, and
depositing it in the burrow, lays an egg upon it.
Her excavating work is done entirely by means of
the fore legs, which work with such rapidity that
the loose sand pours out in a stream from beneath
her. When the dead fly is placed in this burrow

MINERS 41

the sand is drawn over it until there is no sign of
its situation, and the marvel is that the wasp can
ever find the place again. But she does, for her
egg hatches next day, and the fly is only sufficient
to feed the grub for two or three days. By that
time Bembex is back with another fly, and rapidly
excavates straight to her offspring, where she leaves
the new supply of food. Fabre says that she makes
several burrows in succession, and therefore has to
keep them all supplied with fresh viands. This
implies knowledge of their several whereabouts (all
in the immediate neighbourhood) and of when
their supplies will require replenishing.

The flies chiefly patronized by Bembex for this
purpose are gadflies (Tab anus). Cattle raisers should,
therefore, regard Bembex as a good friend. As far
away as the Americas, North and South, the
Bembecid Wasps — some of them far superior in size
to the European species — show this same preference
for blood-sucking flies, and they have often been
observed to capture them in the very act of drawing
blood from horses. Bates relates that when on the
Amazons one of these flies — a Motuca — had settled
on his neck for a feast when a Bembex as big as a
hornet swooped down and captured his tormentor.

Bates describes the mining operations of a small
pale-green species of Bembex (B. ciliatd) which he
found plentiful near the bay of Mapiri, near San-
tarem. He says : " When they are at work, a
number of little jets of sand are seen shooting
over the surface of the sloping bank. The little

42 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

miners excavate with their . fore feet, which are
strongly built and furnished with a fringe of stiff
bristles ; they work with wonderful rapidity, and
the sand thrown out beneath their bodies issues
in continuous streams. They are solitary wasps,
each female working on her own account. After
making a gallery two or three inches in length, in a
slanting direction from the surface, the owner
backs out and takes a few turns round the orifice
apparently to see if it is well made, but in reality,
I believe, to take note of the locality, that she may
find it again. This done, the busy workwoman
flies away ; but returns, after an absence varying
in different cases from a few minutes to an hour
or more, with a fly in her grasp, with which she
re-enters her mine. On again emerging, the
entrance is carefully closed with sand. During this
interval she has laid an egg on the body of the fly,
which she had previously benumbed with her sting,
and which is to serve as food for the soft, footless
grub soon to be hatched from the egg. From what
I could make out, the Eembex makes a fresh excava-
tion for every egg to be deposited ; at least, in two
or three of the galleries which I opened there was
only one fly enclosed."

Although a solitary wasp, Bembex, like Philan-
thus and Spbex, likes to have neighbours, and so
we find a number of them occupying a small plot
of ground, but each " pegging out her own claim "
in that restricted mining region. Yet, though they
appear to like neighbours, they are not what could

MINERS 43

be called neighbourly in their behaviour. If one
comes home with an extra fine fly, two or three of
her neighbours are likely to try to hustle her
with the object of getting possession of her treasure.
They all leave off digging and start off hunting at
the same time, but they evidently do not all occupy
their absence in the same way, for about half the
colony come back empty-handed and try to rob
those that are laden. They even fight without
any apparent casus helium.

To feed its grub with a succession of flies until
it has reached the stage when it spins a cocoon and
pupates, is a serious responsibility for the mother
Eembex. When Fabre took a partly grown larva
from its cell there was evidence in the remains
that it had already consumed twenty flies, and he
gave it an additional sixty-two as requisite before
it ceased feeding. It consumed an average of
slightly over ten flies a day. The Peckhams got
similar results from their feeding experiments.

The Bembex grub having finished its feeding
prepares for its long period of inactivity prior to its
issue as a perfect wasp by constructing a strong
cocoon. Its silk-glands do not appear to afford
sufficient material for the purpose, but what it
has it uses to the best advantage as a cement with
which it agglutinates grains of sand, and so elaborates
a solid structure well fitted to protect its tender
body among the shifting sands, and to keep it dry.

A North American mining wasp, known as
Sfhecius sfieciosus, has been described by Riley as

44 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

provisioning its cell with a cicada, an insect twice
its own weight. In the vicinity of moisture the
cicada rapidly becomes mouldy, so the wasp has to
make her burrow in dry earth. Her method of
getting her prey from the place of its capture is
ingenious : she hauls it up a tree until she has
reached a height sufficient to allow of her flight
with it on a descending plane, flying up from the
ground with such a load being a very difficult
matter. The feeding period of the grub only
extends to about a week, then it forms a cocoon in
which much earth is held together by its silky
secretion.

One of the commonest of the British burrowing
wasps is Mellinus arvensis^ a pretty black-and-
yellow- banded creature only half an inch in the
length of its body. It provides for its offspring
by supplying its burrows with two-winged flies.
To catch these it resorts to strategy. Certain
species of flies abound upon cow-droppings, upon
which they feed, and the congregation of yellow-
brown flies offers a fine opportunity for those
insects that prey upon them. But the flies are
very alert, and fly off with rapidity. Mellinus,
instead of at once opening attack, joins the throng
as though actuated by similar tastes, and appears
to have no other design than to share their repast.
No resentment of her intrusion is shown, for there
is enough for all. But no sooner does she get close
enough to a fly to make her purpose sure, than she
pounces upon it, and carries it off to her burrow.

MINERS 45

Smith says that Mellinus may at times be seen
apparently dead upon the cow-dung, but if you
watch her until a fly conies within reach she will
come to life at once and secure her unsuspecting prey.

Another gathering-place for flies is on the flat
clusters of umbelliferous flowers, such as wild
carrot, where they are busy licking up nectar and
eating pollen. Mellinus sabulosus takes advantage
of such resorts to get all the flies she wants for her
burrows. Capturing a fly, she stings it, and lays
it down before the mouth of her burrow whilst
she turns round in order to enter the burrow back-
wards with her prey. By taking advantage of the
opportunity thus afforded, Lucas secured stung
specimens of the flies, and found that they remained
alive, though powerless, for about six weeks.

In the genus Cerceris the species exhibit a most
remarkable sense of the relationships of the insects
captured for the food of their young — a sense that
the classifying entomologist might envy. They do
not always restrict their selection to insects of one
species, as bees are said to restrict their honey-
gathering to one species of plant ; in such a restric-
tion they might be guided solely by form and
colour, but they gather species indifferently so
long as these are members of the same natural family.

Thus, our own Cerceris arenaria confines its
operations to beetles of the weevil family — a vast
family whose species differ greatly in size and
colouring. She is not guided in her selection by
either of these things, though the colour sense in

46 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

wasps is known to be very acute ; but every beetle
selected is bound to be a weevil. It is probable
that, to the keen olfactory sense of the wasp, each
beetle family has a peculiar clan smell. Cerceris
labiata restricts her attentions to one particular
species of beetle, a relation of the so-called turnip-
flea. See how in these matters a knowledge of
entomology would help the farmer and gardener,
by enabling them to encourage insects that help
them to keep down the numbers of others that are
noxious. The species of Cerceris are regarded by
gardeners as young specimens of the ordinary wasp,
and as such destroyed whenever opportunity offers,
whilst weevils and turnip-fleas increase and inflict
real injury upon garden produce. The whole of
these fossorial Hymenoptera, as a matter of eco-
nomics, ought to be religiously protected by all
interested in husbandry ; for those that are bees
are useful in flower pollination, and the wasps
destroy large numbers of plant-eating insects.
Some Species intimately studied by the Peckhams in
North America have yielded most interesting results.
" They might be considered the aristocrats
in the work of wasps, their habits of reposeful-
meditation and their calm, unhurried ways being
far removed from the nervous manners of the
Pompilidse, or the noisy, tumultuous life of Bembex.
Their intelligence is shown by their reluctance to
betray their nests, and by their uneasiness at any
slight change in the objects that surround them.
It is not necessarv to attempt to catch them or to

MINERS 47

make threatening gestures in order to arouse their
sense of danger. If you are sitting quietly by a
nest when a wasp opens her door in the morning
she will notice you at once, and will probably drop
out of sight as though she resented your intrusion
into her privacy. After a little she will come up
again and will learn to tolerate you, but at the
least movement on your part, almost at the winking
of an eyelid, she will disappear."

They all dig deep, tortuous burrows from which
one or more cells branch off, and these they stock
with insects. These cells are made and provisioned
in turn ; and as soon as one is filled with food,
and an egg laid, it is closed up. When they quit
the nests for business or pleasure they leave the
entrance open, but as soon as they return they
close it after them by bringing up earth from
below. When they are away it is probable that
access to the cells is barred, otherwise they would
be too accessible to parasitic enemies. " The
closing [of the outer entrance] is sometimes effected
by pushing the earth up backwards with the end
of the abdomen ; but the hole is rather too large
for this method, and more frequently the wasp
comes up head first, carrying a load of earth in
her front legs. This is placed just within and to
one side of the entrance, and then more armfuls
are brought up, until, after two or three trips, the
opening is entirely filled."

Like Cerceris, the wasps of the genus Philantkus,
with their black and yellow bands, may easily be

48 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

mistaken for ordinary wasps. They provision their
cells with bees, Andrena, Halictus, and even the
Honey Bee. A Continental species is so much
addicted to onslaughts upon the Honey Bee (Apis
mellifica) that it is named Pbilanthus apivorus.
Our own species, P. triangulum, is not free from
this reproach, but bee-masters, who appear to be
capable of knowing only one insect well, regard it
as the Common Wasp (Fespa vulgaris), and will
tell you harrowing tales of the way in which the
latter decimates the hive population. The bee is
stung and its body kneaded in order to set free the
honey it contains. Upon this the wasp feeds, and
entombs the remains in its cell for the nourishing
of its grub. Owing to this habit of Pbilanthus,
which causes the death of the bee, it cannot store
its cells with sufficient food to last the grub, but
has, like Bembex, to take in fresh supplies at intervals.
According to Fabre the burrows of P. apivorus
are about three feet in depth — an astonishing
piece of mining to be carried out, unaided, by
a wasp that is only half an inch long. Philanthus
punctatus, an American species, was found by the
Peckhams to run into a bank to a length of twenty-
two inches, fourteen of which ran parallel to the
surface at a depth of eight inches. " We have no
doubt that punctatus completely provisions one
pocket and closes the opening from it into the
gallery before she starts another, making a series of
six or eight independent cells. The provision for
one larva is probably twelve or fourteen bees, the

MINERS 49

capture of which, in good weather, would be a fair
day's work." The stinging of the bees was the
beginning and end of the operation ; they did not
find that this species kneaded her captures in order
to obtain honey from them, nor indeed was there
any attempt to remove it. These wasps have the
habit of sitting in the mouth of their tunnels, with
the face filling it, looking out upon the world for
some time before starting out in the morning,
appearing as though considering the work that lay
before them and the best way of accomplishing it.

A'philantho'ps frigidus digs a shaft eighteen inches
deep, and stores her cells with ants, which she
stings and strips of their wings. The shaft has a
cup-shaped opening. In trying to explore one of
these nests in loose soil, the Peckhams had difficulty
in ascertaining the direction, so they hit upon the
expedient of borrowing an ant that A-philanthops
had dropped in the doorway whilst she went in and
turned round, and they tied a thread to it to serve
as a guide-line. But the wasp was not inclined to
aid them. She pulled in the ant and took it part
of the way down with the thread attached ; but
before any great length of the guide-line had been
paid out the "thread was seemingly bitten off, as
we found the free end without the ant. A second
attempt brought no better results."

Fabre rather insists upon the remarkable actions
of these hymenopterous insects as due to instinct.
They do these things because they cannot help it,
and some of his experiments support this view ;

4

50 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

others, however, point in another direction, and
the Peckhams found that instead of doing things
automatically and uniformly there was a great
amount of variation in the way things were done by
the individuals of any one species. The moving
of a plant near the covered-up nest would disarrange
the wasp's ideas as to locality and set her hunting
around instead of going straight to it.

Some Fossores do not mine in the ground, but in
wood, as in the more or less decayed wood of tree-
stumps and posts, or the more pith-like centres of
bramble-stems and the stalks of herbs. It seems,
therefore, more appropriate to deal with these
under the head of Carpenters, or workers in wood.
To that section of this work we will relegate them,
whilst we consider a few miners among the beetles.

The pre-eminent mining beetle is the Sacred
Scarab (Scarabceus sacer), whose industry attracted
the attentions of the ancients, who saw in the
movements of its rolling ball of food an emblem of
terrestrial and planetary revolutions and of other
matters with which this work is not concerned.
For a great number of years stories have been told
in natural-history books which were believed to
embody the facts of the Scarab's economy, but that
terrible M. Fabre, who by his patient observation
has set us right upon so many points of insect
behaviour, declares almost all the supposed facts
to be as erroneous as the ideas of the ancients. The
careful rolling of the sphere of dung and its subse-
quent burial is true enough, but it does not contain

MINERS 51

the egg it was supposed to. It is gathered not to
feed the beetle's grub, but the grub's parent.

The Scarab is wonderfully equipped for the work
it has to do as one of nature's sanitary officers.
Its head is developed forwards as a semicircular
plate whose free edge is cut up into six tooth-like
points, and its front pair of legs are without feet
(tarsi), but the next joint (tibia) is very large and
stout and its edges bear very bold teeth. The
hindmost pair of legs are long, and so curved that
they constitute an efficient pair of callipers. With
its shovel head and its fore legs the Scarab scoops
up and kneads a mass of cattle dung, which is
fashioned into a ball with the aid of the calliper
hind legs. This is kept on the roll whilst additions
are made to its exterior until it is of large size —
sometimes equal to a man's closed fist — and of
perfect rotundity. The Scarab pushes it back-
wards, holding it with the hind legs, until it arrives
at what is considered a suitable spot of ground.
The beetle then sets to work scraping with its fore
legs and shovelling the earth with its head until it
has sunk a pit large enough to bury its big ball. It
then gets into the pit besides its pudding and com-
mences to feed upon it.

One would imagine, from the relative sizes of
beetle and ball, that more than half would be left
unconsumed ; but the Scarab sticks to the task,
feeding without any rest or other intermission until
the last scrap is eaten. Then the gourmand climbs
out of the hole, and flies off to where the cattle

52 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

have provided a further supply of food. Here
another big ball is rolled up, and the same process
is gone through again. This happens in the spring
and early summer. During the hottest part of
summer the Scarab remains in the earth after one
of these Gargantuan feasts, and enjoys a period of
repose until the autumn brings cooler and moister
days. Then the Scarab arouses and ventures into
the world again.

At this season the female Scarab appears to realize
that she has a duty to perform in the interests of
her race. A bigger excavation is made in the earth,
and when it is completed a great quantity of dung
is rolled into it, and graded. The coarsest material
is so arranged that the grub for whose food it is
intended will not reach this portion until its digestive
powers are well developed. It will reach and eat
a finer grade before that time ; but for its newly
formed jaws and delicate stomach the mother
Scarab prepares a special layer by partially digesting
some of the food herself. In this portion the egg
is laid, so that when it hatches, the young grub
makes its first meal of this specially prepared food.
When the food is all gone the grub is fully grown,
and changes into a chrysalis, and in spring issues
from its cell as a perfect Scarab.

The sub-family Coprides, to which the Scarabs
belong, includes about five thousand species of
beetles, and most of these have similar habits of
burying dung for the sustenance of their grubs.
The well-known Tumble-dung Beetle (Ateuchus

MINERS 53

pilularia) of North America rolls its balls of dung
along to the shaft it has prepared for their reception,
where it deposits its eggs. These shafts are declared
by Catesby to be about three feet in depth.

Our own Watchman, Clock or Dor Beetle (Geo-
trupes stercorarius), whose blundering, noisy flight is
so noticeable on summer evenings as to have gained
for it a true folk-name — a very unusual thing for
beetles to attain to — is also among the miners.
Having, by its acute sense of smell, received intelli-
gence of a fresh deposit of dung, she flies on strong
wings straight to the spot, and burrows into the
mass. She does not stop at the manure, but digs
straight into the earth below, forming a perpendicu-
lar shaft about a foot deep. Her fore legs are well
adapted for this work, for though they are provided
with weak feet, the tibia, like those of the Scarab,
are strong and toothed along the edge used for
burrowing. They are useful also for scraping to-
gether the dung which she drops down the shaft,
afterwards laying an egg upon it. The grub which
hatches out of the egg feeds upon this store.

It has long been a subject for admiring wonder
that an insect that deals with clinging filth should
contrive, as the Watchman does, to keep its polished
armour so clean and bright. It is equally remark-
able that the hosts of soft-bodied mites that crowd
upon the underside of this and other species of
dung beetle manage to escape destruction and
retain their hold during these burrowing operations.
The smaller Lunar Dung Beetle (Geotrufes typh&us)

54 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

excavates deep burrows on heaths and carries down
rabbit and sheep dung to feed upon.

The smaller beetles of the genus Afhodius share
with Geotrupes the habit of sinking shafts and
burying dung for the benefit of their future progeny.
We have seen these beetles to the number of
hundreds swarming on a patch of cow dung, and
on returning that way a few hours later found
scarcely a beetle, but the patch closely riddled with
perforations corresponding with as many shafts
beneath, in which the beetles were no doubt very
busy.

Many other beetles may be considered, as miners
from the fact that they spend part of the day under-
ground ; but as a rule they take advantage of
crevices already existing. There are some, however,
that make definite burrows for themselves. As an
example of these mention may be made of the
Cockchafer or May-bug (Melolontha vulgar is) which,
after spending about three years underground as
grub and chrysalis, and enjoying a brief spell as a
creature of the air, during which time she inflicts
serious damage on the foliage of trees, at length
enters the ground again to deposit her eggs.

She sinks a shaft to a depth of six or eight inches,
not going below the layer of vegetable mould in
which the roots of plants run. At the bottom of
the burrow she lays a batch of oval yellow eggs
to the number of thirty or forty. These hatch
in about a month, and at first the grubs feed upon
the decaying vegetable matter they find around,

\ /

PLATE 6

MINERS.

Page 54

The beetles above are the I.unar Dung-beetle and the green Tiger-beetle, both miners
in the earth. Below, the light zig-zag marks on the bramble4eaf show the tracks of
caterpillars of a small moth (Nepticula) that mine between the upper and lower skins.

Photos by Author.

PLATE 7

NESTS OF A MASON-WASP.

Page 76

This cluster of cells attached to a plant stem are built up of mud in which

small stones are embedded. They are each stored with about sixteen small

caterpillars and a single egg of the mason. Magnified four times.

Photo Ly Author.

MINERS 55

but when they grow a little bigger and stronger
they devote their energies to the destruction of
roots of grass and other plants. For three years
they continue to feed, and then, being full-grown,
they burrow to a depth of about three feet from
the surface and change to the chrysalis condition.
The grubs are whitish, clumsy-looking creatures,
their hinder parts being so swollen that they have
to lie on their sides whilst they feed.

The Tiger Beetles (Cicindela), of which one
species (C. campestris) is among the most brilliant
of our beetles as it flies in the sunshine, are miners
in the grub state. The female beetle is provided
with a strong ovipositor with which she bores into
the ground and deposits her eggs. The grub,
which is more active than the larvae of many beetles,
digs a straight vertical shaft and enlarges it to fit
as he grows. His head and the adjoining part of
his body are broad and flat, forming a sort of
shovel with which he carries up the excavated soil
and deposits it around the mouth of his deep
burrow.

In addition to his six legs he has a couple of
hooks on his back which help him materially in
climbing to the mouth of his tube and in supporting
him whilst there. This is an important point, for
he spends much time in this position, his flat head
acting as a stopper to the shaft. Here he waits
until some unlucky insect walks across. Then the
head is jerked back suddenly and returned with the
jaws open, The insect is seized *uicl tgken to the

56 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

bottom of the shaft, where its juices are sucked and
the innutritive remains hoisted out.

The last of these earth-miners to whom reference
will be made are the Mole Cricket (Gryllotalpa
vulgaris) and the Field Cricket (Gryllus cam-pestris).
The Mole (Talpa euro-pea) is a wonderful example
amongst mammals of adaptation of structure to
mode of life ; and it is rather startling to find
among insects so close a copy of one of the higher
animals as we do find in the Mole Cricket. There
is the same cylindrical form of body, and the same
peculiar spade-like development of the fore limbs
to render them serviceable as most efficient burrow-
ing tools. The name of the creature is obviously the
right one ; our forefathers who bestowed it could
have had no difficulty in the matter. One would
imagine that the name would suggest itself to any
one who had seen a mole. Yet we were surprised
to learn quite recently that a closely allied species
to our European Mole Cricket is known to British
planters on the Indian tea-gardens as the Mouse
Insect. To these planters the fore legs suggested
the feet of a rodent.

The Mole Cricket makes horizontal runs much
after the fashion of those of the mole, but nearer
the surface. The mole's burrows are to enable it
to have a large extent of hunting-ground where he
can come across worms|fand insects such as the
grub of the cockchafer lately referred to. The
Mole Cricket is supposed by the gardener to have
roots chiefly in view, though insects form part of

MINERS 57

his menu, as they do for the House Cricket, which
has the reputation of being a deadly enemy to the
cockroach. Anyhow, in the South of England,
where they occur, Mole Crickets have a bad reputa-
tion with gardeners for the havoc they make among
cultivated plants.

Kirby and Spence describe it as " a terrible
devastator of the produce of the kitchen garden.
It burrows underground, and devouring the roots
of plants thus occasions them to wither, and even
gets into hot-beds. It does so much mischief in
Germany that the author of an old book on garden-
ing, after giving a figure of it, exclaims, * Happy are
the places where this pest is unknown ! ' We
have good reason to believe that these eminent
authorities were wrong, and that far more good is
done by its destruction of insects than the harm it
does by cutting roots.

The female Mole Cricket, in addition to her
food-finding burrows, constructs a vertical shaft,
and a little to the side of the bottom of it she
hollows out an oval cell with smooth and even
polished walls. In this cell she lays her eggs, to
the number of several hundreds, and is said to
watch over the young crickets until they have shed
their first skins, after which they separate and each
digs a burrow for itself.

The Field Cricket (Gryllus cam-f>estris), which
much more nearly resembles the House Cricket, also
burrows, but not so extensively. Its burrows are
more for the purpose of retreat than for hunting,

58 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

and as its fore legs are not modified for digging like
those of the Mole Cricket, it is compelled to do its
tunnelling with its jaws.

There is another group of Miners to whom
reference should be made, although they mine
not in the earth, but in vegetable substances. One
portion of these we have dealt with in a later
chapter as Carpenters, but there are others known
as Leaf-miners, who spend their larval existence
in making tortuous burrows in the soft cellular
tissue (parenchyma) of green leaves. The larvae
that get a living by this industry are not confined
to one natural order ; in their perfect state they
are moths, flies, and beetles. They can hardly be
classed among insect pests, for as a rule they do not
destroy a whole leaf, but they cause a good deal
of annoyance to some gardeners who are vexed to
see even one disfigured leaf on a plant. An excep-
tion to this remark should be made in the case of the
Celery Fly, whose larva eats so much of the leaf as
to seriously affect the storing up of the material
that goes to the formation of the firm white base
of the leaf-stalks for which the plant is cultivated.
Where such depredations do not have serious effect
the leaves are those of trees or shrubs.

The moths whose larvae mine leaves are the most
numerous, and when it is stated that in Britain
alone we have somewhere about three hundred
and fifty species of these lepidopterous leaf-miners,
it will be seen that it is impossible in this place to
do more than mention a few sample species, These

MINERS 59

are all very small moths — they include the smallest
known moth— of the kind that should one by
.mischance get into the house, is pounced upon as
" one of those horrid clothes moths," though all
leaf-miners are perfectly innocent of the crimes
perpetrated by clothes moths.

The mines of some of these larvae must be familiar
to all who take any notice of natural objects in
the country. Every garden that contains a few
rose-bushes will furnish examples ready to hand,
and outside it the first bramble- bush will show us
some fine examples of mined leaves. The effect of
the little miners' industry is to clear out the cellular
matter between the upper and lower skins of the
leaf. The miner works rather erratically and
follows a serpentine course, perhaps roughly follow-
ing the margins of the leaf, sometimes doubling
upon itself and even crossing an earlier route. As
one looks at a leaf where the miner has finished,
or all but finished his work, it is possible to follow
his course by observing that as he increases in size
the mine becomes broader.

Mr. Alfred Sich, F.E.S., who has made a special
study of these minute moths, has given us from
his own observations a sketch of the life-history of
De Geer's Leaf-miner (Ne-pticula anomelella), which
he says scarcely differs from that published by De
Geer in 1752. This is the species whose mines are
commonly seen upon the leaflets of the rose. The
moth glues her almost colourless egg to the under-
side pi the leaf, and the young caterpillar bores

60 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

through the egg-shell straight into the substance
of the leaf without seeing the direct light of day.
Making its way from the lower to the upper cuticle
of the leaf, it begins its mine just under the cuticle.
It is then less than one twenty-fifth of an inch long,
and has no limbs. Its progress through the leaf-
material as it feeds appears to be accomplished by
the alternate contraction and expansion of the
swollen first three segments of its body.

When full-grown the caterpillar has attained to
the length of one-fifth of an inch, and it has lost
its appetite. Not wishing to finish its career in
the interior of the leaf, it cuts a half-circular slit
in the cuticle, and crawls out. It then proceeds
to spin a little cocoon around itself, probably in
the angle at the base of a spine on the rose-stem,
where it changes to a chrysalis, and a few weeks
later issues as a delicate little moth.

Other species of the genus Nepticula may be
found mining the leaves of oak (N. atricapitilla),
elm (N. viscerella and N. marginicolella), beech
(N. tityrella), birch (N. luteella and N. betulicolella),
hawthorn (N. oxyacanthella, N. perpygm&ella, N.
ignobilella, and N. atricolella), bramble (N. splendid-'
issimella), hazel (N. floslactella smdN. micro theriella),
and many other plants.

The Laburnum Miner (Cemiostoma laburnella)
proceeds somewhat differently. " After leaving the
egg, the caterpillar makes a reddish-brown circular
dot, about one twenty-fifth of an inch in diameter ;
when this is complete it changes its first skin and

MINERS 61

then mines out a very fine gallery, leading away

from the blotch, and about one-sixth of an inch

long. At the end of the gallery it changes [its

skin] a second time, after which it mines out another

circular blotch about one-quarter of an inch in

diameter, which has a black appearance. When

this is complete it makes a pale ring round the

blotch ; in this it changes once more, and then

commences the last part of the mine. The last

portion forms a large irregular blotch, which

occupies most of one half of a laburnum leaflet, and

is marked with many curved dark lines. . . . When

fully grown it comes out of the mine to spin its

cocoon. . . . Having found the right situation, it

builds a wall of silken strands on each side of itself,

and then between the two walls it spins a shuttle-

ihaped cocoon in which it turns to a pupa. When

mature there emerges a beautiful white moth with

black and yellow rays at the tip of the wings. An

almost similar moth feeds on the common broom,

the leaves of which are very small and not very

numerous. But this species, Cemiostoma sparti-

foliella, does not trouble about the leaves, but lives

beneath the bark of the twigs, where it makes

long serpentine galleries in which it lives throughout

the winter. When the warm days of May come it

leaves its winter retreat and spins its white cocoon

on broom stems. In a warm evening in July the

moths may be seen flying in swarms around the

bushes " (Sich).

Other genera besides the genus Nepticula share

62 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

this mining habit, and it is easy to find examples
on all kinds of plants. It is not even necessary to
search for them, for the mines in most cases adver-
tise the presence of the miner. This, however, is
not the case with one of the most plentiful of all,
and one of the most remarkable. We may own
a poplar-tree nearly all of whose leaves are tenanted
by the caterpillars of Phyllocnistis suffusella, and
never suspect the fact. We may see the evidence
of their presence, but imagine that a snail or slug
had been crawling over all the leaves, leaving a
slightly shining track. These tracks are really
those of the caterpillar under the upper skin. This
larva differs from most of the miners in the fact
that he takes no solid food. Strictly speaking, it is
perhaps not right to include him among the miners,
for all he does is to sever the connection of the
upper cuticle and the parenchyma, and instead of
eating his way through the latter, he is content to
suck up the sap that flows from the severed cells.
Upon this liquid fare he subsists entirely.

When it changes its skin the second time its
form is entirely altered, for it develops a bi-lobed
tail which gives it a fish-like appearance. At the
end of this stadium, as it is termed, the caterpillar
has reached the edge of the leaf, where it stretches
itself out and appears to die ; but it is only another
change. About a day later it has cast its skin
again, and now appears in more normal caterpillar
form, and white, whereas before it was colourless.
It feeds no more, but has assumed its new dress

MINERS 63

for the purpose of spinning its cocoon and changing
to a chrysalis. In spinning the cocoon the edge
of the leaf is folded down to conceal it, and as
you bend this back to reveal the chrysalis you
rupture the delicate cuticle, and may imagine,
as we long imagined, that the chrysalis is outside
the cuticle. After a few days it emerges from the
chrysalis as a beautiful little white- and-grey moth.

Respecting the frequency of these lepidopterous
leaf-miners, the following paragraph from Sich
may be suggestive and helpful to those readers who
would like to get a little first-hand knowledge of
these insects. " Our indigenous trees which usually
grow in numbers together afford food to numerous
species of leaf-miners. For instance, the oak offers
a home to at least twenty-four species, while the
birch harbours not fewer than thirty-one. But
the crab-apple, the maple, and the buckthorn also
have leaf-miners attached to them. There are
two species which we might even call needle-miners
because they mine in the needles of the Scots pine.
Bramble-bushes, honeysuckle, and convolvulus have
their leaf-miners, and even mistletoe is not exempt.
Many low herbs, such as the clovers and sorrels,
give shelter to Leaf-miners, and when we come to
the grasses and sedges we find at least forty species
which obtain their nourishment from these elegant
plants."

A few Leaf-miners may be found among the
larvae of beetles, and there are at least two well-
known examples among the grubs of two-winged

64 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

flies. One of these is the Celery Fly (Trypeta
0110$ or dines), which also attacks the leaves of the
parsnip. Probably it would not seriously affect
the plant were its mines restricted to the developed
leaves of mature plants, but it attacks the tender
leaves of the seedlings and makes them sickly or
kills them right out.

Another fly with leaf-mining grubs is the Holly-
leaf Fly (Phytomyza ilicis). Holly-trees are often
seen to have scarcely a leaf that has not one yellow
blotch upon it, and often there are several blotches
on one leaf, testifying to the work of as many
miners. The mines are rarely serpentine, but
mostly shapeless patches, the grub turning about
and eating the parenchyma as far as he can reach
on all sides without moving his hind body. The
eggs are laid in summer, and the grubs go on
feeding right through the autumn and pass the
winter in the pupa condition, issuing as small black
flies at the beginning of summer.

Even the larva of one of the Sawflies is found
among the Miners. This is the Raspberry-leaf
Miner (Fenusa -pumila), a minute four- winged fly
with black body and black- and-yellow legs. The
grubs feed upon the parenchyma in approved miner
fashion, and are sometimes in sufficient numbers
to cause alarm to the small-fruit grower. His
remedy is to go over the bushes and press the
mined leaves between finger and thumb, and the
mining work is stopped.

III

MASONS

Ill

MASONS

THOUGH the Masons are not so numerous as the
Miners, the insect world includes some artizans
who are very efficient in the use of trowel and
mortar, and some of them work with such fine
regard for form that they may be regarded even as
art potters. It is among the Hymenoptera, the
order that includes the most intelligent of the
insect tribes, that we find the art of the mason
developed. Some of them are known as Mason
Wasps and Mason Bees, others as Mud-daubers,
owing to their preferring solidity to elegance in
their structures.

Bates found in the Valley of the Amazons a
number of small bees of the genus Melipona which
store honey and gather pollen, much as the larger
Honey Bee does. But the workers of certain species
of the Melipona also gather clay with which, whether
they build in a hollow tree-trunk or in a bank of
earth, they completely surround the nest with a
solid wall.

In the South of Europe there are several Mason
Bees of the genus Chalicodoma, the best-known being

67

68 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

•

C. muraria. Reaumur told its story many years
ago, and more recently Fabre has paid much atten
tion to it, making experiments that help to
understanding of the order of its intelligence.

Reaumur says that having decided upon the site
of her nursery, the bee carefully selects sand, grain
by grain, for her building materials. These she
glues together by means of a viscid secretion from
her mouth, until they form masses the size of small
shot, and transports them in her jaws to the build-
ing site. With a number of these, cemented by
the same means, she constructs her foundations.
Upon these she runs up the walls of a thimble-
shaped cell, an inch long and half that in breadth.
Before it is roofed in she becomes a gatherer of
pollen and honey with which she stocks the cell,
and lays an egg in with it. She first puts her head
into the cell, on her return from one of these
journeys, and discharges her gathering of honey.
The pollen has been collected on the hairs of her
lower surface, and to discharge this she gets into
the cell backwards and cleans the pollen off in such
manner that it falls to the bottom. When the
requisite quantity of each has been stored she gets
her head well into the cell and with her jaws works
up the honey and pollen into a homogeneous
paste ; then lays her egg and seals up the top of
the cell.

The construction of one cell takes the labour of
two days. Eight or nine cells are built one against
the other in this way, and then the whole of them

MASONS 69

are coated by a general mass of masonry. When
finished the dome-shaped structure is the size of
half an orange. The outer coating of all is composed
of grains of sand coarser than those previously
used. It harmonizes well with the natural stone
to which it is attached, or on a close examination
might be supposed to be a daub of mud. But it
sets so hard that it is with difficulty explored with
a knife-blade.

This building work is carried out in spring, and
the solidity of the entire structure has evident
relation to the fact that in an exposed position it
has to protect the inmates from being dried up by
summer heat and from being frozen by winter's
cold, for it is not until the following spring that
the young bees emerge. Then the hardness of
the masonry presents no difficulty to them : their
jaws are stout enough and sharp enough to pick
it to pieces and clear a way large enough to permit
their exit. Yet Fabre found that their powers in
this respect were somewhat limited. If the nests
were closely surrounded by paper they cut through
it as though it were part of their natural enclosure ;
but if the paper wall was so arranged that it left
a clear space between it and the nest, they cut
through the latter, of course, but did not know
how to deal with the paper as a separate obstacle,
and perished in this outer prison. The difference
is probably due, as suggested by Perez, to the fact
that in the larger space they do not know where
to begin, whilst in the confined space of the cell

70 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

they are bound to concentrate their efforts upon
one spot.

By marking some of these bees with paint and
taking them away to a distance of four kilometres
(that is, over a quarter of a mile) before releasing
them, Fabre found that their homing instinct was
so good that they were back working on their
unfinished nests next morning. But though their
sense of locality was thus proved to be very good,
he found that when he transposed neighbouring
nests they were unable to distinguish their own
property, for a bee set to work at the nest which
now occupied the site of its own previous labours.
If this spot was left blank by the removal of the
nest only a slight distance, the bee returned to the
spot and showed great concern, but failed to recog-
nize its nest, though it had passed over it in its
homeward flight.

Some of the results of Fabre's experiments were
rather ludicrous, and showed that the bee does
not modify its actions according to circumstances
as Honey Bees do. If he substituted a built and
partially provisioned cell for one that had only just
been commenced, the bee would proceed fromj
that point in its own operations at which it had
left off, and would make the cell much longer than
necessary ; but when it had made the cell a thirc
larger it appeared to realize the absurdity of its
action and left off. If such a substituted cell is
already provisioned but not closed in, and the nest
taken away was beginning to be filled with honey

MASONS 71

and pollen, the bee would continue to pour in
provisions, and finish by laying an egg where there
was one already.

As we shall see in a later chapter, the hard cement
of the Mason Bee does not secure its larva against
the attack of parasites who eat up its provisions
and starve it to death, or even eat up the grub
itself.

Aristotle and Pliny describe the Honey Bee as
taking the precaution, when having to fly home
in a strong wind, to ballast itself by carrying a
small stone. Reaumur supposes that in this matter
they were misled by seeing Chalicodoma conveying
one of the blocks of masonry she had constructed
by cementing sand-grains together.

From the Mason Bee let us turn to a considera-
tion of the Mason Wasp (Odynerus spinipes), which
chooses for a building site the slope of a sand- bank
where the sand is hard and firm, and therefore to
be tunnelled with safety, though with great labour.
Kirby and Spence tell us picturesquely that " its
mandibles alone would be scarcely capable of
penetrating [the hardened sand], were it not pro-
vided with a slightly glutinous liquor which it
pours out of its mouth, that, like the vinegar with
which Hannibal softened the Alps, acts upon the
cement of the sand, and renders the separation
of the grains easy to the double pickaxe with which
our little pioneer is furnished."

It is both miner and mason. It bores a cylin-
drical cavity two or three inches deep, which

72 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

branches below into three or four cells ; but
instead of sweeping away the pellets it quarries, it
uses them for building up around the mouth of
its excavation a round tower, at first straight, then
curved to correspond with the curvature of its
own body. The use of this tower appears to be
to make it difficult for any parasitical insect, during
its own absence in obtaining provisions, to en er
and lay eggs in the cavity. It is only a temporary
erection, and therefore it is not made solid ; the
stones of which it is constructed, though firmly
connected, leave little interstices, as though it
were anxious to make its material go as far as
possible.

The nest is furnished with a number of small
green caterpillars which naturally curl into a circle
when alarmed. These, of course, are first stung,
so that they have little or no power of movement.
The egg is laid in the far end of the cell, so that
on hatching the grub first attacks the caterpillar
that was first stung.

After filling up the cell with from twenty to
forty small caterpillars, the Mason Wasp takes down
her tower, stone by stone, and uses the material's
for building up the mouth of the nest solidly. The
building of this tower is therefore a fine example
of economy of labour. Instead of dropping the
material excavated from the hard sand-bank and
having to collect it or similar material again for
building up the entrance, she stacks it ready to
hand, and in the doing of it contrives a shelter

MASONS 73

which protects her progeny from the insidious
attack of a deadly enemy. How like the operations
of the human bricklayer who piles a stack of bricks
within reach of his hand from which he can take
them as wanted for building his wall !

The " deadly enemy " referred to above is the
brilliant little Ruby-tail Wasp (Cbrysis ignita), whose
head and thorax are blue or green in different
aspects, and the hind body red and gold, the entire
body having a metallic polish that makes the little
creature glow and flash in the sunshine. These
wasps make no nests of their own, but are always
on the watch for more industrious species that are
provisioning theirs, and whilst the Mason is away
hunting they pop in and leave an egg of their own.
The Cbrysis grub sucks the grub of the Mason
Wasp dry, or in some cases eats up the food and
leaves the rightful occupant of the nest to die of
starvation. It appears to be mainly against the
Ruby-tail that Odynerus builds her temporary
towers ; but Wood Ants (Formica rufa) have in
some districts to be guarded against also.

Some of these Mason Wasps of the same genus
(Odynerus) carry their labour-saving ideas farther,
and look out for defects in human masonry. Where
a chink has been left in the mortar they enter and
enlarge it, making it symmetrical as they would
have done had they begun the excavation. Others
adapt key-holes, nail-holes, or any other perfora-
tions that are large enough, or can be made large
enough by a little manipulation. In some cases it is

74 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

the other way about, and they have to partially
block up a crevice that would be otherwise incon-
veniently roomy. Whatever the Mason's length
may be, its breadth is very little, and it contrives
the burrow to have only sufficient " elbow-room."
There are many inquisitive birds about with a
taste for fat little grubs, and the smaller the entrance
holes to nests the safer for the defenceless grub.
Ichneumon flies with long, slender ovipositors,
and other parasitical insects of their own order,
have to be guarded against so far as possible ; but
the latter are the more subtle, and often succeed
in introducing their own eggs to the utter ruin of
the Mason Wasp's plans. If the parasite does not
begin by eating up its host, it devours all the pro-
visions and allows the host to perish by starvation.

One species, Odynerus reniformis, described by
Fabre, hangs its egg from the roof of the cell by a
silk thread, a provision to protect the newly hatched
grub from being crushed by movements of the
score or so of small caterpillars that are placed
inside after the egg is laid. From the egg-shell the
young grub can reach down to its first caterpillar,
and, about twenty-four hours later, when this 'is
devoured, the grub is believed to cast its skin and
to be sufficiently strong to take care of itself among
the only partially stupefied caterpillars. It eats
them in the order in which they were brought in.

Let readers who share the common enmity to
wasps of all sorts bear in mind these facts about
their utilization of caterpillars. Let such consider

MASONS 75

how long it would take them to hunt for and
destroy ten dozen small caterpillars, that are the
exact tint of the leaves upon which they feed.
This is the number that one of these Mason Wasps
will requisition for the provisioning of the cells in
one of these interesting structures. Every such
wasp that is wantonly killed means that number
of caterpillars allowed to grow and do incalculable
damage to the choice plants of our gardens, it
may be. Almost certainly, if a wasp is killed in
our garden, it was there on a hunting expedition,
and it is our garden that will suffer for our ignorant
folly.

It might be supposed that the choice of a par-
ticular insect for the nourishment of her grub is a
merely arbitrary proceeding on the part of the
parent ; but a circumstance narrated by the Peck-
hams throws doubt on such a supposition. They
had opened a cell of Odynerus conformis, and in
doing so had lost all but one of the caterpillars it
contained. The grub " hatched on the morning
after we had received it, sloughing off the skin
of the egg, but remaining attached to it, and thus
doubling the length of the thread by which it
hung. The caterpillar was slightly separated from
it, and it seemed to have no notion of feeling about
for its food, eating nothing for twenty-four hours,
but growing and developing nevertheless. We now
piled up some caterpillars in contact with it, and
it began to eat, but after its own caterpillar and as
many as we dared take from [a nest of 0.] anormis

76 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

were gone, it stubbornly refused to take soft,
tender little spiders, or caterpillars out of our
garden ; and it perished, a victim to prejudice."

The Wall Mason (Odynerus parietum) appears to
be fond of proximity at least to human beings, for
its nests are commonly constructed on the walls
of houses, sometimes in the angles of the window-
frames, but often on the seams of mortar between
the bricks. She uses sand and mud, and mixes
them with her own mouth-cement, which causes
them to set like mortar. Sometimes she uses the
" pointing " of the human mason or bricklayer, if
this is not so rich in cement as to defy her jaws.
Whatever the material, she turns it into cylindrical
cells, which are usually joined end to end, so that
we get a continuous round-backed ridge on the
wall. Each of these cells she stocks with green
caterpillars in turn. Where she is engaged on her
building operations, the Ruby-tail may usually
be seen as an interested spectator, watching for
her opportunity to bring the Mason's labours to
naught.

A little-known species — Geramius lusitanicus—
found in the Mediterranean region, makes its nests
in the earth and connects them by a gallery two
and a half inches long. It renders this gallery diffi-
cult of access to enemies by erecting a chimney-like
porch after the manner of Odynerus. This pre-
caution is very necessary in this case, because the
cells are not provisioned and sealed up, but the
larva is fed more like those of the Social Wasps

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MUD-DAUBERS.

Page 82

In the upper photo an unfinished " daub " is shown with a single cell standing

out from the mass, to illustrate the fact that all the cells are made separately,

the interstices being filled in afterwards and the whole mass finished with

a tolerably even surface as in the lower photo.

Photos by Autlwr.

MASONS 77

by the mother bringing them food from time to
time. This food consists of a paste resembling
dried honey.

The plan of suspending the egg by a thread from
the roof of the cell is also adopted by Eumenes,
another genus of Mason Wasps, of which we have
a single British representative — Eumenes coarctata.
This is the mason to whom we alluded as having
advanced to the status of art potter, for its nests —
often attached to the stems of heath plants— take
the form of low, round vases, with short neck and
turned-out lip. The nest is made of clay tempered
with the wasp's own cement, and it consists of a
single cell which, before the mouth is closed, is
stocked with caterpillars and the wasp's egg. Some-
times it is placed on a broader surface than the
twigs of a shrub afford, and in that case loses some
of its grace, the bottom being flat to give it a better
hold.

Eumenes arbustorum and E. pomiformis show that
they are true Masons by building into the walls
of their nests small stones, so that they have the
appearance of having been built up of stones with
clay to hold them together. (See Plate 7 for
nests of E. pomiformis.) E. pomiformis occurs in the
South of France, and Fabre, apparently describ-
ing this species, says that the fourteen or sixteen
caterpillars with which the nest is provisioned are
only slightly affected by the stinging (if, as believed,
they are stung), for they are able to use their
jaws and to kick out, as it were, with the hinder

78 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

part of the body. This power of movement would
make them dangerous company for a delicate egg
placed among them, or even for a newly hatched
grub.

Here, then, is the reason why the egg is suspended.
Should it be struck by the movements of one of
the caterpillars, it would swing out of the way
like a pendulum, and the newly hatched and tender
grub can feed in safety from its swinging perch. A
remarkable point in this connection, showing how
several items are correlated, is the way in which
the egg-shell splits up on hatching. From the
point of attachment of the suspensory thread it
splits into a sort of ribbon which in effect lengthens
the thread and enables the grub to get nearer to
its food.

Eumenes unguiculata, though it fashions a less-
regular vase, provides three cells in the interior,
each of which has its egg and its store of cater-
pillars. An Indian species, Eumenes conica, makes
the mistake of constructing its nest with walls so
thin that a parasite readily pierces them to lay
its eggs. For this reason only two wasps were
reared from a group of five cells, the parasites
having destroyed the other three.

Several species of Try poxy Ion (all the species are
Masons) construct nests much after the pattern
of Eumenes. One of these is mentioned by Bates
in the account of his natural history exploration
of the Amazons. He says :

" Their habits are similar to those of the Pelofiaus :

MASONS 79

namely, they carry off the clay in their mandibles,
and have a different song when they hasten away
with the burthen from that which they sing whilst
at work. Try poxy Ion albitarse, which is a large
black kind, three-quarters of an inch in length,
makes a tremendous fuss whilst building its cell.
It often chooses the walls or doors of chambers for
this purpose, and when two or three are at work
in the same place their loud humming keeps the
place in an uproar. T. aurifrons, a much smaller
species, makes a neat little nest shaped like a carafe ;
building rows of them together in the corners of
the verandahs."

In Hawaii several species of Odynerus construct
single-celled nests similar to those of Eumenes, but
more cylindrical than spherical. They are fond of
making these in a leaf that has been curled up
already by a spider to serve as a nursery for her
young ones, and in addition the young of a certain
species of snail (Achatinella) like to crowd into the
same refuge ; so that, as Mr. R. C. L. Perkins tells
us, you may find a curled leaf occupied by these
three kinds of tenants at the same time.

Mr. Bates tells us how another Mason Wasp
utilizes the .same clay-pit at Santarem, on the
Amazon, from which the human inhabitants obtain
clay for making their pottery.

" The most conspicuous was a large yellow-and-
black wasp, with a remarkably long and narrow
waist, the Pelo-p&us fistularis. It collected the clay
in little round pellets, which it carried off, after

8o INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

rolling them into a convenient shape, in its man-
dibles. It came straight to the pit with a loud
hum, and on alighting lost not a moment in begin-
ning its work, finishing the kneading of its little
load in two or three minutes. The nest of this
species is shaped like a pouch, two inches in length,
and is attached to a branch or other projecting
object.

" One of these restless artificers once began to
build on the handle of a chest in the cabin of my
canoe, when we were stationary at a place for
several days. It was so intent upon its work that
it allowed me to inspect the movements of its
mouth with a lens whilst it was laying on the
mortar. Every fresh pellet was brought in with a
triumphant song, which changed to a cheerful
busy hum when it alighted and began to work.
The little ball of moist clay was laid on the edge
of the cell, and then spread out around the circular
rim by means of the lower lip, guided by the
mandibles. The insect placed itself astride over
the rim to work, and on finishing each addition
to the structure, took a turn round, patting the
sides with its feet inside and out before flying
off to gather a fresh pellet. It worked only. in
sunny weather, and the previous layer was some-
times not quite dry when the new coating was
added. The whole structure takes about a week
to complete.

" I left the place before the gay little builder had
quite finished her task : she did not accompany the

MASONS 8 r

canoe, although we moved along the bank of the
river very slowly. On opening closed nests of this
species, ... I always found them to be stocked
with small spiders of the genus Gastracantha, in
the usual half-dead state to which the mother
wasps reduce the insects which are to serve as food
for their progeny."

In the light of Fabre's experiments to ascertain
the sense of locality possessed by wasps, it is no
wonder that Bates's wasp did not' follow the canoe.
She, no doubt, hunted anxiously for her nest in
the place where the canoe had been !

The species mentioned is related to the Sand
Wasp (Ammophila) described in the previous chap-
ter. Many species of Sceliphron (in which genus
Pelofaus is now merged) are known in various parts
of the world as Mud-daubers. It is scarcely a
nice way of referring to skilled artizans, but the
name may be regarded as a note of resentment on
the part of householders who do not regard the
often large masses of wasp-masonry exactly as orna-
ments to their doors, windows, and parlour walls.
It is remarkable that so many of them should
manifest this preference for human habitations.

Fabre mentions one (Scelipbron spirifex) that of
all places for its nesting-site selects a nook in the
broad open fireplace of the peasants of Southern
Europe, where, although safe from the flames, it
is not free from smoke. In spite of cooking opera-
tions that may be in progress the wasp flies in and
out, between its nest and the outdoor source of
6

82 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

the clay or mud it needs for its building. In most
species of this genus the large cells are formed one
against another, in number varying from ten to
fifty, and the whole are consolidated into one
mass by plastering further mud or clay into the
intervening spaces and rounding the composite
structure off. It stores the cells with small spiders,
and appears to kill these outright by its sting.
When the first of the series is dropped into the
cell the egg is laid on it, so that the wasp grub
begins to feed on the least fresh of its food, and
has to work through the whole series before de-
composition begins, though one might suppose
this would not take long in a fireplace. Spirifex
on an average allows eight spiders to each grub,
and these are consumed in about ten days.

Some of these Scdiphrons have learned to disguise
their carefully constructed nests. Thus, an Indian
species (S. madraspatanus), that comes into houses
and decorates walls and furniture with its nests,
appears to be desirous of meriting the name of
Mud-dauber, for after the nest is complete as a
comfortable habitation for the grubs, she some-
times gives a few artistic touches in the shape of
radiating streaks of mud, which make it look as
though a handful of mud had been thrown against
the wall and had splashed. There are only from
four to six cells in this nest, and each cell as a rule
contains a score of spiders.

An Australian species (Scelifhron l&tus), whose
habits are very similar, adds to the finished nest a

MASONS 83

few diagonal streaks of mud, which make the whole
affair look like a piece of acacia bark. Although a
piece of bark looks out of place on the wall of a
house, it may be presumed that before the wasp
developed a liking for human society it was in the
habit of placing its nests on tree-trunks.

In parts of the United States the people suffer
annoyance from the similar habits of another
species of Sceliphron, and Burbidge figures one
that he met with in Labuan, of which he says :
" One of the most common and interesting of the
domestic insects is the ' Mason Wasp,' a large
yellow species which constructs a series of mud
cells or a gallery of earth against the woodwork of
the verandah or roof. In each cell, as completed,
an egg is deposited, and ere closing up the cavity
it is stuffed full of green caterpillars, which are
then sealed up alive to serve as food for her larva
when hatched out."

Mr. W. H. Hudson, when in La Plata, suffered
from the pertinacity with which these mud-daubers
would enter his dwelling, and his admiration for
the beautiful mason and her industry was swallowed
up in his disgust with her methods of filling her
cells. He says :

" These insects, with a refinement of cruelty,
prefer not to kill their victims outright, but merely
to maim them, then house them in cells where
the grubs can vivisect them at leisure. This is
one of those revolting facts the fastidious soul
cannot escape from in warm climates ; for in and

84 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

out of open windows and doors, all day long, all
the summer through, comes the busy, beautiful
Mason Wasp. A long body, wonderfully slim at
the waist, bright yellow legs and thorax, and a dark
crimson abdomen — what object can be prettier to
look at ?

" But in her life this wasp is not beautiful. At
home in summer they were the pests of my life,
for nothing would serve to keep them out. . One
day while we were seated at dinner, a clay nest,
which a wasp had succeeded in completing un-
observed, detached itself from the ceiling and fell
with a crash to the table, where it was shattered
to pieces, scattering a shower of green half -living
spiders round it. I shall never forget the feeling of
intense repugnance I experienced at the sight,
coupled with detestation of the pretty but cruel
little architect."

In some cases a Flesh Fly (Sarcophaga) has noted
the stores of spiders and insects being taken in,
and has concluded, that they offer a good oppor-
tunity for the disposal of a few of her own eggs.
The result is that the Mud-dauber grub perishes
for want of food, and a like fate awaits the Flesh
Flies owing to their inability to break through the
thick walls of their prison.

Very similar to the constructions of these " Mud-
dauber " Mason Wasps are those of an Indian bee
(Megachile lanata), closely allied to our Leaf -cutter
Bee (M. centuncularis), and strange to say it agrees
with these wasps also in its liking for human dwell-

MASONS 85

ings ; but it looks out for some cavity or recess in
which to place the nest. This is composed of clay
or mud, and if space allows, several cells are placed
side by side. During the latter part of " the
rains " all things in an Indian household that have
small cavities require to be carefully looked after,
or the said cavities will be plugged up by this bee,
whether they be rifle-barrels, bamboo rods, punkha
holes in the wall, or the hollow revealed in the back
of a book that is left open on the table.

The species of Agenia — which are closely allied to
Pompilus, the burrowing Spider Wasp — are of the
potter branch of the mason industry. Two Euro-
pean species (one of them British) make vase-like
nests which they hide in tree-hollows, wall-holes,
and similar places. Agenia carbonaria, which is
found in the South of England, contrives a nest
much like a wide-mouthed bottle ; but it is not
so accomplished in the potter's art as some of
those we have mentioned, for it does not appear
to have learned the secret of kneading its materials
with saliva, and so they have not the proper
permanency. For this reason they are not placed
in exposed situations where the weather would soon
crumble them. The little wasp has learned that
such material would not be waterproof, and so
she takes care to line the nest inside with a coating
of glaze, probably supplied by her mouth, which
serves to keep the contents dry. The cell is pro-
visioned with spiders which are paralyzed by biting
instead of stinging, and their limbs are broken.

86 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

Ccelonites abbreviates constructs tubular earthen
cells, which are attached in small groups to the dry
stems of plants, with the mouths downwards.
They are provisioned by the mother wasp with a
paste said to resemble dried honey — probably a
mixture of honey and pollen.

One of these Mason Wasps (Abis'pa) that is
peculiar to Australia is much like a large Odynerus.
Its beautifully constructed nest is so large that it
might be thought to be the combined effort of a
colony of Social Wasps, but it is entirely the work
of one female. The entrance to it takes the form
of a projecting funnel.

The East Indian Rhygchium nitidulum makes
clay pots, like Eumenes, and stores them with cater-
pillars. The pots are attached to wood. Of an
allied species — R. brunneum — Sir Richard Owen
complained that it obliterates Egyptian hiero-
glyphics by plastering its mud cells among them.
Some thousands of years ago, when an ancient
Egyptian was being converted into a mummy, one
of these wasps had the fortune to be wrapped
up with him. When, in later times, Dr. Birch,
of the British Museum, unrolled the wrappings of
that mummy the wasp came to light, to prove
that Rhygchium brunneum was an ancient Egyptian
also.

The most important of the insect masons we
have reserved to the last — the Termites or " white
ants." It is probably unnecessary, at this date, to
explain that these insects are not ants at all, and

PLATE 10 NESTS OF TERMITES OR " WHITE ANTS." Page 86

These huge erections are sometimes 20 feet in height, and represent the labour
of many generations of builders. The one in the foreground has been cut open to
show the galleries and passages of the interior, which are not so well-planned and
symmetrical as was formerly believed to be the case.

Drawn by T. Carreras.

I

The Queen Termite is the mother of the hill-nest. Her body, here shown of the
natural size, is bloated with eggs, of which she lays many thousands per day.

PLATE i i

TERMITES OR " WHITE ANTS."

Page

In the lower illustration the upper figure is that of a winged male ; below to the
left is a soldier and to the right a worker.

MASONS 87

are not more closely related to ants than a bee is
to a butterfly. The popular name, no doubt, was
suggested because of some similarity in their social
habits and marvellous organization, their permanent
communities, and their care of the young. Their
forms are quite unlike, and whereas the ant is
encased in a hard and polished chitinous exterior,
the termite is soft-bodied and pale, its integument
apparently painfully sensitive to the action of
light, judging from the care it takes to live and
work always in darkness. It is to this latter sensi-
tiveness that its supremacy as a mason and builder
is, in all probability, due.

In one respect they do resemble ants — and hive
bees — that is, in addition to males and females,
there is a far more numerous sexless class upon
whom devolves all the activities of the community,
save only that of reproduction. But there is this
difference between the sexless forms of termites
and those of most ants, that in the former there is
a further division into workers and soldiers. This
is not any arbitrary assignment of duties by the
community, it is a distinction enforced by nature,
for both worker and soldier are — like poets — born
as such, not made.

Both soldiers and workers are blind, but in spite
of this fact they are very sensitive to light. The
workers are well named, for upon them devolves
all the labours of the community — the erection,
repair, and extension of the termitarium or hill, the
care of the eggs and young, the prison care of the

88 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

so-called royal couple, who have none of the pre-*
rogatives of human royalties.

The soldiers also are well named, for, like the
rank and file in our armies, their duty is to sacrifice
their lives for those who feed them. They were
formerly thought to be formidable and pugnacious,
but like the old-style Chinese army, accoutred to
make themselves appear hideous and so frighten
their opponents at sight, these soldier Termites
are not nearly so formidable as they look. They
are characterized by the great size of the head — in
some species this is larger than the body — which is
either developed into long spines and spears, or
the jaws are increased to an enormous length. But
all they can do when the termitarium is broken into
is to seize the intruder with their jaws and hang
on till they are destroyed, what time the more
important workers are getting safely away into the
narrow galleries and underground chambers where
no enemy can follow them.

There are many species of Termites, and in the
space at our disposal it is • impossible to give any
detailed account of them — a general statement of
their work as masons must suffice. They get their
living, it is true, as carpenters in the sense that they
cut up and consume as food timber and other
vegetable substances ; but in constructive work
they are masons. They drive mines and tunnels of
great length underground, connecting hill to hill,
but these tunnels are lined with masonry, and their
communities are housed in the huge permanent

MASONS 89

structures known as ant-hills or termitaria. These
are built of earth and excrement mixed with salivary
secretions which cause the compost to set into a
mass of stony hardness.

So strong are these erections — varying from a
height of a few feet to more than twenty feet —
that they are used as a guard post by bull buffaloes
keeping watch over the cows that feed around.
Sportsmen use them as safe towers from which they
can shoot big game in Africa, and Smeathman tells
how himself and four others used such an erection
as a look-out for passing ships. When the small
size of the Termites is compared with the height
of their buildings, we realize that these insects
were the original inventors of the " sky-scraper,"
only the Termites are wiser and more artistic than
their human imitators, for they mostly build in
pyramidal form with a broad base instead of the
hideous straight-sided excrescences that mar the
sky-line in American cities.

The form of the termitaria is varied by the
different species, and to some extent according to
situation. Some species scarcely come under the
designation of masons, since they construct nests
of more papery material on the upper branches of
trees. But of those that are indubitable masons
some roof their cities with cupolas, some favour
the Gothic style of architecture and run off into
innumerable spires. An Australian species — known
as the " Compass Ant " — builds wedge-shaped stnu>
£ures whose broad faces always look east and

90 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

The older travellers told of the invariable planning
out of the interior into definite halls, royal apart-
ments, nurseries, food stores, etc., and their sectional
elevations were copied into all the natural-history
works of the last century, just as were those of
the " mole's fortress," which looked like an iron
casting. Both have been shown by later investi-
gators to be largely imaginary, or at least idealized.
There are various chambers, it is true, and a special
prison-cell for the female ; but for the rest the
termitarium appears to be made up mainly of
labyrinthine passages, a style of architecture which
gives much greater strength than the vaulted halls
with wide-spanned domes.

It must be remembered that " ant-hills " of
great size are the work of several — it may be, many
— generations, and often of several species. Bates
found at Santarem that the large hillocks contained
colonies of several different species, each of which
had a different way of utilizing the building
materials and kept strictly to its own part of
the structure — a further parallel with the " sky-
scraper " that is let out in tenements xxcupied by
different firms or companies !

There is no entrance to these termitaria evident
from the exterior. They are all built up from
the ground under cover, and the entrances and
exits are at a distance, approached by under-
ground tunnels. Only when a big batch of the
winged males and females have reached maturity
are the outer walls pierced. Then the workers

MASONS 91

bite through to allow of the exit of the winged
thousands.

" They clear the way for their bulky but fragile
bodies, and bite holes through the outer walls for
their escape. The exodus is not completed in one
day, but continues until all the males and females
have emerged from their pupa integuments, and
flown away. It takes place on moist, close evenings,
or on cloudy mornings : they are much attracted
by the lights in houses, and fly by myriads into
chambers, filling the air with a loud rustling noise,
and often falling in such numbers that they extin-
guish the lamps. Almost as soon as they touch
ground they wriggle off their wings, to aid which
operation there is a special provision in the structure
of the organs, a seam running across near their roots
and dividing the horny nervures. To prove that
this singular mutilation was voluntary on the part
of the insects, I repeatedly tried to detach the wings
by force, but could never succeed whilst they were
fresh, for they always tore out by the roots.

" Few escape the innumerable enemies which
are on the alert at these times to devour them :
ants, spiders, lizards, toads, bats, and goatsuckers.
The waste of life is astonishing. The few that do
survive pair and become the kings and queens of
new colonies. I ascertained this by finding single
pairs a few days after the exodus, which I always
examined and proved to be males and females,
established under a leaf, a clod of earth, or wander-
ing about under the edges of new tumuli. ... I

92 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

once found a newly married pair in a fresh cell
tended by a few workers " (Bates).

Thomas Ward, the Australian naturalist, gives
us a picture of these erections, and their secondary
uses, as he found them in the Port Darwin district.
He says :

" Seven miles beyond the wood we came to a
patch of most extraordinary-looking country. It
was covered with enormous ant-hills, many of them
nearly twenty feet high. They completely shut
off our view of the surrounding country ; and we
seemed to be passing through a necropolis of strange
tumuli. Many bones were strewn about, the place
seeming to be a favourite haunt of the wild dogs,
whose monotonous howling we heard both night
and day, though we never saw more than five or
six of the animals at a time. These ant-hills were,
many of them at least, of great age, the sides rutted
and seamed deeply, and often covered with a kind
of brown, yellow, and reddish lichens.

" The colonists are fond of remarking that
nobody has ever seen a freshly erected ant-hill, and
that there is some mystery about their formation.
This is simply a popular error. Ant-hills of all
sizes may be found where these insects (Termites)
abound. They are increased in size so gradually
that their growth is not perceptible to the careless
eye. By constant watching I have perceived that
small hills are thrown up comparatively more
quickly than they are afterwards increased in size.
In the first year they may be brought up to g foot

MASONS 93

in height ; at the end of seven years it is a good hill
that is three feet high. After that the increase is
very slow — a hill of twenty feet high is probably
several hundred years old. The highest hill I have
measured, near the Burdekin River, Queensland,
was twenty- two feet four inches. Hills of fourteen
to eighteen feet are very common, both in Queens-
land and in the Port Darwin district.

" Ant-hills, especially the large and old ones, are
generally crowded with parasites, of which the
largest are rats and snakes. Whether or not these
annoy the c ants ' I could not ascertain, but the
latter are powerless to remove them. Quite large
snakes burrow into the hills, and a multitude of
the rats sometimes occupy these mounds, and I
suspect prey upon the pupae. ... Of lesser creatures,
such as lizards, centipedes, and beetles, the numbers
in a hill frequently amount to thousands. All
these, without doubt, prey on the Termites and
their pupae, and the Termites appear to have no
power of retaliation.

"These insects, invariably called 'ants' by the
colonists of the districts where they abound, are
one of the most intolerable nuisances of the country.
They undermine everything that is constructed of
wood, and houses have been known to fall as
the result of their burrowing habits, while chairs,
tables, and other articles of furniture are often
exhibited as curiosities, the arms, legs, etc., being
completely hollowed by these destructive insects,
and the whole article reduced to a shell scarcely

94 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

thicker than paper. Accidents often happen as a
result of this hollowing habit of the termite, for
it is impossible to detect the mischief done to
beams, rafters, etc., until they give way " (Rambles
of an Australian Naturalist}.

IV
CARPENTERS AND WOOD-WORKERS

95

IV
CARPENTERS AND WOOD-WORKERS

THE Termites with which we last dealt may be
regarded as affording a natural transition from the
subject of masonry to that of carpentry, for they
are accomplished in both arts, though their skill
as masons overshadows their work as carpenters
except when they obtain access to human dwellings.
Like the work of many other of the insect car-
penters, the industry of the Termites as wood-
workers is of a destructive character, the wood
being consumed as food, and in this case only used
for constructive work after it has passed through
the digestive apparatus and assumed an entirely
different character. The higher grade of insect
carpentry is seen in the work of the Carpenter Bee
and the Carpenter Ant.

The Carpenter Bees (Xylocqpa) are natives of
warmer countries than our own, but several species
are found in the South of Europe, and the best
known of them (X. violacea) extends its northern
range as far as the neighbourhood of Paris. The
details of the industry of this bee were observed
and chronicled years ago by Reaumur, whose account
7 97

98 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

was so accurate and complete that little has been
added to it by later investigators. These insects
are the largest known bees, and are of portly build,
much like a large Humble Bee. They are of dark
violet or black colour — though some species have
yellow males, but the males do not count so far
as the subjects of this book are concerned.

The female, having passed the winter in some
snug corner, awakens to the important duties of
life in the spring, and looks out for some post or
pole that will serve her purpose ; for she does
not touch living wood. As a proper carpenter she
sees that her material is well " seasoned." In the
scheme of nature, which does not take account of
man's acquired whims which have developed into
necessities, all dead (i.e. not growing) timber has
got to be cleared away as speedily as may be ; and
so a number of creatures devote part of their lives
to this laudable object of clearing away used-up
material and making it available for fresh uses.
This they do either by eating it entirely as the
Termites do, or by piercing it with holes and
tunnels to admit air and moisture which soften
the interior and make it available for workers with
less-powerful jaws.

It is, of course, annoying to man to find that his
fence and gateposts, his garden stakes, and even
the rafters and floors of his house, are regarded as
so much of nature's waste which must be broken
up and scattered. If he wishes it to be respected
as his private property let him put his mark upon

PLATE 12

NESTS OF CARPENTER-BEE.

Page 98

The shafts bored in dead wood are divided into cells by partitions of agglutinated

wood-fragments. These are provisioned with a mixture of honey and pollen and

an egg laid in each. The cells show succeeding stages in development, beginning

with the egg in the lower right-hand cell.

Drawn by T. Carreras*

;ARPENTERS AND WOOD-WORKERS 99

it by painting its surfaces, dipping it in creosote,
or coating it with some other substance noxious
to insects.

Having obtained a post suitable for her purpose,
the Carpenter Bee sets about her work by cutting
with her jaws an oblique tunnel about half an inch
in diameter. Before this has extended far into
the wood she alters the direction of further excava-
tion and makes her boring run straight downwards.
As she gnaws the wood it is reduced to the condition
of sawdust, and this all has to be carried out of
the hole, or her further efforts would be brought
to a standstill. But instead of scattering the
excavated material, as some of the miners in sand
and earth do, she keeps it all together in a heap to
be available for use later on.

She cuts and cuts away until her tube is a foot
or fifteen inches deep and of equal width through-
out its length. At the bottom she gives it a turn
again to the exterior. Having performed this great
work, she proceeds to what, by comparison, may
be termed cabinet-work, the finer and more intricate
section of the carpenter's art. Her task is to divide
this deep shaft into about a dozen chambers, each
about an inch in depth, each for the reception
of a single egg and a sufficiency of food for the full
development of the bee-grub that is to hatch out.
This takes the usual form among these solitary bees,
of mixed pollen and honey.

Having made such a deposit at the bottom of
tier burrow, she has recourse to her heap of saw-

ioo INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

dust. Taking a little of this material, she mixes it
with a salivary secretion, and forms it into a ring
around the wall of her shaft about three-quarters
of an inch from the bottom. When this is set
firm she constructs a similar ring within the cir-
cumference of the first, and so on until she has a
complete floor about an eighth of an inch in thick-
ness, marking off her lowest cell. Upon this she
lays another egg and piles up another heap of
provisions ; makes a second floor, and repeats
these operations until there are about a dozen
separate cells one above another from the base to
the summit of her shaft, each with its egg and food.

If the thickness of the post is sufficient, several
parallel shafts are made. Fabre has shown that if
she can obtain a hollow reed of the necessary
thickness, she has sufficient of the labour- avoiding
spirit to be content with it. She will also repair
nests of previous years to make them serve for her
brood.

It will be evident that the elaboration of these
floors from sawdust, and the gathering of food for
such cell must consume some time, so that the
larva in the lowest cell must finish its development
before the one next above it in this tenement-
house. If the first fledged had to emerge where
the mother bee began her labours, at the top of
the shaft, it would have to pierce through all the
floors — and incidentally, perhaps, through several
of its brothers and sisters — before it could gain
its liberty. This is the reason why the Carpenter

CARPENTERS AND WOOD-WORKERS 101

made that lower exit. The bee grub at the time
of its pupation fixes itself with its head downwards
against the floor of its cell ; and so, naturally, the
new-born bee cuts through the floor and makes its
way through the already vacated cells below.

One regrets that the Carpenter Bee has not
crossed the English Channel and added its name
to the list of British Hymenoptera. But if we
cannot boast of one of the largest of bees among
our fauna, we have one of the smallest that is also
a clever artizan — Ceratina cyanea — whose metallic
blue body only measures a quarter of an inch. It
is related, moreover, to the burly Continental car-
penter, and shares its habits, though it works in
softer materials, as seems fitting to its diminutive
size. Ceratina needs no bulky post to accommodate
its series of cells. Everybody knows that the long
shoots of the bramble that have borne this autumn's
crop of blackberries will die off in the winter and
become brown and brittle. Next spring Ceratina
will be taking stock of these and looking for one
that has a broken end. Into this she will tunnel,
clearing out the pith to the length of about a foot,
dividing the cleared space into tiny cells, laying an
egg in each and leaving a suitable mass of food.
The partitions between the cells are contrived out
of the pith-fragments glued together by means of
her saliva.

In speaking of the provision of a lower exit from
her nest by Xylocopa we suggested that but for
this arrangement the newly developed bees might

102 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

have to pass through the bodies of their less-ready
kindred ; but if we are to judge by the behaviour
of another little carpenter, Osmia tridentata, there
is no likelihood of such action being taken. There
is such a thing as altruism among insects, though it
may be only instinctive altruism.

Our native Osmia leucomelana usually drills out
the dead bramble-stems like Ceratina, and constructs
its cells of the pith, placing them end to end.
O. tridentata is a Continental species with similar
habits, and as it has been made the subject of some
interesting experiments by Fabre we select it for
description. Some other species are masons and
excavate sand or clay. Making a cylindrical boring
into the bramble-stem, O. tridentata does not
trouble to clear out at first more pith than will
serve to allow her passage. Then at the far end
of her burrow she constructs an oval cell, using
for the purpose the pith she has left on the stem,
and stores it with pollen, honey, and an egg. She
shuts up this cell by constructing another and
using the material cut out, mixed with salivary
cement, to form a partition across the stem. So
she proceeds until she has constructed and furnished
ten or twelve cells.

Now, it is natural to assume that, as in some
similar cases, the egg that was deposited first would
produce the first bee ready to emerge, and a diffi-
culty arises as to the manner in which it makes
its escape. Dufour boldly concluded in a similar
case that it was from the last-made cell that the

CARPENTERS AND WOOD-WORKERS 103

first bee of the brood escaped, and so on in inverse
order to their age with the entire brood. It .is
not surprising to learn from Fabre that this is not
the case. He found that as a fact the order in
which the eggs were laid had no relation of necessity
to the order in which the perfect insects emerged
from their cocoons.

When one of the bees has completed its develop-
ment it tears open the cocoon that has contained
it, and then pierces the partition erected by its
mother between it and the next cell. Should it
chance to be the one nearest the entrance there is,
of course, no difficulty. It is free. But if its
egress is blocked by another cell, or more, it will
not violate the cocoon, but waits, cramped up but
patient, for days until the other has emerged in
front of it. It may, after thus waiting and feeling
the impulse of the work it has to do, strive to break
through the wood of the bramble- stem, or clear a
passage beside the cocoon, but it will die rather
than injure a cocoon it knows to be occupied by a
living pupa of its own race. If something has gone
wrong with one of the outer cells, so that emergence
from the inner ones is delayed more than a week
or two, they will probably all die.

Fabre blocked such a tunnel with cocoons con-
taining dead specimens of the same species, and
found that in every case the emerging bees had no
scruple as to breaking through such cocoons : they
knew the inmates were dead. He then took a reed
that contained the cells of another species of Osmia

104 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

(O. detritus), and blocked it with, cocoons containing
living grubs of Solenius vagus. As these were not
of their own race, the Osmia had no compunction
in destroying them. Although living, they were of
no more value in their estimation than their dead
kindred.

Cemonus unicolor, a little black wasp only a
quarter of an inch long, also forms its nests in these
dead bramble-stems, which, by the way, offer a
very convenient means of making acquaintance
with the nesting habits and general history of some
of our hymenopterous insects. The dead stems that
have had their broken ends plastered up by the
mother bee have only to be collected and stored
in a suitable gauze-covered box until spring, when
the bees will emerge and their identity can be
established. A careful paring of the wood along
one side of the stem will then reveal the structure
of the contained cells. This species provisions her
cells with Aphides, the detested " green fly " of the
gardener. Sometimes, instead of bramble-stems she
makes use of the bullet-galls of the oak, enlarging
the borings through which the rightful inhabitants
have emerged. A very similar but slightly larger
black wasp, Pemphredon lugubris, bores into the
soft wood of decayed beeches. Both these species
occur in Britain.

Several of the burrowing wasps of the genus
Crabro, of which we have thirty British representa-
tives, make their burrows in bramble-stems and
similar material. The grubs before pupation spin

CARPENTERS AND WOOD-WORKERS 105

tough brownish cocoons. The perfect insects are
black and yellow (some all black), often banded in
a very wasp-like fashion, and they have broad,
square-cut heads. The usual food stored for their
grubs consists of two- winged flies (Diptera), and in
some cases each species of Crabro has a particular
species of fly it uses for this purpose ; but there
are several remarkable departures from the rule.
Three of our native species (Crabro tibialis, C.
clavipes, and C. capitosus) use bramble-stems for
their burrowing operations. C. signatus and C.
dimidiatus bore into posts and stumps, the latter
species storing up blue-bottle flies. C. leucostomus
has a preference for the soft wood of decaying
willow-trees, and as grub-food selects the bright-
green fly Chrysomyia fiolita. C. quadrimaculatus,
C. chrysostomus, and C. interru-ptus also burrow into
dead wood.

The Peckhams found C. sexmaculatus burrowing
into the sound wood of an above-ground root of
the lime-tree. Five of them were sinking their
shafts side by side —

"... sawing and cutting in the most humdrum
and practical manner. One of them, presumably the
earliest riser, was well down in the root, and came
backing up once in a while, pushing a lot of wood-
dust out of the hole. This was spread out by
means of legs and mandibles, and was then blown
away by the fanring wings of the little worker,
who circled about just above the ground until the
last grain had disappeared. . . , After this series of

106 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

actions had been repeated several times, the wasp
flew away to hunt. We afterwards found that she
had finished the third in a set of cells leading from
a main gallery. On her return we , delayed her to
see what she was carrying. She showed no fear,
but alighted close by, and while she was trying
to transfer to the third pair of legs the fly that
she was clasping with the second pair, it escaped
and flew gaily away. Flies are plenty, however, and
she soon had another, which she was permitted to
store ; and from that time she worked busily until
we left her at noon. It took her from two to ten
minutes to catch her fly, and at each return two
or three minutes were spent in the nest.

" On opening her tunnel some days later, we
found within not only flies, but long-bodied gnats,
and all of them seemed to have been brought
home uninjured. When the freshest cell was
opened some flew away, others were walking about,
and all were lively. The wasp egg was laid on
the under side of the neck ; and although we
could not be certain of the exact time of laying,
we thought it hatched at the end of thirty- six
hours. From ten to sixteen flies were provided
for each larva."

The same observers found a colony of ten or
twelve nests of our C. interruptus, made in a stranded
log on the shore of Lake Michigan, and to their
surprise the wasps were storing them with little
white moths, which they packed length-wise in the
nest. They also observed C. stirpicola excavating

CARPENTERS AND WOOD-WORKERS 107

a bramble-stem, and they comment upon the con-
trast all these Crabros offer in their quiet and
calm, even stately, methods of working to the
restless and fussy ways of Pompilus and Ammophila.
They found that this species at least works all
through the night. One individual was kept under
close observation, and they found that she worked
continuously at her carpentry for forty-two hours
on end. The only interval she allowed herself for
rest during that long period was one of ten minutes
when she was about half-way through her task.

Her tunnel was found to be thirty-nine centi-
metres ( = ^f inches) in length, with a width of
about three and a half millimetres. This would be
divided by partitions into ten or twelve cells.
Unfortunately, after finishing her forty-two hours'
spell of carpentry, and closing up one cell with
its eggs and stores, she must have met with some
mishap on her hunting expedition, for she never
came back to complete her nest. It was impossible
to think that anything short of loss of life had
kept her from it. With insectivorous birds about,
this, alas ! is only too common an end to such
enterprises.

Some species of Odynerus differ from those
already described under the head of Miners by
making burrows in bramble-stems and the like.
Among these are three of our native species — O.
melanoce'phalus and O. l&vi'pes which adopt bramble-
stems, and O. trijasciatus which prefers old palings.
The North American species, 0. conformis and

loS INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

O. anormis, likewise tunnel in the stems of bramble
and raspberry. In some nests of O. conforms
opened by the Peckhams they found each cell
contained about twenty-four small caterpillars so
tightly packed that after taking them out to count
them they were unable to put them all back, and
although motionless in their narrow quarters they
become quite active when relieved from pressure.
Our O. l&vi'pes is said by Saunders to be not content
with the natural lining of pith to its burrow, but
takes the trouble to give this a coating of cement
made from fine sand.

Certain of the true Ants are accomplished car-
penters. We need not go beyond our shores for a
good example, which we find in the Jet Ant (Lasius
fuliginosus), a little shiny black ant. Its natural
nesting-places are in old trees and stumps, but it is
not above taking advantage of worked wood for
its purposes. Its method is to carve out wide and
ramifying galleries in the wood, leaving partitions
and supporting columns between the stories. It
follows no architectural plan in its operations, each
worker apparently following its own sweet will
and its own idea of what is advantageous to the
colony. One starts a corridor and works until it
is tired, then leaves off, and any other ant that
wanders that way carries the work a bit farther,
probably on a different plan. These corridors are
often cut out side by side, but on different levels,
so that when later the dividing walls are cut through
in places the result is rather higgledy-piggledy.

CARPENTERS AND WOOD-WORKERS 109

We have alluded to these excavations as nests,
but they are really only nests in part, for the ants
can occupy only an infinitesimal part of the whole.
Insect structures intended solely for nests have
some relation to the size of the inmates, and passages
are cut allowing little more than free headway ;
but the scale of Lasius fuliginosus* home is much as
though a man built his residence on cathedral lines.
Some of the Carpenter Ant's floors, indeed, remind
one of cathedral architecture with their supporting
pillars and arches.

This ant builds up as well as pulls down, for
where a gallery or corridor has been cut out without
any apparent regard for particular uses, it will
afterwards erect partitions to divide it off into
small rooms. These partitions are elaborated out
of wood- dust mixed with saliva and spread out in
thin sheets, so that it dries as cardboard. Every
part of the wood they have worked turns black, as
though it had been scorched, and the nest, as well
as the ants, gives off a pungent aromatic odour.

Lasius niger^ which usually makes its nest in the
ground, sometimes constructs it in rotten wood.
The Jet Ant, it should be observed, does not work
in such soft material. The wood selected is firm
and strong, and sometimes is that of a growing
tree.

Of an American Carpenter Ant (Camponotus
'pennsylvanicus) which normally makes its nests in
tree-stumps, much after the manner of our Jet
Ant, McCook has shown the readiness with which

i io INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

it can take advantage of the shelter afforded by
a human erection. A colony of this ant had
established itself in a mill and had selected as a
nesting- place a beam above a staircase. They had
found a crack in the wood and used it as a con-
venient entrance. From this point they drove
tunnels far into the beam, and enlarged parts of
these into corridors and chambers.

The wood cut to small fragments by their jaws
was taken back to the entrance and there dropped.
But it accumulated in an incriminating heap on a
cross-beam only a foot and a half below. So a
company of workers was told off to clear it away
as it fell. This they did by carrying it bit by bit
to the edge of the beam and dropping it over.
But this did not get rid of it, for it fell upon the
stairs, where it might equally call attention to the
presence of the ants. Many of the burrowing
Hymenoptera, whether working in wood or masonry,
are equally solicitous to remove such evidences of
their presence, which might otherwise give the
clue to their enemies. A gang of ants was set to
work on the stairs to scatter the tell-tale wood-
dust farther away. Now these stairs were regularly
swept down every morning by the mill-people, and
after a time this fact by some means became
impressed upon the minds of the ants, for they
withdrew the staircase workers and contented them-
selves with the dispersal of the debris constantly
falling upon the cross-beam.

These ants are not rapid destroyers like the

CARPENTERS AND WOOD-WORKERS in

Termites, for after they had been at work for eight
or ten years the beam was taken down and it was
found they had only penetrated to a length of
two feet. The thickness of the beam was seven
inches, so that this area was considerable. The
beam was cut through the affected part, and was
found to be well excavated, with the floors, arches,
and columns left, much as in the work of the Jet
Ant, and as in that case well blackened.

The anxiety of this Pennsylvanian ant to dispose
of the evidences of its industry is shown in another
incident mentioned by McCook. A small maple-
tree grew in one of Philadelphia's streets, to which
the ants had obtained access through a crevice
in the bark. From this crevice the wood-dust was
ejected and, of course, formed a tell- tell heap on
the side-walk. Here, again, a couple of ants were
busily engaged in disposing of it by carrying it grain
by grain to the kerb, and dropping it over into
the gutter. After every such performance the ant
would carefully brush her mouth with her fore-
feet to make sure there were no fragments of wood-
dust adhering to it.

The European species Camponotus herculeanus
has similar wood- excavating habits. In South
America there is a carpenter ant known as Crypto-
cerus atratus, which is remarkable for the spines
on its thorax and at the back of its broad head.
It perforates the dead branches of trees and woody
climbers. The entrance to its nest consists of a
few neatly drilled holes which are the beginnings

ii2 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

of long galleries. These are connected within by
other galleries. Colobopsis lives in a similar manner,
and for the protection of the colony keeps a big-
headed worker on duty as a sentinel at the doorway.
The worker's head just fills the space, and its jaws
are ever ready to argue the matter with an unwel-
come caller. One who has the right of entry is
admitted by the worker withdrawing backwards.

Among the beetles there are a number of accom-
plished carpenters, some of them spending several
years in the excavation of long burrows in trees,
others engaged for generations in what the house-
holder considers the more reprehensible business
of drilling into his most cherished articles of wooden
furniture and reducing them to fine dust. In the
days when our navy consisted of wooden ships, some
of these beetles were in permanent league with our
enemies in the effort to destroy these wooden walls.
It is not necessary to deal at length with these
carpenter beetles, for their methods are much the
same in many cases. A few examples must suffice.

The smaller of the carpenter beetles content
themselves with tunnelling in the bark of trees,
and such attacks are frequently regarded as of little
moment to the tree, but they have been shown in
some cases to interfere with the normal flow of
the descending sap, and so produce an unhealthy
condition which renders the tree susceptible to the
attacks of more destructive species. Moreover,
damp finds its way into these borings, also the spores
of wood- destroy ing fungi which complete the work

CARPENTERS AND WOOD-WORKERS 113

begun by the insignificant beetle. It must be
understood that when we speak of carpenter beetles
we really refer to the insect in the grub stage.
Some of the beetles as perfect insects indulge in
wood-boring to some extent, especially females
to deposit their eggs in a suitable position, but
the real work of wood-boring is performed by the
larvae.

These insects are little known to any but the
coleopterists, owing to their secluded lives. One
whose ravages are most familiar is the Bark Beetle
(Scolytus destructor) , because one can often see a
dead elm from which the bark has fallen, revealing
the characteristic feather-like sets of burrows.
There is a central burrow from which on either side
other burrows run off at right angles to the central
burrow, and at first parallel to each other. This
pattern is brought about in this manner : the
mother beetle bores the central burrow, and lays
her eggs to the number of about fifty at pretty
regular intervals along each side of it. When these
eggs hatch, the young grubs set to work, each
forming one of the side galleries. It is remarkable
that every one of them should start off at a right
angle and continue his burrow away from the
central avenue.

These side galleries as they advance from the
centre increase in breadth, an indication of the
gradual increase in size of the carpenter. To
accommodate this extra width without the whole
of the side-burrows coalescing at their ends, it is
8

114 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

necessary that a slight radiation of all should take
place, but how this is accomplished by grubs that
are entirely shut off from communication is some-
thing of a mystery. The explanation is, probably,
that each grub can hear the action of its neighbour's
jaws transmitted through the cells of the bark and
so can judge what is the proper line for its own
excavation to take.

The Bark Beetle is quite small — not more than a
quarter of an inch long — and black or brown in
colour. Its smallness would appear to indicate an
insignificant enemy to the timber grower, espe-
cially as it never penetrates deeply into the wood.
Its burrows are half in the bark and half in the
surface of the sap-wood. The completion of the
work of the grub is made evident by the appearance
of a number of what appear to be shot-holes in
the bark. These show that the insect having lain
for a time as a chrysalis in the broader end of its
burrow has changed to a beetle and eaten its way
out through the bark. The combined work of the
one brood extends over a space of about six inches
by four, and the result has been to kill a patch of
bark of that size, so that sooner or later it separates
from the sapwood and kills that too, by stopping
the downward flow of the sap at that place.

There is some difference of opinion as to whether
these beetles attack trees that are really healthy,
or whether a certain condition of sickliness is not
necessarily precedent to the success of the grubs.
If the circulation of the tree were good, the burrows

CARPENTERS AND WOOD- WORKERS 115

would be filled by the descending sap and the grubs
would be drowned by it.

There are two things in connection with Scolytus
that should be reverted to. It has sometimes been
stated that the side burrows starting off at right
angles from the central boring is due to a remark-
able instinct which leads the insects to this course
in order that they shall avoid breaking into or
crossing those of their brethren. Instinct has
nothing whatever to do with it ; it is a case of
" Hobson's choice." Any one who has stripped off
bark from an attacked elm knows that all these
burrows are closely packed with powdered bark
that has passed through the digestive organs of the
insects. If the newly hatched grubs did not turn
their attention to the sound bark before them they
would have to feed upon this excrement.

Another statement we have seen made is that
the larvae never break into neighbouring burrows.
As a rule they do not ; but we have met with many
cases in which they have done so, and we have
seen examples in which one set of burrows have
gone right across another set at right angles.

There are other beetles allied to Scolytus that
attack the bark of trees. Two of them — S. rugulosus
and S. pruni — belong to the same genus and attack
plum-trees in a similar way. Hyle sinus jraxini
makes a similar arrangement of burrows in the
ash-tree, and these are frequently evident in split
ash- poles that have been used for fencing, and from
which the bark has fallen. Tomicus typographies

n6 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

was so called by Linnaeus on account of the letter-
like character of some of its tunnels. Small beetles
of the genera Pissodes and Bostrichus also perform
their carpentry work in the bark of various trees.

But the carpenter among beetles is the grub of
the Stag Beetle (Luc anus cervus), the largest of
our native species. It spends four years in this
condition and attains a considerable size, so that
it would be a wood- destroyer to be* dreaded were
it not for the fact that it restricts its attention to
those trees whose timber is decaying. It is there-
fore regarded as harmless. At the end of the
larval period it makes a cocoon and changes to a
pupa, in which condition it rests for a short period
only, soon assuming the perfect form, but then
remaining inactive for some months, only issuing
to public view when the warm evenings of June
have arrived, when in the southern counties it
may be seen in great numbers flying about the
lanes and fields. Its pabulum is chiefly oak, but
it is often found in old willows. Two allied species,
Sinodendron cylindricum and Dorcus parallelopipedus,
have similar habits, but are comparatively rare.

Lymexylon navale differs from these in attacking
solid, hard wood into which it bores long cylindrical
holes. In the days when our navy depended upon
sound timber the ravages of this beetle used to
cause alarm, but now that we no longer grow timber
trees seriously, but mainly as cover for game, it
appears to have lost its character as a pest. It
certainly no longer obtrudes itself upon public

CARPENTERS AND WOOD- WORKERS 117

attention, and even the coleopterist does not reckon
it among common insects. But this is probably
due to the fact that our forests are not what they
were.

Anobium striatum is the well-known (by its works
at least, if not in person) little beetle that bores
the numerous pin-holes in our choice old furniture ;
and its larger relation, A. tessellatum, does similar
work in beams. They are known as the "Death
Watch," whose tapping, heard only in the stillness
of the sick chamber, was formerly held to be a sure
presage of the patient's early death. They are
near relations of the " Biscuit Weevil," which may
be regarded as a carpenter from the fact that it
operates on biscuits that are as hard as wood ; but
not content with drilling passages, it demolishes
the whole.

The grub of Nacerdes melanura has a special
liking for working in floating or water-logged
timber. It may be found along our sea-coasts in
timber that has been brought down the rivers in
flood, or that has been cast up by the sea.

Most of the larvae of the enormous family of
beetles known as Longicorns (Cerambycidce), of
which more than twelve thousand species are
known, live on or in wood and the stems of softer
plants. The Oak-pruner (Elaphidion villosum), of
North America, feeds in the limbs of oak-trees,
and cuts across them in such manner that they
fall to the ground, the grub evidently preferring its
wood dead.

ii8 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

The Girdler Beetles (Oncideres) of the same
continent achieve the same end by a different
method. The mother beetle, having deposited an
egg in a small branch, cuts a deep groove, girdle-
fashion, around it, so that the flow of sap is stopped
and the length of branch snaps in the first wind
and falls to the ground. When the wood containing
any of these larvae gets worked up by human
carpenters into articles of furniture, the drier
conditions appear to greatly lengthen the develop-
ment of the insect, owing to the wood being less
nourishing. Thus Monohammus has been known
to issue from furniture that was fifteen years old ;
and in another case a longicorn beetle issued under
conditions which made it probable that its develop-
ment had been spread over forty-five years. The
grub of Buprestis splendida is known to have existed
in the wood of a table for twenty years.

The beautiful Musk Beetle (Aromia moschata), one
of the finest of our native beetles, spends its larval
existence in boring holes deeply into the timber of
old willow-trees. The beetle makes its presence
known by giving off an odour which closely resembles
that of the sweet-briar rose. The deceptively
marked Wasp Beetles (Clytus) are also carpenters
in their larval days, excavating long tunnels in
the thicker branches of trees. We have several
times unwittingly reared a half-dozen or more of
these beetles from a piece of such a branch only a
few inches long, the piece of wood having been
brought home because it supported some fungus.

PLATE 14

BORINGS OF A BEETLE GRUB,

Page n&

A beautiful shining blue wood-boring beetle is here discovered in the grub stage on
tearing off the bark of Scots pine. The beetle never attacks growing timber.

Photo by Author.

PLATE 15

THE TIMBERMAN.

Page 120

This wood-boring beetle is distinguished by his pair of fine antennae. Those of the

female (above) may be described as long, but those of the two contending males

are very much longer. This beetle is very destructive to pit props in coal-mines.

The grub and the chrysalis are shown in the lower part of the picture.

Drawn bv T. Car r eras.

CARPENTERS AND WOOD- WORKERS 119

Whether the fungus had prepared the wood for
the beetle, or vice versa, is an open question.

Fir wood that has been turned into rafters often
contains the larvae of Hylotrupes bajulus ; and as the
perfect beetle that makes its exit therefrom is
about three-quarters of an inch long, it will be
understood that considerable damage is done.
Not only is the grub gifted with good cutting tools,
but the beetle in making its escape from the scene
of its larval industry is able to cut through obstacles.
Sometimes the rafters are in a roof which is
covered with sheet lead, but if this lead is across
the path of the beetle that is eager to make its
first acquaintance with light and air the lead must
be perforated by the beetle's jaws.

The Rev. W. Kirby mentions that he received
from Sir Joseph Banks a piece of sheet lead that
had been so drilled. The piece was only eight
inches long by four broad, but in that small area
there were no fewer than twelve oval holes, of
which the longer diameter was a quarter of an
inch. In most cases bad plumber's work would
be set down as the cause of such a roof leaking, no
one thinking of ascribing such work to a beetle.
The Timberman (Acanihocinus tedilis) in a similar
way is destructive to pit-props in coal-mines.
Rhagium inquisitor bores under the bark of willow
and ash, and Rhagium bif as datum burrows in the
wood of pine-trees.

A species of Histeridcz, found on the Amazons,
is described by Bates, not so much as a carpenter,

120 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

but as the carpenter's gimlet. This beetle (Try-
fian&us) differs from most of its congeners in being
cylindrical. Its object is to tap the burrows of
other wood borers and eat them in their retreats.
He says, " They drill holes into solid wood, and
look like tiny animated gimlets when at work, their
pointed heads being fixed in the wood, whilst their
smooth, glossy bodies work rapidly round, so as to
create little streams of sawdust from the holes."

But enough of these carpenter beetles ; we must
glance at a few moths whose caterpillars have
adopted this industry as a livelihood. First of
these, on account of its superior size, is the larva
of the Goat Moth (Trypanus cossus), which ordinarily
attains a length of four inches, with a thickness of
half an inch. It spends three years boring tunnels
into the heart of sound trees, including poplar,
willow, oak, elm, and ash. So vigorous a tree as
an oak may take several generations of Goat cater-
pillars to kill, but when the tree is dead the cater-
pillars are said to leave it. Before each winter it
hollows out a space in its tunnel, and spins a com-
fortable temporary cocoon in which it lies inactive
during the cold weather.

When full-fed it leaves its burrow, and seeks
about for light loose material in which to spin its
final cocoon. This may be in some rotten wood
of the tree whose hard parts it has been eating,
but as a" rule it has to wander away to find what
it wants. At such times (in autumn) one may find
them wandering about roads. On one occasion, in

CARPENTERS AND WOOD- WORKERS 121

Ireland, in company with Mr. H. J. Turner, F.E.S.,
we came across a poplar-tree on the bank of the
river Nore which was completely riddled by this
insect, so that it was very easy to tear away the
wood that had been left and so reveal dozens of the
larvae of various sizes, showing that several genera-
tions of them were working as contemporaries.
The burrows were attended by hundreds of a little
beetle (Soronia punctatissima) that had not pre-
viously been found in Ireland. They were feeding
upon the frass of Cossus.

The Wood Leopard Moth (Zeuzera pyrina)
tunnels in the living wood of apple, pear, elm, poplar,
and horse-chestnut, but its work does not appear
to be of a destructive character ; it has even been
declared that fruit-trees attacked by it bear more
abundantly than their neighbours that are not
affected by it. The larva spends two or three
years in the tree, pupating in its burrow ; and
the chrysalis has the rings of its body furnished
with spines, so that by the alternate contraction
and expansion of its segments it can force its way
towards the mouth of its burrow when it is about
to assume the winged condition.

The beautiful little moths known in the aggregate
as the Clearwings (Sesiidse), are all carpenters in
the larval condition. They then bear a very close
resemblance to the grubs of wood-boring beetles,
but when they have reached the winged condition
they are more likely to be taken for hymenopterous
insects by the non-entomological observer. Most

122 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

of those whose life-history is known in detail are
larvae for nearly two years. They make straight
vertical shafts in the stems or roots. One of the
best known of the group is the Currant Clearwing
(Sesia tipuliformis), which bores out the centre of
black and red currant stems, entering above and
working towards the base of the stem. Just before
the emergence of the moth the chrysalis works its
way through the thin skin-like bark, and sticks
out some distance.

One of the largest of this group is the Lunar
Hornet Clearwing (Trocbilium crabroniformis)^ which
is not like a hornet, as its names indicate, but very
like a wasp when the insects are seen apart. Its
caterpillar mines in the stems of willow, sallow, and
poplar. Before becoming a chrysalis the cater-
pillar prepares for the egress of the moth by carving
a way out to the air and spins a cap for the exit
in which it so artfully mixes up some fragments
of the bark that the cavity can scarcely be detected
for what it is.

The caterpillar of the Light Orange Underwing
(Bre-phos notha) becomes a carpenter only when it
has nearly reached the end of its existence as a
larva. Up till then it feeds upon leaves of aspen,
spinning two of them together to hide it from
public observation, but when it feels that its
feeding days are over it bores into the bark or the
sap-wood beneath, hiding its entrance by making
a cap similar to that of the Hornet Clearwing,
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CARPENTERS AND WOOD-WORKERS 123

only to press its head against this cap to push it
out.

Before concluding this chapter a word should
be said about the Saw-flies (Tenthredinidae), as
nature has provided them with saws, though as a
rule they only use them upon leaves and green
shoots. It is only the females that are provided
with these useful tools, and they use them for
cutting a slit in which to deposit their eggs. A large
kind of Saw-fly, however, known as the Large
Horn- tail (Sir ex gigas) has, instead, a powerful
drill with which she bores holes in the bark of
pine-trees for the purpose of laying an egg in each
of the holes she drills. The drill has a protecting
sheath in which it lies when not in use. It is
three-quarters of an inch long, and is hinged so as
to be used at right angles to the body. The grub
which issues from the egg is a notable carpenter
too, but it works with its jaws, and spends several
years in excavating a nice long tunnel in the solid
wood.

It often happens that between the time of the
egg-laying and the completion of the insect's
development the woodman has come along and
cut down the tree ; the trunk has been cut up
into beams or flooring planks and used in the
construction of a dwelling-house. Then in due
time the Horn- tail, undisturbed by any of these
happenings, attempts to complete its destiny by
coming forth fully winged. But the builder who
used the wood for roofing beams laid upon them

124 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

sheets of lead, and these may be thought to block
the Horn-tail's way. But not so ; the perfect
insect has jaws as good as the grub, and it makes
no fuss about a sheet of lead : it eats a way through.
It has even been known to eat through leaden bullets
that barred the way to liberty, and has gone through
a bale of woollen clothing that was in the way on
another occasion.

V

UPHOLSTERERS

125

V
UPHOLSTERERS

THERE are some insects that exhibit a tendency to
luxury. Many there are that finish of? their
cocoons with a delicate polished silken lining that
the pupa shall not be in danger of injury through
any roughness in its surroundings ; but the select
few to which we now propose to devote a few words
rely not upon their own secretions for this purpose,
but import hangings from without. We have
already referred to the fact that Odynerus Icevi^es
lines her nest in the bramble-stem with a coating
of fine sand, but that is plasterer's work, and will
not come under the head of upholstery.

The little solitary bees of the genus Prosopis,
however, that excavate their nests in the stems of
brambles and other plants, line the cells with a
luid from the, mouth which hardens into a delicate
tissue much like gold-beater's skin, but finer.
There is reason for this in the fact that the pro-
vision for the food of the future grub is of a more
iquid nature than is customary with the solitary
Dees. This usual food consists of pollen to which

127

128 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

sufficient honey is added to enable the bee to knead
it into a pasty lump. Prosopis is without any
pollen-collecting apparatus on the legs ; and for
this reason it was long suspected to be parasitical
in habit. But though parasitism has been shown
by Mr. R. C. L. Perkins to be indulged in by some
of the numerous Hawaian species, the charge does
not lie against our native species. It is now shown
that they are of rather primitive organization, and
have to bring home their pollen and honey mixed—
in their interiors — and regurgitate it for the storing
of their cells. The mixture being more liquid in
character, the cells are lined to make them water-
proof for the holding of it. For the purpose of
laying on this material evenly the tongue is specially
developed into a somewhat triangular organ, broad
in front.

In the neighbouring genus, Colletes, although the
bees make their burrows in the ground, their cells
are lined with the same material. They are less
primitive than Prosopis, and have the legs well
clothed with hairs, but they have a similar- shaped
tongue and mix a good deal of honey with their
pollen. They bring home a great quantity of
pollen, but this is mixed with so much honey
that, according to Shuckard, the mass ferments,
but is nevertheless consumed by the grub without
any evil results, the more liquid portion being
eaten first, the more solid later.

Speaking of the upholstery work, this author
says : " But the beauty with which these cells are

UPHOLSTERERS 129

formed transcends conception. Each consists of a
succession of layers of a membrane more delicate
than the thinnest gold-beater's skin, and more
lustrous than the most beautiful satin. In glitter
it much resembles the trail left by the snail, and is
evidently, from all experiments made, a secretion
of the insect elaborated from some special food it
consumes ; and by means of its bilobated tongue,
which it uses as a trowel, it plasters with it the
sides and the bottom of the tube it has excavated
to the extent necessary for one division. As this
secretion dries rapidly to a membrane, it is succeeded
by others, to the number of three or four, which
may be separated from each other by careful
manipulation. It then stores this- cell, deposits
the egg, and proceeds to close it with a covercle
of double the number of membranes with which
the sides are furnished, and continues with another
in a similar manner, until it has completed sufficient
to fill the tubular cavity, and, after closing the
last case similarly to the rest, it stops up the orifice
with grains of sand or earth."

The Carder Bee (Anthidium manicatum) is one
of the upholsterers that go abroad for their materials,
and her decoration takes more the character of
tapestry. She is a larger bee than those just
named, her body half an inch long, and the spread
of wings an inch. She is too large for bramble-
stem exploration, and does not appear to relish
hard manual labour such as is involved in digging a
shaft in the earth ; so she looks out for the disused

INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

tunnel of some other insect, such as the Musk Beetle
or the Goat Moth, and appropriates it to her own
use.

This is the insect to which Gilbert White refers
in the following passage, though he did not know
its name : " There is a sort of wild bee frequenting
the garden campion for the sake of its tomentum,
which probably it turns to some purpose in the
business of nidification. It is very pleasant to see
with what address it strips off the pubes, running
from the top to the bottom of a branch, and
shaving it bare with the dexterity of a hoop-shaver.
When it has got a bundle, almost as large as itself,
it flies away, holding it secure between its chin
and its fore legs."

In addition to the plant mentioned by White,
the Carder Bee gathers her cotton-wool from the
corn-cockle, the quince, and other plants with
downy leaves and stems. With this she lines the
cavity selected for her operations, and forms her
cells in it, coating the inside of the cells with
cement to enable them to hold the pollen-honey
mixture with which she next stores them. This
is the only British species, and even here it ' is
restricted to the southern part of the Island, but
there are others on the Continent. Fabre has
described the work of Anthidium diadema, which
forms its nests in hollow reeds, much after the
fashion adopted by our species. The grub befa
pupation constructs a cocoon of its own frass con-
nected by silk. At one end it is provided with a

UPHOLSTERERS 131

perforated conical extension which Fabre surmises
to be to admit air.

Anthidium seftemdentatum makes its cells in an
empty snail-shell, and shuts off the narrower whorls
by a wall of resin collected from plants. In the
remaining space which conchologists term the
body-whorl she constructs a couple of cells, separ-
ated by a wall of resin, and in each stores pollen
and honey with an egg. The mouth of the shell
is blocked with pellets of earth, little stones, or
such other material as may be handy. A. bellicosum
has similar habits to the last-mentioned, but it
does not occupy the body- whorl ; in consequence
it sometimes happens that a species of Osmia builds
her nest in the mouth of a shell and blocks up the
Anthidium. As the latter is ready to leave its cell
before the Osmia has completed its transformations,
the Anthidium dies a prisoner in its cell.

But the insects that are most fully entitled to
the name of upholsterers are the Leaf-cutter Bees
(Megachile). These have long been known, not
only to naturalists, but also to every one who has
grown roses, for every rose-garden furnishes evi-
dence of the skill with which these bees cut out
circular and oval pieces for the lining of their
cells. Sometimes the foliage of one particular
rose-bush is specially attacked, and the rose-grower
who takes pride in the general perfection of his
plants — leaf as well as flower — is rather emphatic
in his denunciation of the " pest " that has wrought
this havoc. All round the edges of his rose-leaves

132 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

and extending far in towards the midrib, pieces
have been cleanly cut out. Where one plant has
suffered almost alone in this respect, it will almost
certainly be one of the varieties known as tea-roses,
the firm, glossy leaf apparently being more suitable
for the purpose than any other.

All the Leaf-cutter Bees, however, do not select
rose-leaves for their purpose ; the species that do
so mostly are Willughby's Leaf-cutter (Megachile
willughbiella) and the Patchwork Leaf-cutter (M.
centuncularis). The first named usually makes its
nests by boring deep wells in the soft wood of an
old willow, and sometimes instead of rose-leaves
selects those of the laburnum for its depredations.'
The manner in which most of the species work has
been well described by Shuckard. He says :

" The cylindrical tube being prepared, which is
done very similarly to the way in which it is prac-
tised by all the labouring genera, by the gradual
removal of the particles of the wood, or sand, or
earth of which it consists, the insect's instinct
prompts it to fly forth to obtain the necessary
lining, that the lateral earth may not fall in, or the
wood taint the store to be accumulated for the
young, for it is before this is done that the upholstery
is commenced. Having fixed upon the preferred
plant, rose-bush or laburnum or sallow7, or
whatever it may be, it alights upon the leaf, and
fixing itself upon the edge, it holds it with three
legs on each* side ; then using its mandibles as the
cutter of silhouettes would his scissors, and, just

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UPHOLSTERERS 133

as rapidly as he cuts out a profile, does this ingenious
little creature ply the tools it is furnished with by
nature. The oval or semicircular cutting being
thus speedily dispatched, with the legs still clinging
to the surfaces, the insect biting its way backwards,
the piece cut off necessarily remains within the
clutch of the legs, and when about falling the
rejoicing labourer expands her wings and flies off
with it with a hum of delightful triumph, the
cutting being carried perpendicularly to her body.

" In a direct line she wings her way to the recep-
tacle, and arrived at the mouth of the aperture
within which she has to convey it, she rolls it to its
requisite tubular form and thrusts it forward to
the bottom of the cavity. The first piece for the
lining of the cell is always oval and larger in pro-
portion to the succeeding ones, which, to the number
of three or four, are semicircular, the first piece
having an extra use to serve in forming a concave
bottom to the cavity.

" Having completed the requisite manipulation
for adjusting to shape the external lining of the
bottom and sides of the first cell, she withdraws
backwards, again flies off, and, as if she had traced
a trail in the air, . . . back she wends to the same
plant, and proximately to the spot of her recent
triumphant exploit renews the operation, but the
result of which, this time, is to be semicircular.
Home she flies again, and the arrangement within
of this piece is different [from] that of the first,
for this is simply tubular, and so placed that it

134 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

intricates with, its cut margin within the serrated
edge of the first and the third, and in case of a fourth
the fcurth also is similarly placed, so that one laps
within the other, the edges of two of these cuttings
never being conterminous. The number of the
cuttings is apparently regulated by the drier or
mcister condition of the substance in which the
tunnel is drilled.

" Another duty has now to be performed, indeed,
that for which all the preceding labours were
undertaken — the provision for its young, wherein
it perpetuates its kind. . . . Having completed the
requisite store of honey mixed with pollen, this is
carried to the brush with which the under side of
the abdomen is furnished, by means of the posterior
legs. The honey and pollen are gathered from
different kinds of thistles, whence it acquires a
reddish hue, and looks almost like conserve of roses,
and the nest is filled with it to within a line of its
top ; the egg is then deposited, but the coating
of leaves, which encloses the cell completely, secures
the store from lateral absorption, although the
mixture is rather more fluid, consisting of a relatively
greater quantity of honey than is usual, excepting
perhaps in the case of Ceratina, and although no
viscous secretion is used to bind the leaves together,
which retain their position from merely lateral
pressure.

" The cell has now to be closed, and the artificer,
knowing that the transverse section of the cell is
circular, again flies forth, and without compass,

UPHOLSTERERS 135

but with all the accuracy with which Leonardo da
Vinci struck a circle with his pencil, to testify his
mastery, cuts the leaf again in that form, and as
surely : and three or four, or five or six times,
repeats this operation, returning each time with
each piece, so many having been variously observed.
The separation between the cells being thus con-
solidated, it is further thickened by the lateral,
spare, protruding edge of the leaf first introduced
lapping over it."

In the same manner other cells, to the number
of four or five, are formed above the first, and
any space remaining in the tube is filled up with
earth. The bee then bores another tube, and
repeats the process until her eggs are exhausted.
When the larva has consumed its food-store it
spins a lustrous silken cocoon attached to the
hangings of its cells, and undergoes the changes
into chrysalis and perfect bee.

Our other native species proceed in a similar
manner, though some of them work in different
materials. Thus M. circumcincta makes her ex-
cavations in the ground of banks, but lines them
with rose-leaves ; M. argentata mines in sand, and
sometimes uses the leaves of the bird's-foot trefoil
(Lotus corniculatus) for her cells ; M. ligneseca, like
M. willughbiella and M. centuncularis, make theirs
usually in wood, and M. versicolor has been found
nesting in the stumps of broom (Sarothamnus
scoparius). M. centuncularis again has sometimes
been found to use the petals of the garden geranium

136 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

for her upholstery ; in which she appears to come
close to the European species, Osmia papaveris
(formerly included in this genus), which lines her
cells with the petals of the Corn Poppy (Popaver
r hoe as).

M. albocincta usually appropriates a burrow of
the earthworm, and as this is far too long for her
purpose, she stops it at the proper depth by a
plug of leaves on which she builds up her cells.
Other species are fully alive to the labour saving
effected by adapting a previously existing cylindrical
hole for their nesting-place. Bamboos used for
the support of tall plants in gardens are frequently
taken by them ; screw-holes, pipes of small bore,
and gun-barrels also come handy.

Osmia papaveris, to which we have already briefly
referred, is usually found in the neighbourhood of
corn-fields, and sinks its shafts in the firm earth of
roads and well-trodden footpaths. Cutting semi-
circular pieces from the bright-red petals of the
poppy, it uses them in much the same manner as
Mega chile does with her leaves ; but instead of
cutting small circles for capping the cells, she turns
over the upper edges of the lining pieces to effect
the closure.

VI
WAX-WORKERS

137

VI

WAX-WORKERS

THE workers in wax are not a numerous company,
so far as species are concerned ; but being social
insects they form communities -that more than
make up for paucity of species by the abundance
of individuals. These communities are also con-
tinuous. With the Masons, the Miners, and the
Carpenters, the clever work they have done ceases
to be useful after one season's use. The insects
themselves are but annuals. The workers in wax,
on the other hand, are perennial — that is to say
as communities ; the workers themselves, other
than the queen, or egg-laying female, are no longer
lived than their solitary relations. A wild com-
munity of Honey Bees in a cave might go on for
ever.

The huge difference in the two groups — social
and solitary — that this implies has been brought
about solely by the discovery of the socials that if
they retained honey in their stomachs their vital
chemistry would convert it into wax. But for this
discovery the Honey Bee would probably never
have figured largely in human literature as she has

139

140 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

done, whilst her solitary relatives, equally indus-
trious, no less solicitous for the interests of an
unseen progeny and the continuance of the race,
have been utterly ignored save by a handful of
naturalists. But for this discovery man would
never have found the bee worth eulogizing or rob-
bing— and the eulogies have been directed mainly
to her habit of storing up honey which man could
appropriate to his own use. The discovery of
the secret of wax-production and the acquisition
of the knowledge of its ductibility and application
to the use of the community have made all the
difference to the Honey Bee, and — inter alia —
have brought her completely under the subjection
of man.

Wax is a costly substance to produce, from
sixteen to twenty pounds of honey being consumed
to make one pound of wax. It is made available
for use by its secretion by glands on the surface of
the rings on the under side of the hind body.
Here it appears as thin scales which are removed
by the bee's hind legs and passed to the mouth,
where the wax is worked up — possibly with the
addition of saliva — into a condition suitable for
the use of those who have to build up the comb
and model the six-sided cells. But before we look
further into the economy of the domesticated
Honey Bee (Apis mellifica), let us glance at the
wild honey- storing bees.

In tropical countries there are several species of
wild Honey Bees (Melipona) which make their

WAX-WORKERS 141

nests in trees, caves, and buildings, in the latter
case often becoming a nuisance. We have already
mentioned the Brazilian species that gather clay
at times instead of pollen, for the purpose of filling
up inconvenient crevices in the hollow tree they
have adopted as a u hive." Bates says that most
of the South American species of Melipona are
workers in clay as well as in wax, and they appear
to use it as our bee uses propolis, the gummy
varnish scraped from the leaf-buds of certain trees
and the stems of some smaller plants. The same
naturalist states that none of these American bees
have attained to that high degree of architectural
skill in the construction of their comb which is
shown by the European hive bee. The wax cells
of the Melipon& are generally oblong, showing
only an approximation to the hexagonal shape in
places where several of them are built in contact.
These bees though they have stings cannor use
them — at least on human skin — because their
points are not sharp enough, but they make up
for this defect with their jaws when any one dis-
turbs their nests. The Indians, of course, fre-
quently do this to obtain honey, which the nests
contain in abundance. Bates saw one opened
which contained a couple of quarts of pleasantly
tasted liquid honey, and the Indian who obtained
it was completely covered with the bees. Gosse
describes one of these " stingless " bees, known in
Jamaica as Angelitos for this reason. He says
that they keep their store of honey in the lower

142 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

part of the nest, away from the brood-cells, in a
cluster of cups as large as pigeon's eggs.

The Dingar or Big Bee (Apis dorsata) of India
differs from these Meliponas in the fact that its
sting has a very fine and practicable point, and the
bee is always ready to use it. It would certainly
have no chance of earning an Indian name equiva-
lent to Angelito ; and it is execrated by archaeolo-
gists on account of its reprehensible habit of
attaching its enormous combs to fine buildings like
the Taj Mahal at Agra, and the paintings and
sculptures in the rock temples at Ajanta. It also
attaches its combs to the under side of the hori-
zontal branches of tall trees, such as the cotton tree
(Bombax).

These combs, according to Mr. E. P. Stebbing,
are semi- elliptical in shape, five feet long and two
and a half feet in breadth. A single tree may
have a dozen of these huge combs on its branches ;
and woe to the newly arrived and innocent Euro-
pean sportsman who " between beats " indulges
in a restful pipe under one of these trees. The
ascending reek of burnt tobacco will excite the
bees to fury, and they will descend in thousands,
and cause the valiant sportsmen — probably brave
military officers — to beat an ignominious retreat at
a speed unusual in that climate. One well-known
archaeologist who was investigating the mural art
of Ajanta had to remain in the river for hours, up
to his chin in water, to escape the fury of the
resentful bees he had disturbed. In Murray's

WAX-WORKERS 143

Handbook for India, travellers visiting the caves
of Ellora and Ajanta are advised to supply them-
selves with " a pair of stout leather gauntlets
coming up above the wrist half-way to the elbow,
and a light wire-mask with a back-piece to protect
the back of the head and neck, many persons having
been so badly stung that in some cases death has
ensued." Attempts have been made to domesti-
cate the Dingar, but they have failed.

So extensive a literature exists upon the Honey
Bee (Afis mellifica) that it would be idle to attempt
to enter into details of its economy here ; we will
only deal with it as a wax-worker.

The production of this wax by the worker bees
does not go on whilst they are out collecting
honey or pollen, or whilst they are attending to
the brood in the hive. It is a distinct employ-
ment, and a number of workers appear to be
temporarily charged with this function apart from
other duties, and it takes them twenty-four hours
to produce the plates of crude wax. A peculiar
rite appears to be essential for the carrying out
of this wax production, though why it is necessary
is not evident. The bees have to hang in festoons
attached to each other by the feet only. When
wax is needed these festoons hang from the roof of
the hive wherever there is room for them.

A festoon is formed in this wise : a couple of
bees station themselves apart, each clinging to the
roof by its fore feet only ; another bee will, with
its fore claws, cling to the hind claws of the first

H4 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

one, and so on in the same manner until two
hanging chains of bees are formed. Then the two
bottom ones cause the chains to swing until they
can hook their hinder feet together to form a
festoon. So they hang for about twenty-four
hours, when the festoon breaks up and the bees
which composed it resort to the cell-makers and
supply them with the material for their work.

When the wax-secreting worker has brought the
thin plates from the abdominal rings to her jaws
and manipulated them into true bee's-wax as we
know it, it issues from the mouth as a thin strip
which is brought to the cell-makers and applied
by them to the walls of the cells now under con-
struction, a work that is carried on with great
rapidity.

A considerable amount of honey is converted
into only a small quantity of wax, and therefore
the workers use it with parsimony. There is no
waste, and they have learned to make the maximum
structure out of the minimum of material. That
is the reason for the six-sided shape of the cell.
All the solitary bees, as we have shown, make their
burrows cylindrical, based upon the form of their
bodies, or at least of the body revolved on its own
axis, as they have to revolve in finishing off their
excavation.

Now, though the hexagonal cell admirably fits
the cylindrical body of the bee-grub, it cannot be
modelled upon the body of the worker bee. If
the individual cells of the bee-comb were fashioned

WAX-WORKERS 145

separately, and then a number of them were brought
together, under equal pressure they would form
hexagons ; but they are not made separately, but
are built in mass, and every part of the walls of
one cell forms part of the wall of a neighbouring
cell. This is even so with the base of the cell,
which forms part of the base of three other cells
on the other side of the comb. To human artificers
the task would necessitate a resort to mathematics,
but the worker bee issues from the chrysalis fully
competent to undertake the task without swallow-
ing the books of Euclid, and without even parental
instruction. Pure " rule of thumb " practice, but
even so the mathematicians have failed to find
any flaw in its results ; indeed, there is a well-
known record of a mathematician's work being
corrected in a sense by the bees.

Maraldi, a famous mathematician in the early
part of the eighteenth century, took an interest
in bees, and invented a glass hive in order to observe
them at work. He found that the bottoms of the
cells formed an inverted pyramid and that they
were hexagonal like the walls, but formed of three
lozenge-shaped plates. His mathematical mind
was curious to know if the bees were mathematicians
also, so accurate did the work appear to the eye.
So with great care he measured the angles of these
lozenges, and found that the greater angles were
109° 28', and the lesser ones 70° 32'.

Reaumur, who knew of Maraldi's calculations,
and suspected that such precision on the part of
10

146 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

the bee had relation to the desire for economy in
the use of the precious wax, thought to test the
matter from that point of view by propounding this
problem to Konig, a noted geometrician : " What
should be the angles of a hexagonal cell with a
pyramidal bottom formed of three similar and
equal rhomboid plates, so that the least matter
possible might enter into its construction ? " M.
Konig, it should be explained, knew nothing of
Maraldi's measurements. Konig employed the in-
finitesimal calculus, and found that the great
angles of the rhombs should be 109° 26' and the
small angles 70° 34'. Here was a surprising agree-
ment between theory and practice !

There for a time the matter rested, and then
Maclaurin, the Scots mathematician, took a turn
at the problem propounded to Konig by Reaumur.
The result he arrived at agreed precisely with the
measurements of Maraldi ; and it was then endea-
voured to discover how Konig had made the mis-
take. It was found that the book of logarithms
he had used as the basis for his calculations con-
tained an error which accounted for that difference
of 2' in his results. So the bees led to the cor-
rection of the book of logarithms, whose error
might have led in other directions to lamentable
results.

The comb is not built upwards from the base
but downwards from the roof. A small quantity
of wax is deposited by one bee, to which others add
in succession until sufficient is amassed for the

PLATE 20

HONEY-BEES COMB-BUILDING

Page 146

The comb is built from above downwards. The bees on the lower edge

are constructing new cells; those above are finishing off the margins of

the cells and making the surface of the comb even.

Photo by Tickner Edicardes.

PLATE 21

HUMBLE-BEES' NEST.

Page 154

The lower photo shows a ground-built nest with the dome of shredded grass and

mos§ removed. In the upper photo a cluster of cells, mostly vacated, have been

taken from their surroundings.

Photos by Author.

WAX-WORKERS 147

commencement of operations. Then a bee begins
to excavate in it the foundation of a cell. She
works for a time, and then goes off, another worker
taking her place immediately and working for a
spell. No one bee, therefore, completes a cell,
but each is built up by a number of workers doing
a little in succession. When the bottom begins
to take form, other bees work at a corresponding
cell on the other side of the wax wall. It will
be seen that these three lozenge-shaped plates
constituting the bottom of the cell have each two
free margins — six in all — and it is by building up
the walls from these margins that the hexagonal
form of the cell is arrived at. As the work of the
builders proceeds, the workers who are making
wax come and go, leaving additional contributions
of wax for the builders to manipulate.

There is a difference in the size of the cells
according to the use to which they are to be put.
Some of the earlier observers, noticing this dis-
crepancy in size, regarded it as a defect in the
calculations of the bees. As a matter of fact the
difference is deliberately designed. The cells in-
tended as cradles for worker grubs have a diameter
of one- fifth of an inch ; those for males or drones are
a quarter of an inch ; the royal cells for the pro-
duction of future queens are different altogether
from these, much larger and of different form,
jutting out from the comb and taking a downward
direction. They are somewhat pear-shaped, and
about five times larger than the drone cells. There

148 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

is no evidence of parsimony in the construction
of the royal cell ; the precious wax is lavished here
to form thick walls, rough and irregular without,
but smooth and polished within.

We have spoken of the economy shown in build-
ing the ordinary cells. The walls are so thin that
light passes through them, but those of the queen
cells are quite opaque. The outer edge of the
ordinary cell is thickened into a sort of rim, as
this has to be subjected to much friction from
the feet of the workers frequently passing over it,
whilst the lower parts of the walls are supported
by the mutual pressure of the honey in adjacent
cells. Roughly speaking, these cells may be said
to be horizontal, but there is a slight inclination
downward from the mouth to the base. Although
the cells are in this position, honey does not run
out, chiefly owing to capillary attraction, though
it might do so in very hot weather when the honey
becomes more fluid. Until a cell is quite full of
honey it cannot be capped, and it will be easily
understood that an enormous number of journeys
is required before the little workers can bring
home sufficient honey to fill one cell.

To prevent running, the workers have resort to
an ingenious device : they obtain a little honey
from one of their first-filled cells which is of a
firmer, denser character, owing to evaporation,
and this is made to float upon the new honey.
In places remote from a proper water-supply
system, where the water for domestic use has to be

WAX-WORKERS 149

brought from spring or well, this is usually done by
means of a couple of pails and a yoke. To guard
against spilling by the way a flat piece of wood
floats upon the top of the water in each pail. The
disc of firmer honey serves a similar purpose in
the honey cell.

When the cell is full the workers cap it with a
thin sheet of wax attached to the edges. In other
cells pollen is stored up for the sustenance of the
grubs, the workers as they 'return from excursions
among the flowers simply dropping their collections
into the cells and leaving those that are on indoor
duty to pack it.

When the brood cells are ready the mother bee
(usually styled the queen) traverses the comb, and
lays an egg in each cell. She appears to know what
is the character of each egg before she deposits it.
The first few may be deposited in the drone cells,
then a vast number is laid in the worker cells. The
eggs of the two kinds differ in size, just as the cells
do. In April and May she will lay eggs at the
rate of fifteen hundred to two thousand a week,
and continue doing so. In six weeks she has furn-
ished ten or twelve thousand cells with occupants,
and during the whole of one season will lay thirty
or forty thousand eggs. During her life she may
produce as many as a hundred thousand.

The eggs hatch after three days, and the minute
grubs are at once tended by the nurse bees, who
feed them with bee bread, which is a compound of
pollen and honey. On this diet the grub thrives,

150 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

and when only five days old it is full-fed and fills
the cell. The nurse bees then close the cell with
a cap made of wax and pollen, which is porous and
admits the air. The grub then spins its cocoon,
and changes into the chrysalis condition. About a
fortnight later it appears as a winged worker, and
rests for half a day to allow its integuments to
harden, after which it is ready to take up duty as a
nurse or other indoor worker. The evolution of
the drone follows much the same course, but, so
far as information goes, when it emerges as a bee,
bigger than a worker and with compound eyes
that meet on the top of the head, it does no work
beyond taking part in the ventilation of the hive
by fanning with its wings.

The " royal " cells are mere cups when the
eggs are laid in them. In three days also these are
hatched, and the nurse bees drench the young
grub with a special food, the " royal jelly.5 ' As
the grub grows, the cell walls are built up, and
in five days full growth is completed, when the
cell is finished and sealed up for a fortnight, by
which time the female bee issues from her chrysalis
skin, and is soon ready if need be to accompany
a swarm to found a new colony. Or she may be
killed before emergence by her jealous mother.

Whilst on the subject of wax we ought to men-
tion that for less important uses, such as stopping
cracks, or sealing up the bodies of invaders whom
they have killed but cannot remove, they use a
substance to which the ancients gave the name

WAX-WORKERS 151

of propolis. This is the gummy secretion gathered
from the leaf-buds of poplars, horse-chestnut, pines,
and the stems of other plants. They take it home
as they do pollen, in the baskets on their hind legs ;
but they cannot discharge their loads of propolis
as they do their pollen : it is so sticky that it has
to be pulled off by other workers.

Other wax workers will be found in the Humble
or Bumble Bees (Bombus), which are also social,
the community again consisting of workers or
incomplete females, drones, and one or more
perfect females. As compared with the Honey
Bee the Humble Bee is a burly giant, whose re-
appearance in spring is always welcomed as she goes
about the earliest blossoms and lets the world
know by her cheerful humming that she is return-
ing to activity. These early bees are always females
that have lain in a torpid state through the winter
in some cosy nook, and have temporarily emerged
for the refreshment that sallow catkins afford.

But the Humble Bee community is a very small
affair in comparison with that of the Honey Bee.
As you stand under a sallow- tree in March and
listen to the organ-like volume of music that
emanates from the hundreds of Humble Bees that
are gathering nectar from the flowers — the so-called
" palm " — you may be excused for regarding them
as a " swarm " akin to the swarms of Honey Bees.
As a matter of fact, every individual of that host
is an independent female, each the possible founder
of a new and separate colony. When they have

1 52 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

filled their honey-bags, each goes back to her
hibernaculum to sleep again until May. Then
she looks about for a deserted mouse- nest or other
su able retreat, and lays the foundations of her
colony that is to be. This may be either on the
surface protected by grass, or underground at the
end of a tunnel — often a yard long. Different
species have their own special tastes in this matter.

The Humble Bees are not nearly so eminent as
wax-workers as are their cousins of the hive, for
they build no proper combs. They produce little
wax, and that exudes from under the rings on' the
back, not from the under surface as in the Honey
Bee. The wax, too, is brown in colour, and much
softer than that of the Honey Bee.

It is the custom to speak of the fertile female
Humble Bee as a queen just as one speaks of her
equivalent in the hive ; but there is a great differ-
ence between them. The queen bee is a mere
layer of unlimited eggs : she is too regal to be
domestic. We prefer to speak of the founder of
the Humble Bee colony by the higher title of mother
bee. She is a real mother with the maternal
instincts highly developed. Unaided, she lays the
foundations of the family, incubates her eggs,
nestles and feeds her brood, and when she has
reared a bevy of infertile daughters to help her
she still takes part in all this work so long as her
physical powers allow her to do so.

Having selected a suitable site, she sets to work
to prepare the nest. If it is an abandoned nest

WAX- WORKERS 153

of the field mouse, she probably finds it already
provided with material suited for her use. This
will consist of half-rotted grass, finely divided and
cut into short lengths. The mouse is very par-
ticular in the selection of material, taking the
withered blades from the base of a tussock and
dividing them lengthwise as well as cross-wise in
order to have them perfectly ductile and capable
of felting. This also is the quality of material the
Humble Bee likes. Sometimes she mixes fragments
of fine moss with it, probably to increase its springi-
ness. All this material is taken, bit by bit, in her
jaws, passed by her two hinder pairs of legs under
her body and accumulated behind her. Then she
pierces a tunnel to its centre, where she hollows
out a small oval chamber. Her home is ready for
furnishing.

She next sets off on a hunt among the flowers,
and comes back a little later with her thighs bulging
with masses of pollen and her honey-crop filled
with nectar. She brushes off the pollen in a
little heap upon the floor of her nest and moistens
it with honey ; then with her jaws kneads it into
a paste which she builds up into a solid mass. Upon
this she constructs a ring- like wall of wax — her
first cell, of which the pollen mass forms the floor.
In this cell she lays about a dozen eggs, and then
closes in the top with a dome of wax. She also
constructs a pot of thin wax to contain honey,
which is placed in the doorway of the nest-chamber
and filleci with honey. The honey-pot is about

154 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

half an inch across and about three-quarters of an
inch deep. This filled, she is ready for the possible
advent of a bad day when she cannot steal a few
minutes from her nursing duties to fly to the
nearest flowers and obtain food.

She now takes up her station over her cell, with
her face to the door, and actually incubates her
eggs. The grubs hatch out on the fourth day,
and set to work feeding upon the floor of the cell.
Each scoops out for itself a hollow in the pollen-
mass, and so that they shall not cut through it to
the exterior the mother bee collects more pollen
and plasters it all around the original heap. She
also makes a semi-fluid mess of pollen and honey,
and cutting a hole in the wax lid drops the mixture
in upon the grubs.

Between these necessary expeditions for collecting
food she sits upon the brood mass, from which she
can reach with her long tongue to the honey-pot at
such times as she requires food for herself. Much
of this is used up in the production of heat to keep
up the temperature of the nest night and day.
The honey-pot is always undergoing changes when
it is in use. When full it is relatively tall and has
a small mouth. As the honey gets low so do the
walls of the pot in agreement, and when it is
refilled the walls are built up again. But after
about a month, when there are workers about to
assist the mother, the waxen pot is neglected and
falls into ruin. The honey is of a more fluid
character than that stored by the Honey Bee.

WAX-WORKERS 155

The legless larvae when they are about five days
old increase the size of the hollows in which they
repose, each occupying its own cell in the pollen
mass, and two days later spinning a tough papery
cocoon. The mother about this time clears away
the brown wax she has been continually adding
to for the protection of the grubs, and reveals the
upper ends of all these cocoons standing side by
side. A depression runs through the middle of
the group which indicates where the mother's
body has lain in her brooding vigils. This groove
she still continues to occupy, for her offspring still
need warmth to help their development even
when they have changed into chrysalides.

On the twenty-second or twenty-third day after
the eggs were laid she has the reward for all her
labour, for the chrysalides develop into bees and
begin to bite through the tops of the cocoons and
emerge. In this they are assisted by the mother,
who enlarges the openings to make their exit
easier. The newly emerged bees are all small
workers, and as soon as their legs and wings have
become firm and their wetted matted coats are
dry, they begin to assist the mother in collecting
provisions for their larval sisters. For all this
time the mother bee has been making other cells
and filling them with eggs, so that the broods come
on with intervals of only two or three days between
them.

The new workers start collecting out-of-doors
when only three or four days old, and do their

156 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

work at once as though, they had been trained to
it. Every few days they are joined by later emer-
gences— all workers for a time. Later the mother
lays eggs which produce males and females. The
cells for the second and later batches of eggs are
built on the sides of the taller cocoons, so that
they can derive warmth from the mother's body
as she is imparting it to her first brood. It is
to this arrangement that the higgledy-piggledy
appearance of the nest at the end of the season
is due.

Later in the season when the mother bee is
getting enfeebled the older workers take to laying
virgin eggs, but these only produce males. The
sexual bees produced by the mother earlier in
the season are all much smaller than those produced
in early autumn, upon which the continuance of
the race depends. For the Humble Bee com-
munities all come to an end before winter, and the
future of the species depends upon the young
fertile females who go into hibernation, and are
ready to begin egg-laying in spring.

These Humble Bees, of which there are many
species — seventeen of them natives of our own
Islands — differ in • their nesting habits, some, as
indicated, going underground, whilst a few, known
as Carder Bees, form their nests in slight hollows
of the surface, covering them with domes of felted
moss and grass. These Carders are much less
numerous in individuals than the subterranean
builders. Smith says that the communities of

WAX-WORKERS 157

Bombus terrestris — an underground builder — are the
most numerous. One such nest he fbund to
contain 107 males, 560 females, and 180 workers;
a surface builder's nest — of Bombus sylvarum or B.
agrorum — would contain about half these numbers
of inmates.

The empty cocoons from which came the first
batch of workers are utilized by them for the storage
of pollen, and by some species as honey-pots for
the immediate use of the commonwealth. We
have mentioned the readiness of the underground
builders to adapt a mouse's nest and run to their
own purposes ; and the surface builders are not
above similar economy of labour. We have found
them making use of a field vole's nest. They are
not likely to take possession of such places before
they have been abandoned by the original owners,
for mice are great enemies to the brood, though
they know better than to make an attack when the
bees are at home.

Smith has recorded an instance of Bombus
agrorum taking possession of a wren's nest that
was occupied by a clutch of the bird's eggs. Possibly
the bee thought they were cocoons ; anyway,
she heaped up her collected pollen among them,
and so disgusted the wren by her action that she
abandoned her eggs, and it is probable built a new
nest elsewhere. Mr. Sladen mentions a double
case of adaptation. A mouse had utilized a cast-
off shoe as a nesting-place, and after the mouse had
done with it B. agrorum adapted the mouse-nest

158 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

to her use. Such a course of procedure saves the
colony- founding female the labour of collecting
all the material required, and enables her to devote
her energies at once to the laying of eggs and
gathering food.

VII
PAPER-MAKERS

159

VII
PAPER-MAKERS

THE ancient Egyptians are generally given the
credit for the invention of paper from slices of the
stem of papyrus reed, but probably the Chinese
would claim that they made it from another plant.
Neither race has the slightest claim to be con-
sidered as the inventors of paper, for the wasps
were probably busy manufacturing paper long
before the first man put in an appearance on the
face of the earth.

Not so long ago nearly all paper turned out by
our paper-mills was made of rags ; but the demands
for paper have long outgrown the supply of rags,
and we have now to cut down the primeval forests,
reduce the wood to pulp, and use the crushed
fibres to make most of our paper. In this " up-to-
date " development of an important industry we
are merely going back to the primitive craft of the
wasps. Of course, we have improved upon their
methods, bringing in wonderful and expensive ma-
chinery for pulping the wood and converting it into
smooth sheets of varying thickness. The wasp does
the whole business with her mandibles and tongue,

II 161

162 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

It will be objected, of course, that the wasp's
paper is of a very inferior quality and not durable ;
but the wasp makes the sort of paper that she
requires, just as we do. We require fine writing-
paper, printing-paper, packing-papers of various
degrees of coarseness, blotting-paper, etc., and we
make what we require. If the wasp is going to use
her paper where it will have protection from the
elements she makes it friable. If it is to stand rain
and wind she makes it stronger.

The wasps' nests we are acquainted with in this
country are intended to last a few months only :
it would be unfair to accuse her of making tem-
porary material where she does not require per-
manence. Besides, where occasion requires it the
wasp can make tolerably permanent structures of
fine card or papier mdche that is waterproof and
upon which a man can write with a pen. What
more can be expected of the wasp as a paper-maker
than this ? If she makes materials that suffice
for her needs, she does as much as man does for
himself. The only difference is that man is never
satisfied, but ever wanting something more than
his actual necessity demands.

Like the Honey Bee the Social Wasps (Ves^a)
are mathematicians. They build their combs with
a strict eye to economy of material, and they have
adopted the hexagon as best serving this end. But
the wasp combs are all single. They have not
learned that there is additional economy in building
them back to back. Their combs are also built

PAPER-MAKERS 163

horizontally with the cells opening downwards.
Like the bee, they begin their building at the top
of their nest and work downward, but there is
this difference, that the bee-comb is attached by
its double thickness and each one has its own
support; the single flimsy combs of the wasp are
suspended by paper pillars, the first layer to a
branch or underground root, and each succeeding
comb to the one previously constructed ; so that
the entire series of combs has to depend upon
the original pillar.

In a previous chapter we have referred to the
idea, still entertained by a few, that the hexagonal
form of the bee cells is due to mutual pressure.
In the analogous case of the wasp, where the same
shape is adopted, observation of the building-up
of the comb convinced us many years ago that the
hexagon is built as such, and not produced by pres-
sure. There is this difference, however, between
the cell of bee and wasp — the latter has a base
slightly convex on the exterior, and the interior
forming a broad inverted cone. This is due to
the fact that there is no economy possible in adopt-
ing the three rhombs of the bee cell. The upper
side of the comb is flat as a whole, but the slight
convexity of each cell is patent to the eye, and it
is equally evident that the hexagonal form is adopted
from the beginning.

Whence comes the material of the comb ? The
wasp cannot produce paper pulp from the plates
of her abdomen as the bee produces wax. It is

1 64 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

frequently asserted that she resorts to rotten posts
and stumps for her material ; but though this may-
be true of the hornet, it is not true of the \Aasp.
She uses perfectly sound wood, though she un-
doubtedly prefers wood that has been " seasoned "
by exposure in a cut state to growing timber. We
have a garden fence that is a favourite quarry for
the raw material of wasps' nests. In the busy
season you may see scores of worker wasps upon
it shaving off delicate films of its surface, reducing
it to pulp, and flying off to their nest with a pellet
of it. The greater portion of the fence is of oak,
but a smaller length is of pine ; and they take
from both. The pine must be the easier to work,
and one would expect them to restrict their atten-
tions to it ; but they do not. It is probable that
they may have different uses for the two sorts
of material. The photograph of a few inches of
the pine fence will make clear the extent of 'surf ace
shaved at each operation. The average width of a
shaved space is two millimetres, and its length
about ten millimetres, some longer, some shorter.

Arrived at the nest, the worker flies to that part
where material may be most in request at the
moment, and chewing up her pellet afresh, she
mixes it with a gummy secretion from the glands
of her mouth, and then proceeds to spread it out
thinly as an addition to the edge of work in progress,
whether it be a new layer of the outer walls or the
lengthening of brood cells to make them agree
with the increasing length of growing grubs.

PLATE 22 THE RAW MATERIAL OF WASP-PAPER. Page 164

The wasp was the inventor of wood-pulp paper. The photo shows a portion of a

fence whose face has been regularly shaved by wasps to yield them the material

for constructing their nests and combs.

Photo by Author.

COMB OF WASP.

Page i 68

PLATE 23

The material taken from the fence shown in the previous plate has here been worked
up into a coarse paper which has been used in the construction of thousands of six-
sided cells.

Photo by Author.

PAPER-MAKERS 165

Although the cells when once advanced to their
full size demand no paper- making, and serve for
the accommodation of successive batches of grubs,
there are always new combs to be built and the
circumference of old combs to be increased by
adding new cells to their edges. In addition, with
this growth in the size of the combs, and the pro-
vision of new ones below the old, the area of the
nest has to be increased, and this requires more
and more paper ; so that until quite late in the
season our fence is in constant request. There are
some people so biased against the wasp that, if
they were only sufficiently observant to see this
continual shaving of their fences, they would make
this a fresh count in the indictment against her.

At first the wasp nest is a very poor affair. The
so-called " queen " or mother wasp, that has
passed the winter in a torpid state where she has
been protected from frost, begins afresh in the
early days of spring. She only emerged from her
pupa-cell at the fag end of last season, and after
her marriage flight went into retirement. So she
has had no opportunity for acquiring experience
by watching the procedure of her mother or her
older sisters. Her mother had probably died of
old age and egg- bearing before the daughter threw
off her pupa-skin.

However, she knows that it devolves upon her to
make provision for her coming offspring, and her
first concern is to find a reliable source for her raw
material. That having been discovered and its

1 66 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

position committed to memory, her next task is to
find a suitable building site. Her choice will depend
upon whether she is a Tree Wasp or a Ground
Wasp. We have eight British species of wasp. Of
these the largest is the Hornet (Fes fa crabro),
which builds in hollow trees and under thatched
roofs ; another, the Austrian Wasp (Fesfa austriaca)
is a lodger in the nests of other wasps. Of the
other six, three (V '. arbor ea, V . sylvestris, and
V. norvegica) build in trees and bushes, and the
remaining three (F '. vulgaris, V . germanica, and
V . rufa) make their nests underground, often in
the nests or runs of mice or moles.

Supposing she was one of the Tree Wasps, she
would probably select a branch of a holly-tree, a
larch, or a gooseberry-bush. After careful examina-
tion of several branches, as though she were con-
sidering their strength, their sunny aspect, shelter
from gales, and so forth, she flies to the fence pre-
viously discovered and scrapes off a ball of woody
fibres, with which she returns to the tree. Masti-
cating her material and thoroughly incorporating
with it the fluid cement from her mouth, she ne.xt
spreads it out around the branch. Making re-
peated journeys to her timber stock, she soon has
a short bar of papier mdche hanging straight down
from the branch. To the free end of this additional
paper is attached, which takes the form of three
saucer-like shallow cells. As soon as these are
ready, she lays an egg in each, gluing it to the sides,
for the cells, be it remembered, are inverted, and

PAPER-MAKERS 167

but for this precaution the eggs would fall out.
These soon hatch, but the minute grub does not
cast off the whole of the egg-shell : it keeps the
binder portion of its body in the base of the egg-
shell until its final cast of skin, and by this means
retains its hold of the cell.

Until the eggs hatch the mother wasp is free to
extend her home. She builds a paper umbrella
over her three-celled comb ; she adds other cells
to the first three ; she encloses the comb in a pear-
shaped bag with an entrance at the narrow lower
end. When the eggs are hatched two or three
days later she has to provide the grubs with food
continuously, and she does this by capturing flies
and other insects, masticating the soft parts and
feeding the grubs from mouth to mouth, much as
a bird feeds her callow nestlings. With such care
and attention the grubs grow rapidly, and in
between her food-finding excursions she has to
find time to visit the fence, to get more wood
raspings with which to increase the depth of the
cells. If you look at a piece of wasp-comb you
can trace the growth of the cell-wall by the lines
of slightly varying colour.

When the grub has reached its full dimensions
it spins a silken cap over the mouth of the cell,
and continues the silken layer down to the bottom
of its cell. This is its cocoon. The upper part
is of the same close texture as the cap, but lower
down it becomes much thinner. In this cocoon
the grub changes to a chrysalis, and after a rest of

i68 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

a few days emerges as a worker wasp and eats
through the cap of its cell. All the earlier cells
produce workers, and these, as soon as their yellow-
and-black armour has set firm, begin to help the
mother wasp. They gather wood-fibres, and build
new combs ; cut away the old walls to accommodate
an increased diameter of the combs, but first build
newer walls farther out.

The mother wasp can now devote her energies
to laying eggs in the new cells, the workers per-
forming her other functions as nurse and builder.
For a long time the combs produce nothing but
workers, so that when two or three batches of
these have emerged, the work of extension goes
on with rapidity. The old cells are cleaned out
and made available for a fresh batch of eggs in
addition to those laid in the new combs. Later
in the season cells of rather larger size are con-
structed, and from the grubs reared in these larger
wasps emerge. These are males and females.

It is not generally understood by those who
have not made a study of insect life that there is no
possibility of being stung by a male wasp, for the
simple reason that he is not endowed with a sting.
But, of course, those which usually cause alarm by
their presence have the power of stinging, they
being nearly always workers, the males, as stated,
being produced only late in the season and dying
soon after mating. The armed workers, however,
should not be feared, for they have scarcely ever
been known to sting unless they are molested. A

PAPER-MAKERS 169

worker may alight on your hand and walk leisurely
over it, but will not sting unless some nervous
movement be made which alarms the wasp.

We know that every man's hand is against the
wasp, and we imagine, therefore, that the wasp is
against every human being. The truth is that
the wasp is, from the human viewpoint, one of the
most useful and harmless of insects — spoiled plums
notwithstanding. The one great defect of the
wasp is that it does not store up honey or wax that
could be raided by man and turned to a profit
expressed in £ s. d. The unceasing good the wasp
does to man all the summer by destroying millions
of his insect foes does not count. The eyes of the
husbandman are blinded by ancient prejudice,
and he cannot distinguish between friends and
foes. We think it is extremely probable that if a
hive of honey bees and a nest of wasps could be
put in the opposite scales in which human interests
are weighed, it would be found that they were
pretty level.

We have said little about the paper walls of the
wasp's nest, but it is important that they should
described. Wasps, like bees and many other
lighly organized insects, are very susceptible to
:old, and for the proper development of their

oung it is necessary that their nests should be
tept at a moderately high temperature. The
presence of thousands of workers in a large nest

ecures this, and movement of the air and ventilation
are effected by the vibration of innumerable wings.

1 70 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

The warm air is kept in by the paper walls, and
radiation on cold nights is guarded against by the
method of construction. The principle of the
down quilt and the woollen blanket had been
discovered by the wasp long before man adopted
these substitutes for the furry coats of the animals
he used to hunt.

If you cut through the walls of a large wasp's
nest you will find there are several layers of paper
with air spaces between them. Imprisoned air
between layers of non-conducting material is one
of the most efficient means of maintaining an equal
temperature ; and the building of the vespiary
walls is evidently carried out with this principle
in view.

In the early days of a Tree Wasp's nest, the um-
brella that is built as a shelter for the first three
or four cells is soon continued downwards as a
pear-shaped bottle with a mouth at the narrow
end. When a few workers are available they cover
this with additional wrappings, always with a space
between every two layers; and right through the
season they are always adding more and more to
the exterior. If one could judge only by what is
seen from outside, he would imagine that the walls
had become excessively thick ; but all the time
that additions are being made to the exterior the
inner layers are being successively cut away to
allow of additions to the circumference of the
combs. In this way the nest is being constantly
enlarged without at any time exposing the interior.

PAPER-MAKERS 171

There is considerable difference in the paper
made by the various species of wasps. That of
the Tree Wasps is smoother and much more regular
in its surface than that of the underground species,
which is made in semicircular lines which give it
ruggedness and inequality. One would almost
expect that an underground nest, being protected
all around by earthen walls, would not be furnished
by paper walls in addition. But they are apparently
necessary to equalize temperature as well as to
keep off emanations of damp from the soil and the
percolation of rain through the roof of the cavern.

A good idea of the industry and the numbers
of a colony of wasps can be gained by sitting down
near the entrance to one of these subterranean
nests and noting the exits and entrances of the
workers. There is always sufficient room in these
passages to allow wasps going in opposite directions
to pass each other without any danger of jostling.
Mr. and Mrs. Peckham, in giving the results of
some observations they conducted in this way,
say :

" Experiments that would have been dangerous
to life and limb had we tried them with a paper
nest hanging in the open, were easy here, so long
as we kept calm and unflurried. Intent upon their
own affairs, and unsuspicious of evil, perhaps
because they knew themselves to be armed against
aggression, they accepted our presence, at first
with indifference ; but as we sat there day after
day we must have become landmarks to them, and

172 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

perhaps before the summer was over they con-
sidered us really a part of home."

This seems to imply that the Tree Wasps would
not have regarded their espionage so complacently ;
but, whatever may be the case with American
wasps, we can testify that our Yes-pa norvegica is
quite as tolerant or indifferent as a Ground Wasp.
All one summer we had such a nest in our garden
and saw it grow from a diameter of two and a half
inches to one of over six inches. We were not
able to station ourselves by it for a day, but at
odd times as occasion offered we would stand for
an hour at a time with our face only a few inches
from its doorway, and although we were in the
line of approach for many wasps, we were never
molested. Our attendance was intermittent and
spasmodic, so the wasps could not regard us as
part of the natural surroundings of their home ;
but we were always " calm and unflurried," and
were probably regarded as something harmless
about which they need not worry.

But to return to the Peckhams' observation :
" The entrance to the Vespa nest was but an inch
across ; and once when they were going in and
out in a hurrying throng, jostling each other in
their eagerness, we counted the number that passed,
one taking the entrances and one the exits. In
ten minutes five hundred and ninety-two left the
nest, and two hundred and forty-seven went in,
so that we saw eight hundred and thirty- nine or
about eighty to the minute."

PAPER-MAKERS 173

The wasp is no exponent of the eight-hours
movement. As soon as the sun has had time to
take " the raw edge " off the air the wasp is out
on her everlasting search for provisions or building
material ; and she works on until long after sunset.
To enable them to arrive at an estimate of a wasp's
daily labours, Mr. and Mrs. Peckham kept watch
on the entrance of a ground nest from half-past
four in the morning until noon, counting the wasps
that went out and those that came home. In
that time 4,534 left the nest and 3,362 returned.
" With all this activity there seemed to be no
pleasure excursions, for each one carried food
when returning, and took out a pellet of earth
when leaving." They calculated that each wasp
was gone about forty-three minutes.

The British species of wasps already enumerated
are, as regards six of them, so similar in their
natural history that it is unnecessary to treat them
in detail. A seventh, being an interloper into the
nests of others, by whom its brood is reared, does
not fall under the category of artizan, unless we
are to regard burglary as a handicraft.

But the eighth species — the terrifying Hornet
(y es'pa crabro)) is entitled to a few words of separate
treatment. In all essentials its nest is internally
like that of the smaller wasps, but it is usually
built in the hollow of a decayed tree, often in a
corner of a disused outhouse, sometimes in a roof
beneath the thatch. It is said to use rotten wood
as the raw material for its paper-making ; but

174 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

though we are not in a position to assert otherwise,
we think the statement is open to question. The
smaller species of Ves^a select fibrous material,
and it is scarcely probable that the larger insect
would prefer a more fragile substance for her
larger works. It has also been stated that the
darker colour of her paper is due to its being made
from bark shavings.

She does not leave off work when night comes
on, for she may be seen on moonlight nights,
seeking her prey. At times she is found by moth-
hunters industriously lapping up the sweet mixture
known as " sugar " which they have painted in
broad streaks on tree-trunks for the allurement
of night-flying moths. Often when her tree-
hollow is of a sufficiently enclosed character, the
Hornet will omit the paper walls of her nest, and
thereby save much labour which can be devoted
instead to the building of combs and the care of
her grubs.

The genus Polistts, of which P. gallica is a well-
known Continental species, builds combs suspended
from branches and attached to rocks, but without
any paper nest surrounding them. In some books
where this comb has been figured it is shown as a
horizontal structure, with the cells opening up-
wards. The natural position for the comb is
vertical, and of the cells horizontal with their
openings outwards, an arrangement that is also
found in the combs of the Honey Bee.

Ischnogaster melleyi, a long-waisted Javanese

PAPER-MAKERS 175

wasp, builds its combs in a similar unprotected
fashion ; as also does the South American Apoica
pallida, but in this case the convex upper surface
(or back) of th* comb is covered with a continuous
sheet of firm paper which is dense enough to cast
off tropical rain. Synceca cyanea attaches its combs
to the branch of a tree, moulding them to its
curves and angles for a distance of two or three
feet, and building an outer envelope of paper to
protect them.

All these nests, like those of our native species,
are built for one season only ; but there are wasps'
nests built for continuous communities like those
of the Social Bees. These are found in South
America, and in consequence of their being in-
tended to last for more than one season they are
built of much more durable material — though it
is produced in the same way as the ordinary fragile
paper. " Paper " is not the word for this material.
It is thick, tough, solid, with a smooth finished
surface, and the term papier mdche is much more
suitable for it.

A tolerably well-known example of this type is
the nest of Cbartergus chartarius. As it hangs
from a branch it is bell-shaped, with the mouth
closed save for a small opening in the centre large
enough to admit the builders. Some of these
nests are a foot and a half high, and contain ten
or more tiers of comb, which are concave on
the upper or blank side and convex on the cell
side. These combs, instead of being suspended

176 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

one from another, are attached by their edges to
the walls, and access from comb to comb is provided
by a central opening. This arrangement, it will be
seen, provides a box-like structure, very strong
and enduring, even when exposed to tropical
storms.

Somewhat similar are the nests of the genus
Polybia, which are of various shapes according to
the species that build them, one of the most re-
markable being that of Polybia scutellaris, a native
of Brazil and Uruguay. It is about a couple of
feet deep and three feet in circumference, its
envelope of thick card like that of Cbartergus, but
instead of being smooth the surface is beset with
stout spikes of the same material, which have been
supposed to be a defence against the attacks of
mammals that have a sweet tooth — for, strange to
say, this wasp stores honey in some of its combs.

We say " strange," but it is strange only in
contrast to the habits of most of the wasps we
know. Even the insect-feeding wasps are fond of
sweets, but they do not store honey because they
do not require it for winter consumption. If one
considers why bees store honey, it appears quite
natural that a community of wasps that continues
unbroken for years should do the same. This
point of view, however, never occurred to the
naturalists of a hundred years ago, when the
existence of honey-storing wasps was first brought
to their notice. They rejected it as a traveller's
tale.

PAPER-MAKERS 177

The first intimation of the existence of honey
wasps was made by the Spaniard, Don Azara, who
had spent thirteen years in the work of a boundary-
delimitation commission in Paraguay at the end
of the eighteenth century. His published account
of his travels was much criticized because of this
statement, and whilst some regarded it as a pure
concoction of the Munchausen class, others thought
the insects he considered wasps were really bees.
When about forty years later specimens of the
nests reached this country, and were examined,
Dr. Adam White, of the British Museum, found
dry honey in the combs, and the reputation of
De Azara was rehabilitated. Since then other
species of Polybia have been discovered to have
the same habit.

Wasps, however, are not the only paper-makers
among these Insect Artizans. A few ants practise
the art, among them species of Polyracbis in the
tropics of the Old World; also Dolichoderus.
Some of the former construct little nests on the
surface of leaves. These are paper-like in structure,
consisting of a single cavity lined with silk, and
serving for the accommodation of a single female
and eight or ten workers. For the purpose of
making these structures inconspicuous, some species
cover their nests with fragments of vegetable
matter, or hide them between two leaves.

Our Carpenter Ant (Lasius fuliginosus) is a
cardboard-maker on occasion. If in its excavations
a worker has been unmindful of the needs of the

12

178 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

nursery or other department, and has made halls
or corridors too wide or lofty for comfort, others
will set to work erecting partitions by elaborating
from wood debris and saliva a rough cardboard
that serves the purpose and harmonizes with its
surroundings.

VIII
TAILORS

179

VIII
TAILORS

WE have done with the communal builders, and
with those that construct dwellings for their pro-
geny whether by mining, masonry, carpentry, or
otherwise. Our present business is with the in-
dividual who, not satisfied with the provision made
by nature, makes an additional covering that he
may avoid being seen by creatures that would
attack and eat him. With many species there is
inherited knowledge of the fact that the way
through life is beset by dangers, that enemies are
looking for their victims on all sides, and that the
sooner the intended victim can make himself to
look like something unpalatable the better for his
chance of fulfilling the destiny of his kind. So, as
soon as they have quitted the egg-shell, we find
certain insects making arrangements for a disguise;
though in some cases not so much for protection
against more powerful foes, as to enable them to
fall upon a victim without creating suspicion.

The venerable Archdeacon Paley, whose book on
Natural Theology was once popular reading,
averred that man is " the only animal which can

1*1

1 82 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

clothe itself." How little ground he had for that
assertion will be seen in what follows.

These insect tailors differ from human tailors in
the fact that they are only concerned in clothing
themselves. They may be considered in two
distinct groups : (a) those that obtain their ma-
terials from their food-plants or bits of the im-
mediate surroundings of their feeding-ground, and
(b) those that rely upon their own secretions or
excretions.

As in the case of the Spinners and Weavers, it is
among the caterpillars of the moths that we find
the most numerous examples of the first group,
their succulence making them desirable prey to
all kinds of insectivorous creatures, and their
feeding- grounds, being the foliage of plants, expose
them to the attack of their enemies. In conse-
quence many caterpillars adopt the elementary
precaution of lightly spinning together two leaves
of their food-plant, so as to enable them to feed
in secret. An advance upon this plan has been
adopted by species having a better knowledge of
mechanics. These roll up the leaf from one edge
into a cylinder of several thicknesses whose shape
is retained by a few silken threads, and in this
they feed upon the inner coils.

But this is only primitive tailoring, like that of
the human savage who clothes himself by wrapping
his body in the untrimmed and unsewn skin of
the beast he has slain in the chase. What we
understand by insect tailoring involves the use of

PLATE 24 STRANGE PORTABLE HOUSES.

Caterpillars of the Psyche-moths construct cases for their protection whilst feeding.
The upper examples, which have passed for snail-shells, are constructed wholly of
silk ; the lower is of silk covered with vegetable debris. The moth is a male, the
female being wingless and never leaving the case in which she fed as a caterpillar.

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TAILORS 183

the shears, the making of neat seams, and the
finishing off and fitting. These forms of disguise
are chiefly found among the moths and beetles,
the former adapting foreign materials to their use,
and the latter relying chiefly upon their own
substance.

Among the best known of these lepidopterous
tailors — from the fact that figures of their " cases "
have frequently appeared in natural-history books
— are the caterpillars of the genus Psyche. These,
as soon as they quit the egg, spin a silken jacket,
attaching to the exterior bits of the food-plant
which they have bitten off. These pieces are
attached by one end only so that they overlap.
The one suit of clothes serves them until they
become moths — in the case of the females all their
lives. As the caterpillar increases in size it adds
to the length and breadth of the case, which serves
also as a cocoon for the chrysalis. The males
develop wings and are active fliers, but the female
is a helpless, wingless and legless, worm-like creature,
and has to remain in her case till death. Some
of the allied species make more remarkable cases,
so that they resemble little snails of the genus
ulausilia ; others are like the shells of Helix, for
which they have been sent to this country by
collectors.

Somewhat similar are the clothes made by
various species of small moths that are collectively
known as Clothes Moths. There are at least three
distinct species, with different habits, that are

1 84 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

known by this common name in this country.
They are insects that have scarcely to be sought,
for, quitting the fields, they have taken to a life
in our homes, laying waste our furniture and
clothing. Some of them get beneath the covers
of chairs, sofas, etc., and work their mischief out
of sight.

The Clothes Moth properly so-called (Tinea
pellionella) works to some extent out of sight, but
that is because it is a tailor, and weaves itself a
coat partly of its own silk and partly of the human
garment it has set out to destroy. Every housewife
knows this cleverly made cylinder of cloth or silk
or fur, which needs sharp eyes for its detection
so closely does it resemble the garment on which
it is found, but we fear that she is too eager to
destroy it to find out much about its structure,
and scarcely in the right frame of mind to admire
it. If she were sufficiently calm to examine it
before bringing the back of the brush down upon
it, she would find that the occupant is a tiny-
whitish caterpillar with a brown head.

Like Psyche, this caterpillar, as soon as it has
left the egg, spins a silk case, weaving into the
exterior snippets of hair or silk or wool (it will
not touch cotton or linen), and adding to this as
its own growth demands more room. It might be
supposed that with a well-stocked wardrobe at its
disposal it would make a new suit of clothes as
occasion requires ; but it is too economical to do
so. The question of increased length is a simple

TAILORS 185

matter : it has only to add new material to the ends.
But when the case gets too tight there arises
what might appear to be a problem. There are
no seams to be unpicked and " let out," but a
gusset (we believe that is the correct term) can be
inserted which has the desired effect.

When things have arrived at that pass when a
pressure is felt and the further indulgence in food
threatens to become inconvenient, the case is
deliberately cut along one side from the end to the
middle, and in the gap new material is woven.
Then a cut is made from the other end also to the
middle and new material inserted there. The
process is repeated along the other side of the case
to preserve symmetry. Result — a sufficiently roomy
jacket is secured without depriving the owner of
its protection whilst the alteration is being effected.
The method of using this case without the
movements of the caterpillar being impeded is as
follows : the insect clings to the silk lining by the
claspers on the hind body only. The six legs just
behind the head are always kept outside the mouth
of the tube, and with these it walks, dragging its
case with its body. That is why these cases fail to
fall off with only a slight brushing of the garment
attacked. Sometimes, however, one gets brushed
off without being seen. The mistress of the ward-
robe has taken away the blue garment to wear
and has knocked off a Clothes Moth caterpillar in
its blue case. It climbs up the article nearest to
hand, which happens to be red. The result is that

1 86 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

when it has occasion to enlarge its case a red gusset
is let into the blue material, and the contrast of
colour renders the supposed protective covering
rather conspicuous. Experimentally in close con-
finement the little tailor has been made to weave
a coat of many colours by placing it successively
on cloth of different hues.

Before becoming a chrysalis, the caterpillar either
leaves the garment upon which it has fed and
retires into an obscure corner, or it remains where
it is, and secures itself from falling or being
brushed off by spinning mooring threads between
each end of the case and the garment. The little
moth that finally results from this caterpillar has
the fore wings yellowish brown with a dark- brown
spot near the middle of each.

Another species of these case-makers allied to
the Clothes Moth is Tinea vastella, that feeds on
the horns of living antelopes in Africa and India.
It makes cylindrical cases of a felt-like material
composed of the comminuted fibres of horn; and
as those of full size are three inches long with a
breadth of about one-fifth of an inch, and stand
out at right angles from the horn, they present a
remarkable appearance, which might lead a hunter
to suppose he had come across a new species of
antelope.

Many minute moths with a similar taste for
tailoring feed upon vegetable matter — which the
Clothes Moth despises. Good examples of these
may be found in the large genus Coleopbora, of

TAILORS 187

which we have no fewer than seventy-five native
species, and of which some are extremely common,
though remaining scarcely known except to the
specialist. The garments they fabricate are all so
small that we never notice them until the plant
they are on is subjected to a very close inspection.
One of the commonest forms may be found upon
the leaves of birch, elm, alder, etc. This is Coleophora
fuscidinella, of whose operations Mr. Alfred Sich,
who has made a special study of this group of
moths, has given a full and interesting account,
from the laying of the egg to the emergence of
the moth. He says :

" The moth lays her eggs on the under side of
the leaves, and the minute caterpillar after hatching
bores a hole in the leaf and makes, in the course of
a few days, a pear-shaped mine. Here it under-
goes its first moult or change of skin, and when
that is accomplished it sets to work to make its
first case. It moves round the mine and clears
out any portion of the parenchyma which would
come in the way of its case. It now cuts a slit
in both the upper and under cuticles of the leaf,
from the 'top to the bottom, on one side of the
portion it intends cutting out, and fastens these
two together at their edges with silk. It then
treats the opposite side in the same manner, taking
care, however, to leave a portion at the apex, and
at the base of the case, still attached to the leaf.

"When the sides are completed the larva crawls
up tp the top and severs the two cuticles at the

1 88 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

apex of the case from the leaf, but does not fasten
them together, as it requires an aperture at this
end of the case as well as at the basal end. After
this the larva crawls down to the base of the case
and severs it completely from the leaf by biting
through first one cuticle and then the other, so
that before the second cuticle is cut through the
larva is able to grasp the leaf firmly with its legs
and prevent itself and the case from tumbling down.

" The case now being complete, the larva walks
off with it in search of fresh food. Having found a
suitable leaf, it fastens the mouth of its case by
silk to the lower cuticle and then bites out a round
hole in the cuticle through which it enters the
leaf to feed on the parenchyma. When it has
eaten out as much as it can conveniently do with-
out quite leaving its case, it usually cuts this away
and carries it off to another suitable place, where
it forms a fresh mine.

" In this manner it continues to feed and also
to grow longer and stouter, so that its case gets too
small and has to be made larger. At this period
of its existence this species lengthens its case by
adding rings of leaf cuticle to the anterior end
of its case. When about to remove to another leaf
it does not cut away the actual case, but it cuts out
a ring of cuticle round the mouth of the case,
thus freeing the case with the ring attached, so
that this ring becomes part of the case. . . . The
case, however, as the larva grows stouter, must
be made more spacious, so the larva unpicks the

TAILORS 189

lower seams of the case which it previously, with
such pains, sewed together, and lets in a width of
silk. When the case again needs widening, this
width of silk is cut down the centre and another
width added.

" By these additions this species thus continues
the size of its case till the autumn sets in. The
case is now about one-tenth of an inch long. The
larva then prepares for hibernation. It crawls off
the leaf and fastens its case very firmly to a twig
of its food-plant, as if it knew that, did it remain
on the leaves, it would fall to the ground and
might be blown far away. The site usually chosen
is the space found in the angle between the bark
of the twig and the next year's leaf-bud. Wedged
closely down in this situation, the minute larva,
secure in its self-made dwelling, braves the autumnal
gales and the winter's cold without any further
protection."

When in spring the new leaves expand the larva
loosens its hold, and travels to a chosen leaf where
it begins to feed again, and in due course enlarges
its case. In the spring the human tailor has a
rush of work because the spring sunshine makes
the clothes of his customers appear shabby and
they call for a new suit. Whether similar emo-
tions stir fuscidinella to action has not at present
been determined by investigators ; but Mr. Sich
tells us that —

" In May, when the larva has grown considerably,
something impels it to abandon its old case and

190 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

make an entirely new dwelling. It fastens its old
case to the basal portion of a leaf close to the edge,
and then mines out a space along the margin of the
leaf, nearly twice the length and double the width
of its body. To do this it comes, of course, quite
outside its old case, and when the space is quite
completed it severs the large new case from the
leaf in the same manner as it did when making
its first case, -and then crawls off to feed. This
new case is rather flimsy and translucent, but in a
day or two the larva causes it to become very tough
and quite opaque.

" The inside of all the Coleophorid cases I have
examined is lined with silk. The threads, running
in all directions, are plainly visible under the
microscope. It is this silk lining which, by pro-
viding a firm foothold for the larva, enables it
almost instantaneously to withdraw its body into
the case when alarmed. I think it highly probable
that the interior of the case is also strengthened by
some other material secreted by the larva, as many
cases appear to be formed of a substance resembling
parchment which could hardly be formed by leaf-
cuticle and silk threads without the aid of some
stiffening material. Dr. Wood suggests that this
material may be the product of the salivary glands."

The new case, as Sich goes on to tell us, is straight,
cylindrical, and has about thirty times the capacity
of that in which it passed the winter. It feeds
for about a fortnight longer on the lower side of
the leaf, then removes to the upper side, fastens its

TAILORS 191

case securely and changes to the chrysalis condition.
One cannot see what goes on behind these opaque
walls, but evidently it doubles on itself, in spite of
the straitness of its cell, for whereas the caterpillar
was head downwards, the chrysalis is head upwards.
A few weeks later it emerges as a moth from the
summit of its little tower.

In a general way this may be said to be a state-
ment of the proceedings of all the numerous species
of Coleopbora ; and yet when one comes to study
them as Sich has done, there are found to be
innumerable interesting differences of detail peculiar
to each species. Thus Coleophora discordella, which
feeds upon the bird's- foot trefoil (Lotus corniculatus),
enlarges its case by adding a mined-out leaflet of
the plant, and as at each successive enlargement it
uses a leaflet larger than the last, the case " forms
an almost perfect miniature cornucopia." In its last
stages of construction the caterpillar does not
trouble to nip off the two side leaflets of the leaf,
so these are added although not attached to the
case.

Some of them live upon plants whose leaves or
leaflets are too small to have pieces cut out of
them : the caterpillar has to take all or none, and,
of course, it takes all. Thus C. saturatella feeds
on broom and employs a whole leaflet when enlarging
its case. " It spins its case to the leaflet, just
below the apex, and mines out sufficient to clear
the top of the leaflet. It then splits the leaflet
right down the centre, wedges its case in between

192 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

the split portions and fixes it there with silk. After-
wards it mines out the rest of the leaflet and cuts
it off at the base, so that the central and basal
parts of the leaf form the tube where the larva
lives, and the apex on one side and the split-off part
on the other furnish the ornaments of the case."

Another species, C. juncicolella, that feeds on
heather, so constructs its case of the leaves that the
finished article cannot be distinguished from the
plant upon which it is placed.

Coleophora siccifolia was known to a past genera-
tion of entomologists as the Clumsy Tailor, " on
account of the apparent waste of materials employed
in making its case ; and when feeding in its last
case it certainly appears to be carrying far too
much sail." But there is method in its madness.
" It feeds up in the autumn, and attaches its case
to a hawthorn twig to pass the winter and early
spring. When in this situation it looks so exactly
like a withered leaf that I have wondered whether
even the tits and other insectivorous birds are
aware that the faded leaf shelters a living cater-
pillar. ... It makes altogether three cases, and in
making the third, and naturally the largest one, it
usually mines out and cuts off the whole of the
apical third of a hawthorn leaf. It forms a silken
tube in the mine, and inrolls one of the margins
to protect the tube in which it lives. The rest of
the leaf is spread out like a wing on the other side,
till time gives it the curl which so many dead leaves

assume."

TAILORS 193

An allied species, Pseudodoxia limulus, makes a
case of minute fragments of moss, lichen, and grains
of sand. The caterpillar feeds upon the mosses
and lichens that grow on rocks and trees in the
island of Ceylon, and the materials of which the
case is composed give it a doubly protective character
since they cause it to assimilate with the surround-
ings. The lower end of the case spreads out into
a shield-like hood which quite hides that part of
the caterpillar that comes outside for the purpose
of feeding. The hood serves also to close the
mouth of the case whilst the insect is in the chrysalis
stage, for before undergoing the change the full-
grown caterpillar moors its case to the rock or tree,
and folding down the edges of the hood as though
it were the flap of an envelope, secures it in position
with silk threads.

Bates mentions a caterpillar (Saccophora) he met
with on the Amazons which has this tailoring habit,
but on a much larger scale than those we have been
considering. The caterpillar feeds upon various
species of Melastomacese, and constructs cases by
selecting suitable-sized leaves of its food-plant and
converting them into tubes by rolling the edges
one in the other and securing them with silk. They
make the interior comfortable ^by lining it with a
thick web of silk. The case inhabited by a full-
grown caterpillar is two inches long, and as the
weight is too great to be constantly supported by
the insect, when it moves to a new leaf with a view
to eating it, the case is attached by a few threads

13

194 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

to the leaf or to a twig that will enable it to reach
the leaf.

If in summer time we visit any considerable
pond where there are plenty of water-weeds, we
are sure to be attracted by the sight of numerous
pretty moths flying about over the water and
settling on the aquatic vegetation. These represent
several species of Pyrales, and are popularly known
as China-marks from the character of their wing
ornamentation. The reason for their presence in
this rather unlikely habitat for day-flying moths
is that their caterpillars are aquatic, which in itself
is an unusual thing for the caterpillar of a moth.

The caterpillar of the Brown China- mark (Hydro-
campa nympbeata) feeds upon the leaves of the
Broad-leaved Pond- weed (Potamogeton natans), whose
brownish, oily-looking ovals float with the lower
surface in close contact with the water and the
upper surface exposed to the air and always dry.
Now' the caterpillar might feed on the upper surface
of the leaves and, so long as it did not eat through
the lower cuticle, run little risk of being drowned.
But this the species has probably found out in
the far past would expose it to the attacks of many
enemies. So it has chosen to spend its existence
as a caterpillar on the under side of the leaf, though
this necessitates always being submerged.

But our caterpillar is one of the tailors, though
not one of the common run. Long before man
ever thought of descending into deep water dressed
in a watertight costume that contained air, our

TAILORS 195

little Hydrocampa had elaborated an outfit that
enables it to remain under water for months. It
is an air-breather, and it is necessary therefore that
its dress should contain a considerable volume of
that commodity. This it does by cutting out a
piece of leaf of the desired shape and size from the
under side of the leaf. This is attached to another
part of the leaf by silk threads in such a manner
that the two under surfaces are opposed. The
reason for this detail is that the leaf is slightly
concave beneath, and when the two concavities
come together they form a hollow pouch. The
second leaf is then cut to correspond with the
piece attached to it, so that there is now a lentil-
shaped case quite detached from the leaf and
available for removal from leaf to leaf.

In ponds where the yellow water-lily grows as
well as Potamogeton, the caterpillar, as the summer
advances, transfers its case to the former plant,
the more fleshy leaf probably supplying a more
suitable pabulum for its increased size. When the
caterpillar is full-grown it is about an inch in length.
The caterpillar does not feed upon the material
of its case, as is done by some other tailors, so the
problem to be solved is how to construct the case
that it will keep out water and yet permit the
caterpillar to put out the fore part of its body for
the purposes of feeding and locomotion. At one
end of the case the edges are left unsewn for a
small space, just sufficient to allow the caterpillar
to protrude, but the opening is so contrived that

196 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

when the head of the insect is withdrawn the lips
of the opening press together as though closed by a
spring.

A remarkable feature of the story is the fact that
when the caterpillar emerges from the egg it is a
purely aquatic insect, breathing through its skin
the oxygen that is dissolved in the water, for its
system of air tubes is not developed and their
external openings are closed. At this period, too,
it is a miner in the leaves of Po tamo ge ton, and its
mines are full of water. Its skin is smooth and
remains wetted. Its mining life only lasts a few
days ; then it becomes a tailor, fashioning a suit
of clothes that is only a protection from enemies.

It was born in July or August, and like other
larvae it casts its skin several times to allow increase
of size, but no striking change takes place in its
structure or habits until the following May. Then
it constructs its waterproof suit of clothes. Then
its new skin is studded all over with conical points,
large and small, which serve to keep air entangled
between them, so that if you take it out of its case
and drop it in the water it will not become wetted.
The spiracles along its sides open to admit atmos-
pheric air to its fully developed system of air-tubes
(trachea), and its new case remains always filled
with air. In June or July — after a short period
of rest as a chrysalis— it emerges as a beautiful
moth, which flies among the reeds.

Very similar is the story of the Small China-mark
(Cataclysta lemnata) which begins life as an aquatic

TAILORS 197

caterpillar, and later breathes air ; but it makes
its suit of clothes of the minute fronds of duck-
weed (Lemna) that float on the surface of most
ponds. These are sewn together, as it were, by
silk threads to a silken lining.

Much more generally known to those who have
paid no special attention to entomology are the
quaint little creatures known as Caddis Worms,
though they are not worms at all, but the cater-
pillars of hairy-winged, dull-looking Caddis Flies
(Trichoptera). Every one who has peered into the
waters of a running stream, or of a clear stagnant
pool, has seen these remarkable constructions moving
over the bottom ; and has felt a momentary interest,
at least, in the clever tailors who could fashion
such costumes for their protection.

The pond is a dangerous place of residence for
any tender and juicy creature that is not gifted
with power of swift movement, or raptorial limbs or
jaws ; and the Caddis Worm has not been so
provided. There is a long cylindrical body with a
skin of the tenderest character, except the head
and three adjoining rings to which the legs are
attached ; these have horny coverings. So the
Caddis weaves himself a silken tube to which he
attaches, as he proceeds, bits of foreign substances
which convert the tube into a stronghold from
whose door the armour-clad head and legs can
protrude and haul the structure along.

Caddis Worms are of many species, and according
to the traditions of his kind each Caddis selects

198 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

the materials he considers most suitable for the
circumstances of his life. One species (Limnopbilus
pellucidus) is content with bits of leaves which
enable him to pass unnoticed among the waterweeds
from which they were bitten. Limnopbilus rhom-
bicus takes short pieces of grass-stem or bits of
horsetail and arranges them transversely to the
length of the case, so that the finished effect reminds
one of a hedgehog. L. flavicornis is not so exclusive
in its choice of material ; it will make its case of
bits of thin twig not very orderly in their arrange-
ment, or it will capture small water-snails, chiefly
species of Planorbis, but often the little freshwater
bivalves (Spb&rium), in either case with the shell
still tenanted by its builder. Such a dress of
living molluscs is apparently cumbrous by reason of
its weight, so we often find that the tailor has
redressed the balance by fixing along each side of
his tube a bit of stick perhaps twice its length.
This gives the required buoyancy, though not
sufficient to float the structure. Anabolia nervosa,
which makes its case of small fragments of stone,
adopts the same method for lightening it. Seri-
costoma and Setodes make their cases of sand, very
neatly spread over the silk lining, slightly tapering
and curved. Setodes is in form exactly like the
marine shell known as the tusk shell (Dentalium).

These cases, carefully examined, will be found
to be broader at one end than at the other — " and
thereby hangs a tale." The Caddis Worm, as the
advance of life causes it to increase both in girth

PLATE 26

CADDIS-FLY AND CADDIS-CASES.

Page 198

An example of the four-winged flies whose aquatic grubs construct portable houses,

varying in shape and material according to the species of builder. The upper ones

are of grains of sand cemented, two of them strengthened by small sticks. The

lower are of bits of wood, leaf and snail-shells.

Photos by Author.

H

& s

a a

£ *

TAILORS 199

and length, does not provide for the increment in
the way adopted by the caterpillar of the Clothes
Moth. The Caddis Worm's method set down on
paper may look suspiciously like that of the legendary
Irishman who is said to have lengthened a too
short blanket by cutting a piece off the top and
sewing it on the bottom. As the Caddis case gets
too strait, he cuts a piece off the rear, which is the
inconvenient portion, and makes additions to the
front end. By always maintaining the slight
tapering form in this way, there is never any
necessity to split the case down the sides and insert
gussets.

Before the change to the chrysalis stage comes
the Caddis Worm prepares for it by stopping up
the ends of its case against unfriendly visitors.
Care is taken, however, to allow a sufficient gap
for water to flow through, for even in the pupa
state it requires to breathe. The stopping is
variously effected according to species : some using
vegetable debris to form a plug, others spinning a
grating of silk threads.

Micropterna, which lives in swift streams, takes
precautions against its case being swept down-
stream, and perhaps buried, owing to the absence
of guiding limbs from its doorway. Its method
is to get bigger stones than its case consists of, and
to attach these to the front or wider end. It then
closes up that end with a silk grating, doubles on
itself in the case, and thrusts its head out at the
smaller end. It digs a hole in the bed of the

200 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

stream wide enough and deep enough to admit its
case, which it then up-ends and allows to sink into
the pit until stopped by the larger stones recently-
added to the other end. It now resumes its former
position in the case and changes into the chrysalis.
Its case is now a vertical tower, fixed by the weight
of its upper end. The pupae escape from their
cases before undergoing the final change into
Caddis Flies ; and whilst some species emerge from
the chrysalis at the surface of the water, others first
make their way to land.

Among the allies of the Caddis which turn their
clothes into fixed residences by attaching them to
stones, etc., are several species of the Hydropsychides.
One of these, Rhyaco-phylax, which Moller found
in the rapids of Brazilian rivulets, in addition to its
suit of clothes, or house, proper, builds a funnel-
shaped verandah to it. The verandah is covered
with a delicate network of silk. Now the house is
always built with its door looking up stream, so
that as the current flows through the network of
the verandah anything suitable for food is strained
out and falls handy to the mouth of Rhyacophylax..
Somewhat similar is the device of a North American
species of Hydro-psyche, which attaches the widest
circumference of its net to bits of twig and the
stems of water weeds. These two are entitled to
be classed as Trappers as well as Tailors.

We have already described the way in which
the caterpillars of the Coleophorid moths, beginning
life as leaf-miners, make for themselves portable

TAILORS 201

houses. Another leaf-miner, but of the order
Hymenoptera, and the Sawfly family, shows remark-
able skill as a cutter-out and liner of a winter
garment. This insect is the Maple Leaf-cutter
(Phyllotoma aceris), and the grub subsists by entering
the substance of maple and sycamore leaves and
eating out the cellular matter between the upper
and the lower cuticles. It is a very soft and delicate
creature, and apparently it fears that when the
leaves dry up and fall in autumn, it, too, may dry
up. So it sets to work to circumvent fate ; and
does it.

The sycamore-leaf has five pointed lobes, and the
grub always begins its operations at one of these
points, cutting away and eating on either side and
in front of him from that point, leaving an area
behind him from which the green material has
been completely cleared. At length he appears to
feel that he has eaten all that is necessary to enable
him to work out the remainder of his destiny
fasting.

He now sets to work to cut out his winter clothes.
Without the aid of compasses he strikes out a true
circle in the upper cuticle of the leaf. With his
jaws he makes a series of cuts, each one forming a
segment of the circle, but separated from the next
cut by a minute interval of unbroken skin. He
finishes within the breadth of a pin at the point
where he started, and the circle has taken nearly
an hour to cut. The circle is now complete, but
it remains attached to the rest of the leaf much as

202 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

a postage-stamp is attached to its fellows in a sheet
of stamps. One can be removed from the centre
of the sheet by a little pressure. The perforations
in the leaf are short gashes instead of the dots of
the stamp-sheet. Here, again, it will be seen, is
an anticipation by nature of a human invention.

Having all but separated his disc, our grub pro-
ceeds to weave an exceedingly fine tissue of silk
from the edges of the disc, making a complete floor
beneath himself. This appears to us to be an
exceedingly clever piece of work, much more so
than the weaving of the oval cocoon cleverly con-
structed by the caterpillars of many moths. There
the spinning is in all directions, and the caterpillar
has room to move as he pleases to effect it. In
the beginning of that work, as we have shown in
our first chapter, the caterpillar attaches threads
to all available points to form an outer scaffold,
inside which he can fashion his egg-shaped cocoon
with comparative ease. In the case of our Maple
Leaf-cutter not one of his threads may extend
beyond the cut edges of his disc, or his purpose
will be defeated. The fabric to be woven is a
flat tissue, and this part of the performance may be
likened to a weaver lying in bed and weaving a
complete bottom-sheet under his body.

The grub is equal to his task ; for the next we
know is that the disc has separated from the rest
of the cuticle, and is now the upper side of a circular
flat bag, the lower side being of closely woven silk,
and the grub lies snug between. How the separa-

TAILORS 203

tion from the leaf is effected is by no means clear.
It has been suggested that it is due to the pull of
the silk threads beneath ; but this can scarcely be
so, as the silk floor sags slightly in the middle, which
indicates that it is not taut, whilst the vegetable
roof is flat. Our own theory is that the almost
complete severance of the disc from the rest of the
leaf cuts off so much of the supply of moisture
that the disc contracts and so effects complete
severance.

You may be looking at one of these discs, still in
position on the leaf, when suddenly it separates
and drops to the ground. The disc, if it has
alighted on an unsatisfactory spot, begins to move
about with shuffling jerks, apparently due to the
grub taking hold with its hind body and suddenly
jerking the bulk of its body to one side. Judging
from the fact that the way to induce these move-
ments is to expose the disc to strong sunlight (or
electric light) they appear to be a provision against
the grub getting dried up. It seeks a shady, moist
position, where it can lie safely all through the
autumn and winter. Not until spring does it
change into a chrysalis in its cell, and a little later,
when the maple and the sycamore are in leaf, a
four-winged Sawfly emerges, and sets about pro-
viding for the continuance of the race. >

So far we have considered tailors that rely entirely
or partly upon materials they have adapted to
their use. We have now to glance at a group
which construct clothing from the waste products

204 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

of their bodies. The insects that work in this
material are chiefly the grubs of beetles ; but there
is at least one remarkable example from the moths.
This is a South American species, known as the
Hammock Moth (Perofhora sanguinolenta), from
the extraordinary performance of the caterpillar.
Several allied species make cases for themselves by
sewing up the edges of leaves, and carry these about
from place to place on their food-plants, tempor-
arily fixing them by silken threads, and, when they
have exhausted the food within reach, cutting the
threads and moving the case to a more leafy part.

The caterpillar of the Hammock Moth, however,
utilizes its own excrement, which is of a form
specially suited for this use, and builds up a spindle-
shaped case which is enlarged as the caterpillar
grows. It is slung up hammock-fashion by silk
threads at each end ; and the caterpillar protrudes
sufficiently to reach neighbouring leaves, but
withdraws entirely when it suspects danger from
exposure.

In and about pine-woods where there are the
huge nests of the Wood Ant (Formica rufa), we.
may frequently find upon the birch-trees a beetle
that is often mistaken for a large kind of lady- bird,
owing to- the fact that it has red wing-cases and
each of these bears two 'unequal black spots. This
is Clytbra quadrimaculata, the second name having
reference to these four black spots. It is really of
different shape from the Lady-birds, which are
rounder in outline and more convex. The reason

TAILORS 205

for its presence in the ant-infested woods is that
it spends the larval and pupal parts of its existence
actually in the nests of the Wood Ants.

Ants' nests harbour a number of other insects,
some of which are messmates whose presence is
cherished by the ants, some enemies, and some
whose class has not yet been determined. The
presence of Clythra larva in the nest has long
been a well-known fact ; but why it was there and
what it did for a living were problems. It was
known that the larva protected itself by constructing
a leathery case, and this seemed to imply that its
relations with the ants were not of the friendliest
character ; but beyond that, little was known.
Recently Donisthorpe in the course of his investiga-
tions into the economy of the ants and their lodgers,
has filled in some of the outlines with facts. He
says of Clythra :

" The beetle itself feeds on the young leaves and
shoots of birch-trees, etc. Its female seeks a tree
or shrub, above or near a nest of the Wood Ant,
and drops her eggs on the ground. She covers the
eggs, which she holds with her back feet, with
excrementitious matter, which she arranges in
layers. This makes them resemble a small bract,
or part of a plant ; in fact, they look exactly like
the end of a birch catkin. The ants pick this
up and carry it into the nest, as they do with bits
of vegetable refuse.

" When the young grub hatches, it builds a
small black case on the covering of the egg. This

206 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

case has V-shaped ridges on one side, and is con-
structed of earth mixed with excrementitious
matter. As the grub grows it enlarges its case, by
scraping off portions of the inside with its jaws
and plastering more on the outside. It feeds on
the vegetable refuse of the nest, and also on the
pellets of the ants. When full-grown, the grub
fastens the mouth of the case to a bit of wood, or
other object in the nest, and, turning round inside
the case, changes to a chrysalis. When hatched,
the perfect beetle cuts a rim round the end of the
case with its jaws, forming a cap which it forces
off. It then crawls out of the nest and flies away."

The brilliant little beetles of the genus Crypto-
cephalus that are frequent on flowers in sunny
places have a very similar habit of protection during
the grub stage, though they do not live in ants'
nests. Much the same may be said of Lamprosoma.
The Lily Beetle (Crioceris merdigera), whose larva
is destructive to the leaves of lilies, disguises itself
in the grub stage by covering its back with excre-
ment, which dries into a hard crust. The larvae
of the Tortoise Beetles (Cassida) have a similar
habit, though a less crude one. Nature has fitted
them with a fork-like extension of the hind body
which is carried turned up over their backs. Upon
this the excrement is spread and forms a sort of
umbrella which effectually disguises the insect.
An allied species, Dolicbotoma -palmarum, has a
more complicated instrument for the same purpose.

Dr. Sharp describes a small beetle of tropical

TAILORS 207

America, Porphyraspis tristis, which is even more
remarkable. He says it " is apparently a common
insect at Bahia, where it lives on a cocoa-palm.
The larva is short and broad, and completely
covers itself with a very dense coat of fibres, each
many times the length of the body, and elaborately
curved so as to form a round nest under which the
larva lives. On examination it is found that these
long threads are all attached to the anal extremity
of the insect, and there seems no alternative to
believing that each thread is formed by small
pieces of fibre that have passed through the ali-
mentary canal, and are subsequently stuck together,
end to end. The process of forming these long
fibres, each one from scores of pieces of excrement,
and giving them the appropriate curve, is truly
remarkable. The fibres nearest to the body of
the larva are abruptly curled so as to fit exactly,
and make an even surface ; but the outside fibres
stand out in a somewhat bushy fashion. The con-
struction is much like that of a tiny bird's nest.
Senor Lacerda informed the writer that the larva
makes a nest as soon as it is hatched."

The Brown Lacewing (Hemerobius) in its larval
condition is known as the Aphis Lion, from the
havoc it creates in a cluster of the Green Fly,
seizing them and sucking them dry. From each
segment of its body on either side the larva has
fleshy projections from which extend several long
hairs. Upon these, with the aid of a few threads,
it supports the empty skins of the aphides it has

208 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

sucked dry, much as the North American Indian
of the Fenimore Cooper days used to decorate
himself with the scalps of his enemies.

You see a minute heap of rubbish among a host
of Green Fly, and if you watch it closely will see a
pair of caliper-shaped jaws thrust out and closed
upon one of the plant-suckers. It is sucked in
turn, and the empty skin is thrown over the hidden
head and added to the jacket of trophies with which
the Aphis Lion is at once clothed and disguised.
Feeding upon such juicy food, he is himself suc-
culent, and would probably tempt a bird to eat
him, but no bird is likely to expect to find succulence
under that heap of dry skins. Or one might regard
this strange jacket as an appeal to the undiscriminat-
ing gardener who is " death on all insects " — See
what good I have done you ! behold the scalps of
your enemies !

The Fly Bug (Reduvius fiersonatus), which preys
upon its detestable relative, the Bed Bug, disguises
itself in a somewhat similar way by covering its
folded wings, legs, and antennae with rubbish,
chiefly the downy dust which results from the
wearing out of cottony and woolly fabrics and is
known to housewives as flue. Like Hemerobius, it
would probably utilize the empty skins of its
victims, but it has no hairs long enough to hold
them in place ; and, therefore, we fear we are
scarcely justified in mentioning it under the head
of Tailors.

IX
HORTICULTURISTS

209

IX
HORTICULTURISTS

PROBABLY there are few passages in the Old Testa-
ment that have been so much quoted outside
theological circles as Solomon's injunction to the
sluggard — to go to the Ant and consider her ways.
For hundreds of years it was generally accepted
that the further part of it contained the statement
that she hoarded up grain to tide the community
over the winter. There is, of course, nothing of
the kind in the passage ; but " profane " writers
among the ancients, and of all periods down to the
middle of the eighteenth century, were emphatic
in speaking of the Ant as a storer of grain. It was
not until after 1747, when Gould published his
Account of English Ants, that the Ant began to be
discounted as a moral object-lesson and Solomon
as a veracious chronicler.

Gould, drawing his information entirely from his
studies of our native species, declared that ants
do not store up corn, Huber, the great historian
of the Ant, probably ignorant of Gould's work,
made the same assertion. Kirby and Spence,
having studied Gould and Huber, were content to

CII

212 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

take their statements as to the non-storing habits
of the ants they knew as indicative of the custom
of ants all over the world in this respect, and
contended that Solomon's words, " prepares her
bread in the summer, and gathers her food in the
harvest," simply implied that she " with commend-
able prudence and foresight, makes use of the
proper seasons to collect a supply of provision
sufficient for her purposes. There is not a word in
them implying that she stores up grain or other
provision."

So the matter stood until 1873, when John T.
Moggridge published a book called Harvesting Ants
and Trap-door Spiders. Being an invalid without
hope of recovery, he had wintered for several
years at Mentone, and occupied his leisure in the
investigation of the flora and fauna of the sur-
rounding country.

Among the insects that attracted his attention
were the ants Aphenogaster barbara and A. structor.
He found that these ants — common to the Mediter-
ranean region, and therefore possibly the kind that
the Wise King had in view — do store up grain,
though not the large seeds of wheat and barley
that the farmer has cultivated, but those of wild
plants such as fumitory, nettle, veronica, oat, etc.
These they gather in autumn, and store them in
underground chambers about three inches in
diameter. Some of these seeds are collected from
the surface of the soil where they have dropped
from the plants on the splitting of the ripe seed-

HORTICULTURISTS 213

vessels ; others are gathered by climbing the plant
and wresting off the seed-vessels.

Their store-houses, being underground, appear to
be the worst possible places in which to store grain
for future use, for they offer the conditions of damp,
warmth, and darkness favourable to germination and
growth. That they are able to delay this process
for some time is evident by the condition in which
the seeds have been found by exploring the nest ;
also by the fact that if the ants are prevented having
access to their store-houses, the seeds at once begin
to germinate.

When they wish to make use of their hoard they
allow a portion to germinate, thus setting up the
vital chemistry by which the contained starch is
converted into sugar and made 'available for food.
But if growth were allowed to follow upon germina-
tion, the sugar would be used up for the nourish-
ment of the seedling plant. So they do what the
maltster does with his germinated barley at this
stage — he stops further change by killing the young
plants. The ants accomplish this by biting off the
radicle and the sprouting stem, and then drying
their malts in the sun.

But the art of the maltster does not fall properly
under the head of horticulture, though we hope
it will be seen in what follows that, in the case of
the ants, it is a related industry. The discovery
of these Harvesting Ants of Europe was, however,
anticipated by Lincecum observing similar habits
in an American Ant, which was afterwards studied

2i4 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

more closely by McCook. This species is known
as the Agricultural Ant (Pogonomyrmex barbatus).

Lincecum asserted that the ants sowed the seeds
of a particular species of grass, known in conse-
quence as ant- rice (Aristida s trie to), and that a
plot of ground in front of the ant-hill is selected
as their harvest-field, and carefully divested of all
other grasses and weeds during the season of growth
of the ant-rice.

McCook qualifies Lincecum's view of the busi-
ness by asserting that the ants do not sow the
seed of ant-rice, which is a native grass, and there-
fore sows itself as other species do ; but that they
clear off all the other growths and allow the Aristida
a fair field and no competition. They do what all
competent agriculturists and horticulturists do :
they weed the field in order that the remunerative
crop shall lose none of the nourishment that the
soil contains. Their instruments are their jaws,
and with these they can make a few business-like
incisions which put a stop to the further develop-
ment of the undesirable weeds.

When the seeds of the ant-rice are ripe and fall
to the ground they are diligently gathered, and
carried into the ant-hill one by one, and stored in
special chambers. After wet weather when their
corn has got moist and is in danger of germinating
before they want it to do so, they bring it out on
the first sunny day and dry it thoroughly. Any
that have sprouted they leave outside. The Florida
Harvester (Pogonomyrmex crudelis) is not content

HORTICULTURISTS 215

with gleaning : it ascends the stalks and gathers
the rice grain by grain.

Above their nest these Agricultural Ants clear a
space ten or twelve feet in diameter, and from this
clearing several broad roads radiate into the dense
herbage to a distance of fifty or sixty feet. Dr.
Lincecum mentions one such road that ran straight
and smooth for three hundred feet. When one
considers the relative proportions of the road and
the road-maker, this is an enormous undertaking.
Should a weed dare to peep through the surface of
one of these roads it is immediately bitten off.
There are always streams of vigilant ants coming
and going along these thoroughfares, and the traffic
serves to smooth and harden them. For the busy
creatures are always bringing home supplies of
food, and it appears to be the facilitation of this
traffic that causes the roads to be made.

These ants appear to take note of the special
circumstances of the land they have selected for a
settlement. If the ground is ordinarily dry the
entrance to the nest is a mere hole in the centre
of a gently swelling mound, but if subject to occa-
sional inundation the entrance will be elevated
into a steep cone, sometimes as much as from
twenty inches to three feet high with the opening
at the summit.

It is a moot point whether Solomon — had he
known of the existence and the ways of these
American agriculturists — would have felt that he
could hold them up as patterns to the idle; for

2i6 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

although industry is their prevailing virtue, should
they meet with a foraging party returning home
laden with provender, they are not so virtuous as
to be content with passing the time of day with
their kinsfolk from another settlement, but they
fall upon them and endeavour to despoil them of
the fruits of their labour.

Under the clear disc on the surface are the
galleries of the ants connecting with flat-floored
chambers in which they live and tend their young,
and others that are set apart as granaries. These
are placed at a depth of about two feet, so that the
grain shall be unaffected by changes of temperature
up above ; but the galleries have been traced to a
depth of fifteen feet below the surface.

In many species of ants there are two grades of
workers — workers minor who do most of the work of
the community, and workers major who run largely
to head and have powerful jaws. These workers
major among the agricultural ants appear to be
set apart as seed-crushers, using their jaws to crack
the hard malted seeds into handy-sized pieces that
the workers minor can deal with comfortably,,
masticating and mixing them with saliva to make
them a digestible food for the larvae.

Dr. Wheeler, the most recent historian of the
American ants, supports McCook's view that the
ants do not actually sow the seeds of the ant-rice
(McCook at least says that Lincecum's statement is
not proven) ; but his statement shows that Lincecum
made a not unnatural inference from the facts,

PLATE 29

MUSHROOM-GROWING ANTS.

Page 218

A party of leaf-cutting Saiiba-ants returning with a load of leaves which
will be cut up to form new mushroom beds.

Drawn by T. Carrerasi

HORTICULTURISTS 217

Wheeler says that exploration of the nests in winter
reveals many granaries in which the garnered seeds
have sprouted.

" Sometimes, in fact, the chambers are literally
stuffed with dense wads of seedling grasses and
other plants. On sunny days the ants may often
be seen removing these seeds when they have
sprouted too far to be fit for food, and carrying
them to the refuse-heap, which is always at the
periphery of the crater or cleared earthen disc.
Here the seeds, thus rejected as inedible, often
take root, and in the spring form an arc or a com-
plete circle of growing plants around the nest.
Since the ant feeds largely, though by no means
exclusively, on grass seeds, and since, moreover,
the seeds of Aristida are a very common and favourite
article of food, it is easy to see why this grass should
predominate in the circle."

Long before the discovery of these American
and European harvesters, however, Colonel Sykes
had announced an Indian ant, which he named
Atta (now Pheidole) providens, that had somewhat
similar habits. At Poona he saw these Ants in
January and February storing up the seeds (then
ripe) of a species of grass which they took into their
nests, and in June and October he saw them bringing
up these seeds from their stores and exposing them
to the sun in heaps as big as a handful, apparently
for the purpose of drying them after being wetted
by the rains of the monsoon. He communicated
bis discovery to the Entomological Society of

2i 8 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

London,, and the facts are recorded in the first
volume of the Proceedings of that body.

But the horticultural ants proper are the terrible
Leaf-cutting Ants (Atta cepbalotes), also variously
styled Parasol Ants and (the native name) Saiiba
Ants. They are natives of Tropical America, and
are the pests of those in that part of the world
who have established plantations of coffee and
orange. The Saiiba in some districts makes culti-
vation impossible for the human horticulturist, in
order that she may have plenty of material for her
own speciality, which is mushroom-growing. Bates,
who gave an account of what he had observed of
their operations in Brazil, says they mount the
tree in multitudes, the individuals engaged in this
work being all workers minor.

" Each one places itself on the surface of a leaf,
and cuts with its sharp scissor-like jaws a nearly
semicircular incision on the upper side ; it then
takes the edge between its jaws, and by a sharp
jerk detaches the piece. Sometimes they let the
leaf drop to the ground, where a little heap accu-
mulates, until carried off by another relay of
workers ; but, generally, each marches off with
the piece it has operated upon, and as all take the
same road to their colony, the path they follow be-
comes in a short time smooth and bare, looking like
the impression of a cart-wheel through the herbage."

Bates was not able to discover for what purpose
the ants went to all this trouble. He thought he
had found jhe reason, and supposed the leaves were

HORTICULTURISTS 219

gathered for thatching the entrances to their
underground cities. In this surmise, however, he
was wrong, as Belt and Fritz Miiller have shown.
The leaves are taken down and packed in under-
ground chambers, where they ferment and decay,
forming a sort of hot-bed of leaf-mould on which
rie ants grow mushrooms I But why ?

The Saiiba Ant is a mycophagist ! Well, it
might be argued, there are plenty of naturally
grown fungi in the forests that the Saiibas could
make use of without going to the trouble to grow
them for themselves. True, but the naturally
grown mushrooms are seasonal, and their appear-
ance is modified by fluctuations of temperature
and humidity. The human mushroom-cultivator
has discovered that by preparing suitable beds in
dark places where he can control the warmth and
dampness, he can have continuous crops ; but the
Saiiba was before him in making this discovery.

Thomas Belt was not content to observe the
leaves piled up on top of the nests. He dug out
the underground chambers, and found that some
of them were rounded and five inches across, three-
fourths of the space being filled with a spongy
mass of speckled brown material. There were no
green leaves to be seen, but he satisfied himself
that the spongy mass was the remains of them,
acted upon by damp heat after being finely cut
up. Through all the mass ran white threads of
fungus mycelium. The ant larvae were brought
to these same chambers, and were fed upon bits

220 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

of fungus snipped off by the jaws of the attendant
workers minor.

To the larger workers is entrusted the task of
making these mushroom beds. The green leaves
are brought to them, and they cut them into
shreds, cleaning each shred by licking it, then
rolling it into a little pellet and throwing it upon
the heap. It is also stated that when they have
completed the formation of a new bed it is inocu-
lated with the fungus by bringing a piece of the
old bed with its mycelium threads, just as our
mushroom- growers do. When the beds are ex-
hausted and no longer produce the fungus the
chamber is abandoned, and the remainder of the
mushroom-bed is gradually eaten up by the larvae
of beetles and other insects that are always scaveng-
ing in such nests.

Such a method of cultivation by insects should
not be dismissed as a mere curiosity of natural
history. The process is so complicated that it
implies a much higher order of intelligence than is
usually allowed to insects by human philosophy.
If Lincecum's statement that the Texas ants
actually sowed their seeds in cleared ground had
been substantiated by later observations, although
remarkable it would appear trivial as compared
with the conduct of the Saiiba ; for the Texas
ants would have been merely sowing an actual
article of food in order to get more of it, much as
other species of ant steal larvae and pupae from a
neighbouring nest in order that they may quickly

HORTICULTURISTS 221

raise more workers. But the Saiibas laboriously
collect green leaves which are not food, and care-
fully prepare them in order that they may support
a crop that may be used as food by them. This is
cj>mething very different, and is worthy of being
pondered.

In addition to their skill as cultivators, the
Saiibas are notable miners. We omitted them
from mention in the chapter devoted to the mining
industry because we knew they must be treated
here. On this point, therefore, we will be content
now with quoting a paragraph from Bates :

" The underground abodes of this wonderful
ant are known to be very extensive. The Rev.
Hamlet Clark has related that the Sauba of Rio de
Janeiro, a species closely related to ours [that is,
the Amazon species], has excavated a tunnel under
the bed of the river Parahyba, at a place where
it is as broad as the Thames at London Bridge.
At the Magoary rice mills, near Para, these ants
once pierced the embankment of a large reservoir ;
the great body of water which it contained escaped
before the damage could be repaired.

"In the Botanic Gardens, at Para, an enterprising
French gardener tried all he could think of to
extirpate the Saiiba. With this object he made
fires over some of the main entrances to their
colonies, and blew the fumes of sulphur down the
galleries by means of bellows. I saw tjie smoke
issue from a great number of outlets, one of which
was seventy yards distant from the place where

222 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

the bellows were used. This shows how extensively
the underground galleries are ramified."

Miller has described similar fungus-growing
habits in Atta discigera and A. hystrix in South
America. They make covered ways, nearly thirty
yards long and about half an inch broad, leading
from their nest to the plants known as Cupheas,
both in the forest and in the open country. They
climb up the stems of the Cuphea ; and an ant starts
at the edge of a leaf and in five minutes cuts out a
piece. When this has been cut almost completely
the ant moves off it to the main portion of the
leaf, cuts through the remaining part and drags
up the now severed disc, grips it with its jaws and
lifts it above its head. It then climbs down the
stem of the plant, into the covered way, and travels
along it at a very uniform pace, and deposits its
load in the nest. He found that the average
load was twice the weight of the ant, but in some
cases it was as much as ten times.

The nest was about six feet in diameter, below
the surface of the soil, and covered with a heap
of withered leaves and twigs. It was filled with
a spongy grey mass excavated into galleries and
chambers, so that it resembled a coarse sponge.
Through the galleries ants ran, and in the chambers
were seen larvae and pupae. This sponge-like mass
consists of small round particles of the prepared
Cuphea-leaves, and constitutes the fungus-garden.
When fresh these pellets are dark green, then be-
come blue-black, and finally turn yellowish red.

HORTICULTURISTS 223

A clear space is left all around this spongy mass
which at no point is allowed to come in contact
with the walls or roof. The mass is held together
by threads of mycelium, and upon its surface are
innumerable minute round bodies of a white colour
which M6ller termed " Kohl-rabi clumps." These
are the " mushrooms " which form the principal
food of these ants, and for whose successful cultiva-
tion they cut and manipulate the leaves used in
preparation of the spongy mushroom- bed. The
fungus was found to be Rozites gongylopbora. If
the nest is broken open and the spongy mass scat-
tered, the ants show as much solicitude in gathering
up the fragments — especially the newer portions —
as in saving their grubs.

In observation nests where these ants were
supplied with Cuphea-leaves they were seen to
divide the latter into minute fragments, which
were crushed in their jaws until not a cell of the
leaf structure remained uninjured. It was then
rolled into a ball of pulp, and added to the fungus-
bed. Cypbomyrmex, an allied genus of ant, is also
to be included among the fungus growers ; likewise
Afterostigma. The latter lives in decaying wood,
and the triturated wood-fibres mixed with the
excrement of wood-boring beetles are used for the
composition of the mushroom-bed.

An ant of Trinidad (Sericomyrmex opacus) has been
described by Mr. F. W. Urich as making its nests
in clayey soil, with a cylindrical shaft to the outer
world standing about an inch above the soil. About

224 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

six inches below this opens into a small chamber
from which other chambers open out. In the
first they store the materials — leaves, petals, etc. —
of which when properly treated they make mush-
room-beds in the adjoining chambers, which are
two or three inches across.

Another class of ant horticulturists are the species
of Camponotus and Azteca of the Amazon region,
which construct hanging gardens on trees and shrubs.
These are of special interest to the botanist as well
as to the entomologist, for the plants they grow
are distinct from any that grow elsewhere. Either
they have become altered by ant-cultivation as
plants have become greatly modified in our gardens,
or they have retained ancestral forms whilst their
untended relations have become altered by natural
selection. Either way, the fact that they do differ
is a very interesting one.

The ants carry up particles of earth and form
rounded masses of it on the branches. These
masses are riddled with passages and chambers,
which are strengthened by a lining of paper-like
material which the ants manufacture. When the
structure is completed the ants sow its surface with
the seeds of their special plants, brought pre-
sumably from an older garden. As soon as the seeds
sprout, the young plants are seen to be carefully
tended by the ants, which bring up fresh supplies
of soil to add to the circumference, and in this
way the garden grows in time to a considerable size.
The growing plants surround them with foliage

HORTICULTURISTS 225

which shelters the ants' nest from sun and rain,
and in due course produce juicy fruits, which are
gathered and eaten by the ants.

About fourteen distinct species have been identi-
fied as constituting the flora of these gardens.
Not one of these has been found growing elsewhere,
and it is very rarely that any other plant but these
is found in an ants' hanging garden. The plants
grown on the Camponotus nests up in the branches
are all epiphytes — plants adapted for growing on
trees away from the ground. Aztec a makes its
gardens nearer to the ground, and the plants it
cultivates — distinct from those of Camponotus — are
not true epiphytes.

The Termites, too, who have borrowed so many
of the habits of the real Ants, appear to have taken
a lesson from them in the matter of fungus cultiva-
tion. Smeathman stated that some species had
special chambers in their nests which were devoted
to the growing of a fungus which they used as
food ; but until quite recently no confirmation of
this statement was forthcoming.

Now, however, Mr. Haviland has found it to
be true in regard to several species. In the case
of the South African species, Termes angustata, he
found that the nursery cells were built of a material
which produced a fungus — a kind of mould — upon
which were innumerable white bodies (sporangia) ;
and a similar condition was found in some nests
explored at Singapore.

In Natal he discovered a new species, Hodotermes

226 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

havilandi, which he found to be a harvester, and
there is every probability that the material harvested
is devoted to the cultivation of fungi. During the
heat of the day the workers issue from holes in the
ground, and with their well- developed jaws cut
the grass into lengths of about two inches. These
pieces they carry to the mouths of the holes and
often leave them there until they have cut sufficient.
Where acacia-bushes are growing they also gather
the leaflets of that plant.

After the heat of the day has passed they take

down the heaps that have accumulated around the

holes and store the material in chambers about

five feet below the surface. A few chambers near

the surface may be used temporarily, but these

only hold as much as could be collected in the

course of an hour or two. Sometimes, after taking

in all the cut leaves, they bring up pellets of

clay in their jaws and stop the mouths of the

holes with it.

Fetch has found fungus chambers in the nests of
a Termite in Peradeniya Botanic Gardens, Ceylon,
and several Indian species are among the fungus.-
growers. In the case of the Ceylon species Fetch
says that the spongy masses which constitute the
fungus beds are wholly formed of the excrement
of the workers, and that not only are special fungi
cultivated on it, but that other fungi, not desired
by the Termites, grow, and are weeded out by the
workers ; when a nest is abandoned these " weeds "
grow unchecked.

PLATE 30

TERMITES' MUSHROOM GARDEN.

Page 226

The Termites or " White Ants " set apart certain chambers of their hills for the
cultivation of a kind of mushroom, which they utilise for food .

Drawn by T. Carreras*

PLATE 31

SEXTONS.

Page 234

A goldfinch has fallen dead, and the burying beetles, having learned the fact, have

hastened to the spot. One is on the body taking in the bearings of the case, whilst

another (under the wing) has already begun to dig the earth away.

Drawn by T. Cart-etas.

HORTICULTURISTS 227

Among our wood-boring beetles we have several
species of Tomicus. Some allied species in the
United States appear at first sight to have the
horticultural habit. They live in a common
burrow, which is not usual with wood-boring
beetles, and on the accumulations of their excrement
peculiar fungi grow, which the beetles feed upon.

Hubbard says that some species do actually
cultivate these fungi, and make elaborate prepara-
tions of a mushroom-bed to induce their growth.
If these beetles have learned the trick from the
ants, they have not learned it thoroughly. The
ants keep the fungus under control by leaving air-
space around their bed, and so restrict the increase
of the fungus within limits. In the narrow spaces
of beetle-burrows there is not room for this, so it
is said that the growth of the fungus is sometimes
more rapid than the eaters can keep pace with.
In consequence, it plugs up the exit of the burrow
so effectually that the beetles are suffocated. We
think that in this case, though the beetles may
avail themselves of the fungus as food, its presence
is merely adventitious and not the result of anything
that can be regarded as cultivation.

X
SANITARY OFFICERS

3*9

X

SANITARY OFFICERS

LONG before cities were invented, with their ela-
borate schemes for making life possible under
unnatural conditions, Nature had her sanitary
commission at work to keep the earth sweet. It is
still in existence ; but owing to most of us having
lived under urban conditions all our life, we fail
to recognize the officers as such when we see them,
and in most cases take offence at their presence.
In the majority of cases we have only ourselves to
thank for their visits, which are due to our having
some nuisance or other on our premises or adjacent
thereto. Looked at from Nature's point of view,
if we may so express it, everything that is dead is a
nuisance and a menace to the living ; so it must
be cleared away as soon as possible and reduced to
an elementary condition in which it can be used
over again in the processes of the universe.

Yes, says the citizen, but we have provided for
all that in our splendid scheme of civilization. We
have magnificent sewerage on which we have
spent millions, scavengers and orderly brigades
in the streets, house-to-house collection of refuse,

23*

232 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

etc. True, but Nature's sanitary commission would
reply that there is still much to be done. The
annoying fly would not be about the house were
there no refuse-heaps near by that its grubs are
striving to reduce in bulk. The " blue-bottle "
would not trouble to enter but for the dead animal
remains in the shape of " joints," poultry, and fish
in our larder. Nature's edict is that all effete
matter must be reduced to an inoffensive condition.

It were idle to attempt an enumeration of the
insects that are engaged in this work : their name
is legion, and they serve in various branches of the
work. Looking beyond the walls of the cities, out
in the open spaces, not merely of our own country,
but the vast thinly populated and unpopulated
areas of the world, we see the$e small sanitary officers
pursuing their vocation and keeping the world
sweet. But for them it would be uninhabitable.
The dead trees and herbs, dead beasts and birds,
the dung of innumerable animals, all would en-
cumber the surface, and take so long to disintegrate
by mere atmospheric influence that the higher
forms of life must soon cease to be.

But no sooner does any of this worn-out material
fall than these sanitary officers and scavengers
become aware of the fact by sight, scent, or other
means, and adopt measures for its removal. Some
eat it where they find it, others bury it in the
earth as a preliminary to being eaten by themselves
and their offspring. Some of these we have already
dealt wi.th under the head of miners — the Scarabs

SANITARY OFFICERS 233

and other dung-feeding beetles that dig vertical
shafts for the disposal of such matter that therein
their grubs may consume it in comfort and safety.
There are enormous numbers of different species •
of beetles performing this service, our own country-
possessing about seventy. There is, however, no
great variety in their habits ; they are consumers
of dung both as beetles and as grubs.

The Sexton Beetles (Necrophorus), though a
much smaller group, are perhaps much better
known as to their habits by the general public,
owing to their having been often described since
Gleditsch first made them known in 1752. If a
dead mole, bird, frog, or other small animal be
laid upon the earth, and the spot marked, it will
be found after two or three days that the body has
disappeared. On loosening the earth, it will be
found buried at a depth of two or three inches.
Two or three beetles, their rather broad backs
barred with black and orange bands, may be seen
somewhere on or under the corpse. These are
the Sextons whose industry has interred the dead
body, their object being the provision of food for
their young. The female lays her eggs upon the
body, and from these hatch out tiny grubs which
at once fall to upon the abundant store of food
provided for them, and rapidly consume it.

For the successful carrying out of this operation
it is necessary that the animal has fallen dead upon
tolerably soft earth. We have seen a bird that
had apparently met its death by flying with great

234 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

force against the telegraph wires and had fallen
dead upon the hard highway. A couple of Sexton
Beetles were doing their best to make some impres-
sion upon the road, but the steam-roller had done
its work too effectually. We were unable to follow
what happened to that bird, but in all probability
the beetles would make an effort to shift it off the
road to the softer marginal land. Failing that
expedient, they would be likely to make a good meal
and leave it to chance.

In the case of an insect that buries such material
it is in the ordinary way difficult to follow what
happens. When a thing disappears from the place
where we left it we are likely to ascribe its absence
to anything but the actual cause ; and if Gleditsch
had not thought of making experiments under
somewhat artificial conditions we might have
waited long before learning the truth.

He placed a dead mole on one of his garden beds,
where, of course, the soil was sufficiently loose
for these Sextons to work. On the third morning
after so placing it the mole had disappeared.
Digging where it had been laid, he came upon
it at a depth of three inches, and under it were
four beetles. He did not attach great importance
to that fact, although on examining the mole and
finding nothing singular in its appearance, he
thought perhaps the beetles might have been con-
cerned in some way in the operation. So he
buried the carcase again in the same grave, and
left it for an interval of six days, when he found it

SANITARY OFFICERS 235

was swarming with grubs. These he now thought
must be the young of his beetles, and jumped to
the conclusion that the parents had buried the
mole for the sustenance of their unborn progeny.

The surmise must be put to the test. Hunting
for some of the beetles, he found four, and these
he put into a covered glass vessel half filled with
earth, and on the surface he placed a couple of
dead frogs. Before twelve hours had passed one
of these frogs had been interred by two of the
beetles, whilst the other two spent a day in running
over and about the remaining frog, as though taking
its dimensions and estimating how deep a grave
would be required. But on the third day this
frog also had disappeared. Then he introduced a
dead linnet, which was soon found by a pair of
the beetles, and they provided him with a demon-
stration of their skill. They got under the bird
and began scraping away the earth, and pushing
it aside with their hind legs.

" It was curious to see the efforts which the
beetles made by dragging at the feathers of the bird
from below to pull it into its grave. The male,
having driven the female away, continued the work
alone for five hours. He lifted up the bird, changed
its place, turned it, and arranged it in the grave,
and from time to time came out of the hole, mounted
upon it and trod it under foot, and then retired
below and pulled it down. At length, apparently
wearied with this uninterrupted labour, it came
forth and leaned its head upon the earth beside

236 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

the bird without the smallest motion, as if to rest
itself, for a full hour, when it again crept under
the earth. The next day in the morning the bird
was an inch and a half under ground, and the trench
remained open the whole day, the corpse seeming
as if laid out upon a bier, surrounded with a rampart
of mould. In the evening it had sunk half an inch
lower, and in another day the work was completed
and the bird covered."

Gleditsch, having got his beetles to work in
captivity, tested the results he had already obtained
by adding other small dead animals, until the
earth in his glass vessel must have become almost
as full of remains as the soil in a cemetery. In
the course of fifty days these four Sextons had
buried no fewer than twelve subjects, including
four frogs, three birds, two fishes, a mole, and two
grasshoppers, as well as the entrails of a fish and
two pieces of ox lung. Another beetle, unaided,
in two days buried a mole that was forty times its
own bulk and weight. These beetles always hunt
in couples, but it is the male that performs the
chief part of the digging.

Beetles of allied genera, though they do not
bury, are quick to note the presence of dead animals
and lay their eggs in them so that their larvae can
feed on the flesh and rapidly dispose of it. If one
wishes to know the kinds of beetles that engage in
this work, the shaking over a newspaper of any dead
bird or small mammal found in the woods or fields
will give him some idea of the types.

SANITARY OFFICERS 237

An umbrella or collecting-net held beneath the
row of pigeons, hawks, owls, and stoats that the
gamekeeper has nailed up as a warning to the others,
whilst the victims are tapped smartly with a stick,
will yield many specimens. There will be Carrion
Beetles (Silpha), flat-backed creatures, mostly of a
dead-black hue ; Mimic Beetles (Hister), square-
backed, highly polished insects, that at once pre-
tend to be dead ; Bacon Beetles (Dermestes), very
convex, with a broad yellowish-grey band across
the middle of the black back ; and some of the
larger of the Rove Beetles (Stafbylinus), such as
Creopbilus maxillosus.

Space will not allow us to give any detailed
description of the numerous beetles that are engaged
in this sanitary work, or of the ways by which they
carry it out. Some reference should be made,
however, to one of them, the Bacon Beetle (Dermestes
lardarius), because, as its popular name implies, it
sometimes comes very near home to some of us
in our houses, as well as attacking the " examples "
that swing from the keeper's gibbet. It is, indeed,
a general feeder on dead animal matter, and does
not mind how dry and old it is. After the other
beetles and their larvae think that they have ex-
tracted all the nourishment from the swinging
carcases, Dermestes can get meals for many a day
from the shrivelled skins and the tough ligaments
that the others have feared to spoil their jaws upon.

Naturalists sometimes have unpleasant acquaint-
ance with this beetle, and find that some choice

238 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

specimen, whether it be in fur or feathers, horns
or hoofs, has been providing nourishment for
years for this terrible insect. The marvel is that
it can go on feeding upon such dry pabulum with-
out ever an opportunity to imbibe the slightest
drop of moisture. It will bore right through a
flitch of bacon and give it what country people
call a " reasty " flavour.

Westwood informs us that years ago another
member of the same genus (Dermestes vulpinus)
inflicted such damage on skins in the warehouses of
London merchants that they made a joint offer
of twenty thousand pounds as a reward for the
discovery of any real method of extermination.
We believe the reward was never claimed. This
is p one of the numerous cases where Civilization
comes into conflict with Nature. Dermestes has a
commission to look especially after the hard dry
parts of animal remains that have been left uneaten
by blow fly gentles and carrion beetles. Here is a
building full of old skins discovered by the beetles.
" It's a big job," muses the mother beetle ; " but it's
got to be done." And she does her best by laying
an abundance of eggs to execute the commission.

The skin-merchant thinks Nature has no sense
to let loose such rapacious pests among his goods ;
but from Nature's point of view the warehouse is
stacked with refuse, which must be disintegrated
as quickly as possible and the elements of which it
is composed put into circulation again. From
Civilization's point of view Nature's sanitary officers

PLATE 32

THE BACON BEETLE.

Page 238

In its grub stage this little beetle inflicts great damage in stores of ham and bacon

The grub is the hairy creature to the right of the picture. Below it is the chrysalis^

and above several beetles. All magnified.

Drawn by T. Carreras.

BEE-LIKE DRONE-FLY.

PLATE 33

GIRDLED DRONE-FLY.

Page 248

These flies, which have a superficial resemblance to bees and wasps, were held

formerly to be parasites upon their hosts ; but they are now known to be beneficent

scavengers, helping to keep the nest clean.

Photos by Author.

SANITARY OFFICERS 239

are pests ; from Nature's point of view all stored-up
animal remains, whether hams, skins or feathers,
fresh joints, fish or poultry, from which life has
departed, are fair game for beetles, blow flies, and
other scavengers. It is useless to rail against
natural laws ; they have been evolved not for
man's convenience, but for the proper governance
of the world as a whole. We must either submit
to them or set our wits to work to suspend their
operation so far as our property is concerned.

The naturalist has a special pest of the same
tribe of beetles. From Nature's point of view the
naturalist is a great accumulator of rubbish, and
in consequence these sanitary officers keep a very
strict eye upon him. What though he puts away
his hoards in glazed cases that are guaranteed
air-tight by the makers, and pins nice little blocks
of camphor in the corners ? The glass lids have
to be lifted sometimes to take out or put in " speci-
mens," and now and then a watchful inspector
in the shape of a House Moth or a Museum Beetle
contrives to drop in an egg or two — perhaps con-
cealed in the fur of a new specimen — and when
the case is inspected a few months later the opera-
tions of the resulting grub are evident.

This Museum Beetle (Anthrenus musceorum) is one
of the most efficient of these sweepers-away of
dead matter, though not when it is in the beetle
stage. Then it has a fondness for the open air and
:resh flowers ; it is as a grub that it performs its
mportant work.

24o INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

With most insect larvae it is imperative that —
except when they are in hibernation — they should
have a continuous supply of food ; but Antbrenus
is lord of his appetite. If a dry carcase is at hand
he can enjoy it, and if nothing eatable presents
itself he can wait with patience, adopting the equiva-
lent of the hungry man's expedient of tightening
his belt. Anthrenus has no distinct belt to tighten,
but he throws off his too roomy skin and pre-
sumably feels more comfortable in a new and less
expanded one. Then he waits, and if the prospect
of a meal is still unduly far off, he moults again.

But for the bad taste exhibited by this grub in
the selection of naturalists' stores for his dining-
room, he would probably be considered a very in-
teresting insect ; but we do not remember to have
heard him spoken of with any amount of admiration
even in the heart-to-heart talks of entomologists.

His upper side is clothed with long, stiff brown
hairs and the under side with shorter and paler
hairs. His six long, jointed legs are fringed with
similar stiff hairs. On each side of three segments
of his hind body he has these hairs arranged 'in
bundles, which are normally laid against the back,
but can be erected at will. If you attempt to
pick up this small grub with your finger and thumb
you will find it is an impossible feat, the hairs
being so arranged that it slips from your grip. This
arrangement probably facilitates its passage through
minute crevices and into the interior of the carcases
it is destroying.

SANITARY OFFICERS 241

When at length, it has found suitable fare it
proceeds with its meal leisurely, as though it held
that good things are not to be disposed of hurriedly,
but in the spirit of Milton's " linked sweetness long
drawn out." Anyway, it takes about a year of
this discriminate feeding to bring his diminutive
body to its full size, and then his skin splits down
the back, but is not cast off : the chrysalis remains
within the larva skin. The beetle that emerges is
smaller than the grub ; and a dozen of them placed
end to end would only measure about an inch.
Strictly speaking its colour is black, but the black
is masked by minute triangular scales, some brown,
others whitish, the latter arranged in three irregular
bands across the back. When it gets the notion
that it is advisable " to lie low " it tucks in its head
and legs and is to all appearance a lifeless particle
of refuse.

The sanitary officers that are best known to those
who are not entomologists are the two-winged
flies, especially those that make frequent calls upon
us in our homes. But the public as a rule fail to
recognize them in the character of officers for the
removal of nuisances, insisting that they are them-
selves the nuisance. Of late years one very pro-
minent member of this staff of sanitary officials has
actually been accused — and with good reason — of
being actively engaged in the dissemination of
disease germs.

This monster — according to recent views of him
— is the ubiquitous House Fly (Musca domes tica).
16

242 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

The charge appears to be well founded, but though
we have no desire to whitewash him, it is right that
some one should act the part of " devil's advocate "
and point out, with a view to mitigation of penalties,
that his carrying of noxious germs is not done " of
malice aforethought," and that he would not do
so if the said germs were not left carelessly in his
way to cling to his feet. We play all sorts of tricks
with the laws of Nature, and when trouble comes
of it we try to set it right in the wrong way. Here
are we now founding Kill-that-Fly leagues and
preaching crusades against the insect, when we
ought to be clearing away the muck-heaps near
our homes in which the flies are nurtured.

Nearly every man who owns a bit of garden
ground is so impressed with the necessity for
feeding up his plants with stable manure that he
has a heap handy for the purpose, and a smaller
heap at the roots of every rose-bush. In some
cases he has applied it so continuously that the
surface soil of the whole garden is largely composed
of it. Then the flies come as Nature's sanitary
officers and decide that it must be reduced to an
inoffensive condition.

Every female fly lays about a hundred and twenty
eggs on it, and these hatching in a day or two,
the maggots set to work with all speed to reduce
the nuisance. In less than a week they have done
what they could, have become full-grown, and in
another week they are flies. They lay their eggs,
thus ensuring the continuation of the sanitary

SANITARY OFFICERS 243

work by SL vastly increased host of workers, and then,
attracted by various odours, enter our dwellings for
a brief life of enjoyment, partaking of infinitesimal
portions of our food, licking up the microbes we
foster but do not want, and perhaps coming to an
end in the milk- jug or the jam- dish.

It must not be supposed from what has been said
that the House Fly confines its attention to the
heap of stable-manure as an egg-laying ground and
nursery for its progeny. It feeds in any organic
waste that is sufficiently warm and moist to fer-
ment, but mainly in horse manure, human manure,
pig manure, spent hops and malt-waste (brewer's
grains). Each female fly lays several batches of eggs,
in all about six hundred, which hatch in periods
varying with the conditions at the time— often
eight hours, sometimes four days. The newly
hatched " maggot " at once burrows into the mass
of refuse, seeking the moister parts that he may
feed upon the liquid portion. The most favourable
temperature for development appears to be between
90° to 98°.

Dr. L. O. Howard, who has written a terrible
indictment of the House Fly — which he prefers to
call the Typhoid Fly — has made a calculation of
the progeny of a single female fly that, having
passed the winter in some snug spot, begins laying
eggs on April 15. By September 10 the living
issue of that fly will be 5,598,720,000,000 ! Of
course, in fact, all the eggs laid do not produce
maggots, all the maggots hatched do not survive

244 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

to become flies, all the female flies do not become
mothers ; but to eliminate failures of this sort he
reckons that half a generation consists of females
and that each female lays only 120 eggs instead of
her maximum 600.

He shows that in the United States, at least,
typhoid, cholera infantum, and " summer com-
plaint " are chiefly spread by these flies carrying
the germs from the sick to the well. Most other
complaints that flesh is supposed to be heir to are
greatly assisted in their spread by the same agency.
Several English authorities on sanitation have made
similar declarations as the result of their investiga-
tions.

Many of these creatures are a sort of Jekyll-and-
Hyde combination of two personalities, here, how-
ever, marking two successive phases of existence.
The question is which is the greater, the harm or
the good they do ? The answer for the individual
may be the harm, whilst for the race it is probably
the good. Any way, the rational course is to clear
away the cause, and the effects must cease. The
stable is rapidly becoming an institution of the
past. Let the suburban gardener anticipate the
early date when it will have ceased to be by feeding
his garden with chemical manures.

But one of our House Flies (Homalomyia canicu-
laris) — a somewhat smaller and paler insect' than
the other — feeds in its larval days on decaying
vegetable refuse, so the garden rubbish should be
burnt, not stacked. This fly has more rounded

SANITARY OFFICERS 245

tips to its wings, and on account of its inferior size
is often referred to as a young House Fly. Size in
the case of insects that have reached the winged
stage, it is perhaps unnecessary to point out, is
no criterion of age. This stage reached, growth
almost invariably ceases.

The food of the Blue-bottle or Blow Fly (Calli-
phora vomitoria) in its grub stage is very different.
It is a flesh-feeder, and its proper mission in life is
to clear away those animals that have met with
death from old age, disease, or in an encounter with
an opponent. That mission is undoubtedly an
important and beneficial one for the human race,
but when that race takes to storing meat, poultry,
and fish in its larders, and the keen senses of the
Blow Fly track it to its hiding-place, some fault is
found with Nature's arrangements. What seems
to be required of Nature to meet the altered con-
ditions brought about by civilization is the evolu-
tion of a race of Blow Flies that can distinguish
between what is common and what is property.
The vegetarian comment upon this suggestion
would be that it would be more reasonable to give
up converting our larders into charnel-houses !

The truth is, that what we dub domestic pests
are part of the price we have got to pay for our
domesticity. All the Kill- that- Fly leagues can do
will make no appreciable difference to the fly
nuisance ; and probably if we were to pull down
our houses and return to the pastoral life of our
nomad forefathers we should find we had only

246 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

got rid of the attentions of one class of pests to
fall under the care of another group. Even Mrs.
Troglodyte- Smith must have found that there were
undesirable creatures who insisted upon sharing
her cave.

Some of these sanitary or scavenger flies, though
their habits in the larval stage are similar to those
of the Blow Fly, rarely or never enter our houses,
and therefore do not become a nuisance to us.
Such are the Green-bottle (Lucilia c&sar) and the
Flesh Fly (Sarcophaga carnaria). The first does
occasionally wander into open windows and doors
in the summer, but does not stay in the house,
preferring to sit on leaves in the hottest sunshine
and exhibit its shining golden-green livery to the
best advantage.

The Green-bottle is the special bane of the
fishmonger, and if by chance we pass by the back
premises where this tradesman temporarily stor<
his refuse, we shall startle up a cloud of these beauti-
ful but repulsive insects, who have been engage<
not only in depositing eggs in the offal, but in
sucking up the more fluid decomposing portions.

The Flesh Fly is similar to the Blow Fly, but
rather longer and of a grey-and-black coloration
instead of the steely blue which has given the name
of Blue-bottle to Callipbora vomitoria. It is a
carrion feeder, but out-of-doors, and it retains its
eggs until they are hatched, so that on the dis-
covery of suitable material for their deposit the
work of clearing away dangerous matter

SANITARY OFFICERS 247

begins at once. In this connection it is worthy
of note that these flies have had all the details of
their life-history adapted to the necessities of the
case. A heap of stable manure is less inimical to
animal life than is decomposing flesh, and as in-
numerable beetles and flies help to clear it away,
the fecundity of the House Fly is not nearly so
high as that of the Blue-bottle and Flesh Fly,
whose work must be done much more expeditiously.

We have mentioned that the House Fly lays
about 600 eggs ; the Blue-bottle lays from 500 to
1,000, but dissection has shown that the Flesh Fly is
able to deposit as many as 20,000 grubs. Of course,
these are not all deposited at once, or in the same
mass of corruption : they are laid in batches as
appears to be necessary. But it frequently happens
that a number of egg-laden Blue-bottles or Flesh
Flies will lay their eggs in the same mass of food,
which may not be sufficient to bring so vast an
army of maggots to their full size. In that case
some would feed on their weaker kindred, so that
some could come to maturity and continue the
race. The dead matter would become converted
rapidly into living matter, and so cease to pollute
the atmosphere ; but the futility of attempting to
get rid of the fly- nuisance by killing a few thousand
flies here and there is apparent. It is akin to
trying to empty the ocean with a tea-spoon.

In addition to these sanitary officers whose com-
mission may be said to be rather general — to clear
away nuisances of a certain kind wherever they

248 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

may be found — there are other flies whose functions
are more narrowly defined — what one might term
sanitary specialists. Such are the Bee Flies (Volu-
celld) which were long thought to be parasites
on bees and wasps, because their larvae and pupae
were often found in the nests of Humble Bees
and wasps underground. Instead of parasites they
are commensals — companions who give as well as
receive. They are not of the highest order of
commensals, those that are cherished by their
hosts ; these appear to be only tolerated, as though
the nest-owners have only a dim perception of the
importance of the duties Volucella performs.

In exploring wasps' nests at the end of the
season when the colony has practically come to an
end, we have found a great number of Volucella
larvae crawling about the combs and thrusting their
narrow heads into the depths of the cells. When
a wasp-grub comes to the winged condition and
quits the cell it leaves behind at the bottom (top
as the wasp sees it, for the cells are all inverted) a
thick black cake composed of the grub's excrement
and cast skins. It is doubtful if a wasp could
clean this out to make the cell fit to receive an
egg and to cradle another grub : the wasp's head
is too broad to reach the bottom.

This is where the services of the Volucella grub
come in. Its body, though broad behind, narrows
to the front, and -the head is quite small. He
reaches to the end of the cell and feeds on its
objectionable contents, making it fit for another

SANITARY OFFICERS 249

occupant. Examination of the combs shows a
large number of grubs of all sizes engaged in this
work. These remarks apply to Volucella fellucens,
which we have found so engaged in the underground
nests of Fes fa germanica, a common wasp. Other
species are attached to other species of wasps and
to distinct species of Humble Bees.

The best-known species of Volucella is V. bomby-
lans, whose hairy body has a general resemblance
to a Humble Bee, and it is interesting to note
that in early life it lives in the nests of various
species of Humble Bees. In former days, not
long ago — when these flies were regarded as para-
sites— -the resemblance to a Humble Bee was held
to have been acquired specially to enable it to
enter the bee's nest to lay eggs without its real
character being suspected ; but, seeing that Volu-
cella fellucens does not resemble a wasp in the
remotest manner, this theory will not hold good,
for this species should stand more in need of such
protection than V. bombylans, because the wasps
prey very largely upon the two-winged flies, whilst
Humble Bees are not insectivorous at all.

However, mimetic resemblance does not come
within the scope of our present inquiry. The
grubs of V. bombylans clean out the vacated cocoons
of the Humble Bees and make them available for
the storage of pollen ; they also eat up the debris
that collects under and around the irregular comb,
and so help to keep the nest sweet.

XI
MUSICIANS

XI
MUSICIANS

OF a few Insect Musicians it may be said that
their power of producing sounds has been notorious
ever since the beginning of time. Some have
regarded these sounds as music, others as a wearying
noise, and they will continue probably to be so
diversely regarded according to the temperament
or the condition of health of the hearer. The
writer, being a person of mild disposition and
optimistic tendency, has boldly classed them all
as Music, and in so doing feels that he has the
great body of the poets with him.

The poets — and others — it must be admitted
have made mistakes about this music. Some have
thought the insects had real vocal apparatus, others
that the sounds were produced solely by rapid
wing vibration. But, as one would expect to find
among creatures of such varied organization, a
similar end is reached by different means. Some
have a real vocal apparatus, though not connected
with the mouth ; but in most cases it is more akin
to the action of lyre and plectrum.

The list of Insect Musicians is far too long to be

254 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

dealt with in detail : we can only pick out, almost
at random, a few representative species and describe,
not too minutely, the nature of their sounds and
how these are produced. The species most cele-
brated for its song from antiquity is the Cicada,
concerning which the Greek poet, Xenarchus, wrote
the ungallant couplet that has been quoted almost
ad nauseam, possibly ever since it was written :

" Happy the Cicadas' lives,
For they all have voiceless wives."

The Cicada stands apart from all other insects,
indeed from all other animals, in the character of
its voice-box. It is not here a case of scraping one
file on another, or a file on a drum. There is a
special cavity in the thorax, divided into chambers
by membranes of different character, and a specially
delicate drum or tymbal which is set vibrating by
the insect to produce the initial sound. These
vibrations are caught up and intensified by the
other membranes and the two opercula or shields
which cover the entire apparatus on the under-
surface of the insect.

Landois was of opinion that the sound was pro-
duced by the lips of the spiracles or external open-
ings of the air-passages, vibrating as a current of
air was forced through them by the air-tubes.
More recently, Powell showed that, though the
spiracles may influence the volume of sound by
regulating the tension of the air in the chambers,
the vibrations are those of the tymbal, set in motion

MUSICIANS 255

by a special muscle. These vibrations can be
watched in the living insect when it is singing.

The present writer is indebted to the Rev. R.
Wyllie, for further light upon the method by which
the vocal apparatus is set vibrating. This gentle-
man spent twenty years in Guiana and set himself
to elucidate the matter. He says : —

" The insect is called the ' Six o'clock,' because
it is always heard about the time of sunset, which
occurs about six o'clock all the year round. In
Trinidad, I believe, it is called the ' Scissor Grinder,'
because its noise resembles that made by a few
score scissor grinders concentrated in one loud
effort. The insect may be heard at other times,
especially at sunrise and noon ; but not so per-
sistently.

" In answer to my enquiries, I could find no one
to tell me how the great noise was produced by
so small a creature. For years my curiosity on the
subject was unsatisfied. ; although I persevered
in both enquiries and observations. Two things
I had noted : first, that the long shrill note, lasting
about twenty to thirty seconds, was preceded by
three or four short jerky ones ; and, second, that
the distance and direction were not easily judged.
A cicada might seem to be uttering its call at a
distance of fifty or a hundred feet away, on the
right, and suddenly the little creature would stop,
and fly away from a position within arm's length,
on the left.

"And then, one evening as I was standing still,

256 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

watching something else, my attention was arrested
by the short quick notes of a cicada within a few
inches of my eyes. To my delight I saw the insect
distending its abdomen with each short note.
Then as it produced the long note I saw the abdomen
gradually contract, as if the air that had been
pumped in was being expelled with great muscular
force. Just before the long note was finished, I
was fortunate enough to catch the little fellow in
my hand ; and then to my further delight and
surprise, I found that by gently pressing the thorax,
I could secure an encore at will. This lasted nearly
all the time I was walking home ; and I was able
to watch the distention and contraction of the
abdomen for nearly half an hour — long after the
other cicadas had ceased their song for the evening.
" The conclusion I reached, in conjunction with
what I have read on the subject, was that the cicada
is able to fill the abdominal space with compressed
air, and then force this air through the tympanum.
(Note the accordion-like structure of the abdomen)
... I had few other opportunities for watching
the cicadas quite as good as this first one, but
whenever I had the opportunity I was convinced
of the correctness of my observations on that

occasion."

Respecting the silence of the females, which
attracted the attention of Xenarchus, it is not due
to want of the apparatus, but to the fact that it is
not fully developed.

Hartman speaks of the music as the " marital

PLATE 34

THE CICADA'S MUSIC-BOX.

Page 256

A Cicada seen from below. The arrow points to the position of a pair of convex

shields, beneath which are the complicated timbals and membranes which produce

the shrill sounds.

Photo by Author.

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MUSICIANS 257

summons from the males." Fabre ridicules this
notion. He says where males and females feed
together on the same twigs there is no need for
shrill calls to inform the latter where she will find
the former. This is how he puts it, after describing
the common Cigale of Provence ranged in rows on
the branches of the trees, the two sexes mingled
and only a few inches apart. " One does not spend
months in calling a person who is at one's elbow.
Moreover, I have never seen a female rush into the
midst of even the most deafening orchestra. Sight
is a sufficient prelude to marriage, for their sight is
excellent. There is no need for the lover to make
an everlasting declaration, for his mistress is his
next-door neighbour. Is the song a means of
charming, of touching the hard of heart ? I
doubt it. I observe no sign of satisfaction in the
females ; I have never seen them tremble or sway
upon their feet, though their lovers have clashed
their cymbals with the most deafening vigour."

Darwin says that when the Beagle was anchored
at the distance of a quarter of a mile from the shores
of Brazil, " the noise thus made could be plainly
leard on board," and Captain Hancock stated that
it could be heard at the distance of a mile. It will
noted that Darwin does not allude to it as a
musical sound, but a noise, and this is perhaps
justified by a remark of Bates, who was probably
referring to the same species, for he was in the
same region.

Describing the " terrible discord " of mingled

258 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

noises set up at sunset by birds and monkeys, the
latter naturalist says : " Added to these noises
were the songs of strange Cicadas, one large kind
perched high on the trees around our little haven,
setting up a most piercing chirp ; it began with
the usual harsh jarring tone of its tribe, but this
gradually and rapidly became shriller, until it
ended in a long and loud note resembling the
steam-whistle of a locomotive engine. Half a dozen
of these wonderful performers made a considerable
item in the evening concert. I had heard the same
species before at Para, but it was there very un-

common."

Concerning the American species known as the
Seventeen-year Locust (Cicada se^temde cirri) , there
is an extraordinary feature in its life-history which,
though it has nothing to do with its character as a
musician, we feel justified in mentioning. It is
widely spread over the greater part of the United
States, but in any given locality it only makes its
appearance in considerable numbers once in seven-
teen years. Kalm was the first to call attention
to this fact, but his statement appears at first to
have been regarded with doubt ; subsequent
investigations, however, established the fact, and
reasons were sought for the periodicity.

It is now shown that the insect takes nearly
seventeen years — in some States, when the seasons
are more uniforpily favourable, thirteen years — in
its progress from the egg to the acquisition of
expanded wings. During this long period, which

MUSICIANS 259

entitles this Cicada to be considered the Methusaleh
of insect-life, it is underground sucking at roots,
and is unseen. The eggs are laid in slits made by
the females in the stems of shrubs, and the newly
hatched grub burrows into the ground.

Owing to the rapid changes that take place in
the United States, places that were woods or open
prairies when the Cicada's eggs were laid are
flourishing cities before the seventeen-year cycle is
complete, and some of the poor Cicadas have been
known to emerge into cellars instead of the open air ;
whilst it is fair to assume that many never emerge
at all because the place of their interment has
been sealed by laying concrete floors.

Reverting to the musical abilities of these insects,
it should be pointed out that there is considerable
difference apparently in the character of the
sounds produced by American Cicadas and those
of Europe. Concerning the latter, the ancient
Greeks kept them in cages for the sake of their
songs, and Kirby and Spence have a paragraph
which is worth quoting in this connection. Cicadas,
they declare —

" Seem to have been the favourites of every
Grecian bard from Homer and Hesiod to Anacreon
and Theocritus. Supposed to be perfectly harm-
less, and to live only upon the dew, they were
addressed by the most endearing epithets, and were
regarded as all but divine. One bard entreats the
shepherds to spare the innoxious Tettix, that
nightingale of the Nymphs, and to make those

260 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

mischievous birds the thrush and blackbird their
prey. * Sweet prophet of the summer,' says Ana-
creon, addressing this insect, ' the Muses love thee,
Phoebus himself loves thee, and has given thee
a shrill song ; old age does not wear thee out ;
thou art wise, "earth-born, musical, impassive,
without blood ; thou art almost like a god.'

" So attached were the Athenians to these
insects, that they were accustomed to fasten golden
images of them in their hair, implying at the same
time a boast that they themselves, as well as the
Cicadas, were *Ierra filii. They were regarded
indeed by all as the happiest as well as the most
innocent of animals. . . .

" If the Grecian lettix or Cicada had been
distinguished by a harsh and deafening note, like
those of some other countries, it would hardly
have been an object of such affection. That it
was not is clearly proved by the connection which
was supposed to exist between it and music. Thus
the sound of this insect and of the harp were called
by one and the same name. A Cicada sitting upon
a harp was a usual emblem of the science of music,
which was thus accounted for : When two rival
musicians, Eunomus and Ariston, were contending
upon that instrument, a Cicada flying to the
former and sitting upon his harp supplied the
place of a broken string, and so secured to him the
victory.

" To excel this animal in singing seems to have
been the highest commendation of a singer ; an<

MUSICIANS 261

even the eloquence of Plato was not thought to
suffer by a comparison with it. At Surinam the
noise of the Cicada tibicen is still supposed so much
to resemble the sound of a harp or lyre, that they
are called there harpers (Lierman). Whether the
Grecian Cicadae maintain their ancient character
for music, travellers do not tell us."

The Romans appear to have differed from the
Greeks in their appreciation of this music, for
Virgil in his Georgics accuses his native Cicadas
of bursting the very shrubs with their noise, and
he is supported by the comparatively modern
Sir J. E. Smith, who says it " makes a most disagree-
able dull chirping." Dr. Shaw, again, alluding to
the Seventeen-year Cicada, says :

" In the hotter months of summer, especially
from midday to the middle of the afternoon, the
Cicada, Tettix, or grasshopper, as we falsely trans-
late it, is perpetually stunning our ears with its
most excessively shrill and ungrateful noise. It is
in this respect the most troublesome and impertinent
of insects, perching upon a twig and squalling some-
times two or three hours without ceasing ; thereby
too often disturbing the studies, or short repose
that is frequently indulged in in these hot climates,
at those hours. The Tettix of the Greeks must
have had quite a different voice, more soft,
surely, and melodious ; otherwise the fine
orators of Homer, who are compared to it, can
be looked upon as no better than loud, loquacious
scolds."

262 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

In our own day C. V. Riley, the late State
Entomologist, thus refers to the Seventeen-year
Cicada : " The general noise, on approaching the
infested woods, is a combination of that of a distant
threshing-machine and a distant frog-pond. That
which they make when disturbed mimics a nest
of young snakes or young birds under similar cir-
cumstances— a sort of scream. They can also
produce a chirp somewhat like that of a cricket and
a very loud, shrill screech prolonged for fifteen or
twenty seconds, and gradually increasing in force
and then decreasing."

The order of insects (Orthoptera) which, next
to the Cicada, has been most celebrated for the
production of sounds contains the Crickets and
Grasshoppers ; and these produce their shrill cries
in quite another manner, the instrument being
more akin to the fiddle and bow. Yet even here
there is a great amount of variation in the method
of employing the same principle. In the three
families, Gryllidse (Crickets), Locus tidae (not
Locusts), and Acridiidse (Grasshoppers and Locusts),
differences of structure necessitate differences in the
fiddles and bows.

The song of the House Cricket (Gryllus domesticus)
is produced by the wing-covers (tegmina) of the
male insect. On the under side is a file, and as the
pair are vibrated the edge of one scrapes the file
on the other and produces the shrill " crink-crink."
Bates speaks of a species of Wood Cricket he calls
GUoroccelus tanand (more correctly found to be

MUSICIANS 263

Tbliboscelus camellifolius), he met with in the neigh-
bourhood of Obydos, Brazil. He says :

" The notes are certainly the loudest and most
extraordinary that I ever heard produced by an
orthopterous insect. The natives call it the Tanand,
in allusion to its music, which is a sharp, resonant
stridulation resembling the syllables "ta-na-n£, ta-
na-n4," succeeding each other with little inter-
mission. It seems to be rare in the neighbourhood.
When the natives capture one, they keep it in a
wicker-work cage for the sake of hearing it sing.
A friend of mine kept one six days. It was lively
only for two or three, and then its loud note could
be heard from one end of the village to the other."

It is not a true Cricket in spite of its name, but
a member of the Locustidae, which are intermediate
between the Crickets and the Grasshoppers.

" The total length of the body is two inches and
a quarter ; when the wings are closed, the insect
has an inflated vesicular or bladder-like shape,
owing to the great convexity of the thin, but firm,
parchmenty wing-cases, and the colour is wholly
pale green.

c The instrument by which the Tanand produces
its music is curiously contrived out of the ordinary
nervures of the wing-cases. In each wing-case the
inner edge, near its origin, has a horny expansion or
lobe ; on one wing this lobe has sharp raised mar-
gins ; on the other the strong nervure which
traverses the lobe on the other side is crossed by a
number of fine sharp furrows like those of a file

264 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

When the insect rapidly moves its wings the file
of the one lobe is scraped sharply across the horny
margin of the other, thus producing the sounds ;
the parchmenty wing-cases and the hollow drum-
like space which they enclose assisting to give
resonance to the tones.

" The projecting portions of both wing-cases
are traversed by a similar strong nervure, but this
is scored like a file only in one of them, in the other
remaining perfectly smooth. Other species of the
family to which the Tanana belongs have similar
stridulating organs, but in none are these so highly
developed as in this insect ; they exist always
in the males only, the other sex having the edges
of the wing-cases quite straight and simple."

He proceeds to give a brief description of the
variations in this apparatus in the other families,
which is so terse that it is worth quoting further :

" In the common Field Cricket of Europe the
male has been observed to place itself, in the even-
ing, at the entrance of its burrow, and stridulate
until a female approaches, when the louder notes are
succeeded by a more subdued tone, whilst the suc-
cessful musician caresses with his antennae the mate
he has won. Any one, who will take the trouble,
may observe a similar proceeding in the common
House Cricket.

" The nature and object of this insect music
are more uniform than the structure and situation
of the instrument by which it is produced. This
differs in each of the three allied families above

MUSICIANS 265

mentioned. In the Crickets the wing-cases are
symmetrical ; both have straight edges and sharply
scored nervures adapted to produce the stridula-
tion. A distinct portion of their edges is not,
therefore, set apart for the elaboration of a sound-
producing instrument. In this family the wing-
cases lie flat on the back of the insect, and overlap
each other for a considerable portion of their
extent.

" In the Locustidae the same members have a
sloping position on each side of the body, and do
not overlap, except to a small extent near their
bases ; it is out of this small portion that the
stridulating organ is contrived. Greater resonance
is given in most species by a thin transparent plate,
covered by a membrane, in the centre of the over-
lapping lobes.

"In the Grasshoppers (Acridiidae) the wings meet
in a straight suture, and the friction of portions
of their edges is no longer possible. But Nature
exhibits the same fertility of resource here as else-
where ; and in contriving other methods of supply-
ing the males with an instrument for the production
of call-notes indicates the great importance she
attaches to this function. The music in the males
of the Acridiidae is produced by the scraping of the
long thighs against the horny nervures of the
outer edges of the wing-cases ; a drum- shaped
organ placed in a cavity near the insertion of the
thighs [of the hind legs] being adapted to give
resonance to the tones."

266 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

The fact that these musical sounds are produced
only by the males in most of the Orthoptera as in
the Cicadas will prepare the reader for the further
statement that they are used in the courtship of
the insect, the whereabouts of the male being thus
advertised to the female as in the case of the Field
Cricket mentioned by Bates. There is reason to
believe that some species which appear to be with-
out musical calls of this character really have them,
though the notes they produce are not audible to
the human ear. The reason for this supposition
lies in the fact that such apparently dumb species
are provided, like the obviously musical ones,
with ears, situated in their hind bodies in this
family.

Every field naturalist must know from his own
observation that there are people, apparently with
normal powers of hearing, to whom the fiddling of
a field full of grasshoppers makes no impression
upon their auditory organs ; and it is therefore
reasonable to suppose that there may be sounds
produced by insects that are not audible by the
most highly developed of human ears. The pos-
session of ears by an apparently dumb species is
good presumptive evidence that that species must
itself produce sounds. It should be noted, too,
that each species has its own particular notes, to
which, no doubt, its ears are specially attuned.

On this point Scudder, speaking of North
American grasshoppers, says : "The uniformity with
which each species of Stenobotbrus plays its own

MUSICIANS 267

song is quite remarkable. One kind, Stenobothrus
curtipennis, produces about six notes per second,
and continues them from one and a half to two and
a half seconds ; another, S. melanopleurus, makes
from nine to twelve notes in about three seconds.
In both cases the notes follow each other uniformly,
and are slower in the shade than in the sun."

These, as in all the Grasshoppers (Acridiidse),
produce their sounds by scraping the hind leg
over the projecting nervures of the wing-covers.
Harris, another American naturalist, told us long
ago how this is accomplished : the male, he says,
" bends the shank of the hind leg beneath the thigh,
where it is lodged in a furrow designed to receive
it, and then draws the leg briskly up and down.
He does not play both fiddles together, but altern-
ately, first upon one and then on the other."

In the South African species of this .family —
Pneumora scutellaris — there is an extraordinary
development of the hind body of the male, and the
wing-covers are not used in sound-production.
The hind body is inflated with air so as to become
a great pellucid bladder, in order to increase the
resonance of the sounds the insect makes by scraping
the comparatively small hind legs over a series of
ridges which are placed on each side of the inflated
abdomen. At night these insects make a wonderful
noise, according to Mr. Trimen.

Another extraordinary example from South Africa
is Methone anderssoni, which is wingless in both
sexes, and does not use its leaping legs for leaping.

268 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

The thighs are greatly expanded, and on their
inner face, near to the base, three are peg-like
projections. Although there are no wings, there
are incipient wing-covers, and these in the male
are strongly grooved and ridged, whilst below them,
on the first segment of the hind body and partly
overlapping the second, there is a swollen plate
with two or three strong and hard folds. Just
behind it, on the second segment, is a prominent
area whose surface is marked by very fine raised
lines. Both sexes have these arrangements, but
in the male they are more highly developed than
in the female. The thigh is rubbed over these
sculptured plates, and the action results in a loud
note. It is believed that the male can produce
two distinct notes, one agreeing with that of the
female, and one peculiar to its own sex.

It is a very sedentary creature, and its colouring
makes it appear like a clod of earth. When molested
it does not rely upon its feeble powers of loco-
motion for escape, but upon its capacity for making
a noise which will alarm its enemy.

The long-horned Green Grasshoppers of the
family Locustidae — which, it must be again pointed
out, contains no Locusts — produce their music
by means of the wing-covers alone; and as these
only slightly overlap at their bases, the production
of a considerable volume of sound seems at first
sight not very probable. Yet any one who has
heard one of these insects giving expression to its
joy, as we may fairly consider it, must admit that

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MUSICIANS 269

the volume of sound proceeding from so small a
creature is marvellous.

We have kept our native Green Grasshopper
(Locusta viridissima) as a pet, feeding it upon
flies, and in the evenings it sang with notes that
resounded through the house. In this family the
ears are placed in the front legs, a little below
the knee.

De Geer pointed out long ago that an eye-like
spot in the right wing-cover of the male was pro-
bably connected with the powerful note of this
species. This area consists of transparent mem-
brane " resembling a little mirror or piece of
talc, of the tension of a drum. This membrane
is surrounded by a strong and prominent nervure,
and is concealed under the fold of the left elytrum,
which has also several prominent nervures answering
to the margin of the membrane. There is every
reason to believe that the brisk movement with
which the grasshopper rubs these nervures against
each other produces a vibration in the membrane
augmenting the sound. The males in question sing
continually in the hedges and trees during the
months of July and August, especially towards
sunset and part of the night. When any one
approaches they immediately cease their song."

It is to this family of long-horned grasshoppers
that the famous American Katydids belong. We
use the plural form, because there are several
different species, and they do not all belong to the
same genus. They agree in uttering sounds that

270 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

resemble the words "Katy did," with variations.
Riley says that the first notes of Microcentrum
retinerve are heard about the middle of July, and
by the first of August the insect is in full song.
He describes the production of the notes as follows :

" The wing-covers are partially opened by a
sudden jerk and the notes produced by the gradual
closing of the same. The song consists of a series
of from twenty-five to thirty raspings as of a stiff
quill drawn across a coarse file. There are about
five of these raspings or trills per second, all alike,
and with equal intervals, except the last two or
three, which, with the closing of the wing-covers,
run into each other. The whole strongly recalls
the slow turning of a child's wooden rattle, ending
by a sudden jerk of the same ; and this prolonged
rattling, which is peculiar to the male, is invariably
and instantly answered by a single sharp ' chirp '
or * tschick ' from one or more females, who
produce the sound by a sudden upward jerk of the
wings."

Scudder says they have two songs ; one they sing
by day, and the other at night. He says that the
passing of a cloud will cause them to break off in
the middle of the day-song and suddenly start the
night-song, and that by imitating either by day
you can get a suitable response from them, but at
night they have only one song.

Harris says of another species, Cyrtophyttvs con-
cavus, that it mounts to the topmost twigs of the
trees in the evening, beginning " his noisy babble,

MUSICIANS 271

while rival notes issue from the neighbouring trees,
and the groves resound with the call of Katy-did-
she-did the livelong night."

We have already mentioned that the too familiar
House Cricket (Gryllus domesticus) has, in the male,
a musical file on the under side of each wing-cover ;
and this is a character that will be found throughout
the family Gryllidae, to which it belongs. In the
Mole Cricket (Gryllotatya vulgaris) the musical
organs are smaller and simpler than those of the
House Cricket, and the note produced by them is
a dull jarring note which has been compared to
that of the Nightjar.

Kirby and Spence say that they once traced a
Mole Cricket to its burrow by means of its song.
This is a hint to those who live in neighbourhoods
where it abounds, and who would like to make
acquaintance with this remarkable insect. In the
case of the other musical Orthoptera, we have always
experienced a difficulty in following up a clue of
this sort, as, to our ears, the notes often appear
to have a ventriloquial quality which confuses one
respecting the spot from which it arises.

Of the Field Cricket (Gryllus campestris) our old
friend Gilbert White tells us that " they chirp all
night as well as day from the middle of the month
of May to the middle of July ; and in hot weather,
when they are most vigorous, they make the hills
echo, and in the stiller hours of darkness may be
heard to a considerable distance. In the beginning
of the season their notes are more faint and inward ;

272 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

but become louder as the summer advances, and so
die away again by degrees."

What has been stated above must serve to illus-
trate the musical powers of the Orthoptera, which
are the leading songsters of the Insect World. Let
us glance at another order whose music has more
of the character of that produced by the drone of
the bag-pipes or by certain pipes of the organ.
The music of the bees — particularly of the Humble
Bees — has been understood generally to be due to
the rapid vibration of the wings. On the other
hand it has been contended that the sound is due
to the rush of air from the air-pipes (tracked)
through the spiracles or breathing-holes that are
found at intervals along each side of the
body.

There have been advocates and opponents of
each view, but, as often happens in other fields of
inquiry, the true explanation seems to lie between
the two. The spiracles of the thorax (the fore
body to which the legs and wings are attached)
open into an enlarged chamber, which is a dilation
of the air-pipe, and in which certain hard bodies
are vibrated which produce the sound ; the vibration
of the wings increases it.

If one lifts the mossy dome -from a surface nest
of Humble Bees in order to see what is going on.
several of the bees will throw themselves on their
backs in order to be in a good position to use their
stings on the intruder. In such a position there is
not much beating of the air by the wings, but

MUSICIANS 273

the bee gives expression to her resentment by a
continuous angry hum. Burmeister, not content
with obtaining information in this way, cut off the
wings of bees, and found that they still hummed ;
on the other hand, when he closed the openings
to the thoracic sounding-box the hum became so
feeble as to be scarcely perceptible. John Hunter
found that when he held a bee under water the
latter vibrated in the immediate neighbourhood of
these openings.

The " buzz " of the Blue-bottle and other two-
winged flies is of the same character. Although
this sound-box is in communication with the
breathing apparatus, it does not appear that the
sounds are produced by the passage of air, but by
means of muscular movements of the hard matters
in the sound-box.

Perez and Bellesme have distinguished two
separate sounds in the hum of a bee — a deep note
due to the vibration of the wings, and a more
acute sound proceeding from the vibration of the
walls of the thorax. We have thus an explanation
of how insects can hum when their wings are at
rest — as in an observation by the Rev. J. Hellins
on the large yellow-banded fly Sericomyia borealis,
which he found at rest among the tors of Dartmoor.
He says : " Before long a piping sound was audible,
and one of the party said the wind was whistling ;
but to this explanation I demurred, having some
recollection of having heard the noise before ; so,
looking round, I soon saw several large flies resting
18

274 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

on the stones, and was presently able to convince
my friend that the sound came from them."

Many insects make minor sounds, perceptible
only to their own kind or to observers who come
into pretty close touch with them. Such is the
stridulating of ants, which is effected by the seg-
ments connecting the thorax and the hind body.
Many of the beetles also stridulate, but they do
not produce notes comparable in volume with
those of the Cicadas and the Grasshoppers. The
apparatus varies a good deal.

The large tropical beetles known as Passalids,
though they are without such apparatus in the
perfect state, possess it as larvae. The basal joint
of the second pair of legs bears a broad file-like
area, and the third pair of legs is much reduced in
size and paw-like, with hard finger-like points
which scrape the file and so produce sounds. The
use of this power to the insect is unknown. The
most probable explanation we can suggest is, that
as the larvas feed in decaying wood, the sounds may
be useful in enabling them to avoid cutting across
each other in their boring operations. The grub
of our Stag Beetle (Lucanus cervus), also a wood-
feeder, has a similar arrangement.

Several other of our native beetles have stridu-
lating organs, among them Trox sabulosus, one of
the carrion-chafers. On the upper side of the
last ring but one of the hind body there are two
raised lines, and on the under side of the wing-
covers there are two file-like ribs. By movements

MUSICIANS 275

of the hind body these are made to play over each
other, and the result is a mouse-like squeak which
might cause an astonished bird to drop it in alarm.
. The Dung Beetles (Geotrupes) effect a similar note
by rubbing a file that is on the base of the hind
legs over a ridge on the lower side of the hind body ;
and the larva has a contrivance similar to that
described in the Stag Beetle, etc.

In the Burying Beetles (Necropborus) there are a
couple of parallel rasps on the upper surface of the
hind body, and these are scraped by the hind
margin of the wing-covers. Pelobius tardus, one
of our water beetles, is known to dealers in aquarium
stock as the Squeaker, on account of the noise it
makes by scraping the horny tip of the hind body
across a file along the inner margin of the wing-
covers. Dr. Russel Wallace informed Darwin that
Euchirus longimanus " makes, whilst moving, a low
hissing sound by rubbing its hind legs against the
edges of the elytra " (wing-covers).

The Asparagus Beetle (Crioceris asparagi), and
Clythra quadripuncta, whose grub has been referred
to as a Tailor, are among the beetles that stridulate ;
so are many of the long-horned wood-boring
beetles, which emit sound by rubbing the first
segment of the thorax against a special area on the
next segment ; others rub the thigh of the hind
legs against the edge of the wing-covers.

Butterflies and moths do not shine as Musicians.
They are mute insects ; but at least one — the
Death's-head Hawk Moth (Acberontia atropos) emits

276 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

a loud, plaintive squeak, which has probably added
considerably to the awe which its large size and
grim ornamentation have inspired in nervous
persons. Various theories have been propounded
in explanation of this power ; but there can be
little doubt that Rossi's statement is the correct
one — that it is due to air being forced through the
short proboscis from special air-sacs, which may
be found by dissection of the moth. Similar
sounds are produced by the caterpillar and chrysalis.
A South American butterfly, Ageronia feronia,
makes a peculiar clicking noise, " similar to that
produced by a toothed wheel passing under a spring
catch," as Darwin described it in his Voyage of the
" Beagle" The Green Silver-lines (Hylopbila prasi-
nana), of our own country, is also said to produce
" a sharp quick noise." Dr. Sharp says that " sound
production seems to be of more frequent occurrence
in Arctiidae than it is in any other family of Lepi-
doptera ; Dionychopus niveus produces a sound by,
it is believed, friction of the wings. In the case
of the genera Setina and Chelonia the process is
said to be peculiar to the male sex : Laboulbene
believes it to proceed from drum-like vesicles
situate one on each side of the base of the meta-
thorax."

XII
BURGLARS

277

XII
BURGLARS

IT may be objected possibly that the calling of a
burglar scarcely entitles him to rank among arti-
zans, but a popular dictionary, to which we have just
referred to justify us if possible, defines " artizan "
as one skilled in any art, mystery, or trade, and
surely there is both art and mystery about the pro-
ceedings of the human burglar, and the Insect
Burglar does not fall short of her human prototype
in these respects. We have used the feminine
gender, because, as in so much that we have had
to tell, it is the female insect that does all the clever
work. The male insect, apart from his often
finer appearance, is a poor creature.

Just as the human burglar is a product of civiliza-
tion, so, too, the Insect Burglar is mainly to be
found in what is considered the most highly evolved
order of the Insects— the Hymenoptera, the order
that includes the Ants, the Wasps, and the Bees.
Strictly speaking, however, these dishonest insects
should be classed as Housebreakers rather than
Burglars, because they are daylight operators ; but
in non-legal modern parlance the term "house-

279

280 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

breaker " has become almost restricted to those who
demolish effete buildings, so that the word chosen
will scarcely mislead any one.

In our chapters on Masons and Miners we have
dealt with the clever work accomplished by a
number of insects in the hope that their progeny
might develop in peace behind the strong out-
works they have laboured to prepare, and enjoy
the abundant food they have provided. But in
numbers of cases the operations of the mother
insect have been watched, and at the right moment
the criminal watcher has popped in and laid her
own egg before the cell has been sealed up. It is
as well that the industrious bee or wasp knows
nothing of what has happened, for in the result
much of her patient labour has been thrown away,
for no good to her own species can come of it —
only benefit to the enemy of her race.

There are numbers of the criminal classes of
insects who secure the success of their progeny by
planting their eggs in the bodies of other insects,
and these foster-parents are destroyed by the grub
of the parasite. With these, at present, we have
no concern, and must restrict our attention to
those that actually break into the nests of honest
and industrious labourers.

In summer time we may often see sitting upon
a wall or a leaf in full sunshine a little " fly " of
very brilliant appearance, its hind body especially
being highly polished, of a ruby tint, with a metallic
shine that makes it look like a little ball of fire.

BURGLARS 281

It is one of the Ruby-tail Wasps, andfprobably the
species distinguished as Chrysis ignita. Although
it appears to have nothing to occupy its mind, and
is apparently spending its winged existence in an
easy-going manner, it is probably on the watch.
Possibly you have not noticed that on the wall, not
far from the position the Ruby-tail Wasp has taken
up, a Mason Wasp (Odynerus parietum) has half
finished the construction of her nest.

As we have shown in an earlier chapter (see
page 77), the Mason Wasp provisions her cells with
little caterpillars, and when the cell is nearly full
the Ruby-tail watches the Mason go off for, per-
haps, the last caterpillar. Into the cell she then
drops one of her own eggs, and the Mason return-
ing, seals up the cell. What happens ? Dr.
Chapman watched this performance, and two days
after the cell had been closed he opened it. The
Chrysis egg had hatched and the grub that had
issued from it was already a quarter of an inch
long ; but there was no sign of the Mason Wasp's
egg or grub. The presumption is that the Chrysis
grub had eaten it. Thereafter the latter feasted
on the caterpillars that had been stored for the
sustenance of the Mason's offspring. In six days
all were eaten, and the Chrysis grub, after moulting
three or four times, had reached its full size ; so it
spun a cocoon and became a chrysalis.

According to other observers it is usual for the
Ruby Wasp grub to wait until the Mason's grub
has grown, and to feed upon that without touching

282 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

the store of caterpillars. But there are various
species of Ruby Wasp, and they are known to differ
somewhat in their habits. Chrysis bidentata, for
example, looks out for a nest of the turret-building
Mason Wasp (Oaynerus spinipes), and if it can find
a chink in the masonry that closes the mouth of
the tunnel it gets its eggs inside. It was mainly
with the idea of keeping off this foe that the Mason
Wasp built the tower we have previously described
(page 71), from which she obtained the materials
to close the mouth of her nest.

The remarkable point is that the Ruby Wasp is
said by some strange sense to ascertain at what
stage the Mason's grub has arrived. She desires a
grub that has reached full size and has spun its
cocoon. Having satisfied herself that she has got
an unseen victim in that condition, she deposits
several eggs, though only one hatches. Here again
there is a mystery. Why should six or ten eggs
be laid and only one hatch ? Yet it is said to be
so, and that the Cbrysis grub attaches itself to the
skin of the Mason grub and sucks at it for about
eleven days. By that time it is an empty skin,
and the Chrysis grub having reached its full size
spins its own cocoon inside that of its victim and
remains there till the following spring. Then it
becomes a chrysalis, and about three weeks later
it comes forth as a brilliant Ruby Wasp to victimize
some other Mason — that is, if it be a female.

Eembex ro strata is a solitary wasp that, instead
of filling up its cells with sufficient food tQ last tbe

BURGLARS 283

grub to full growth, deposits a single gad-fly with
her egg. This necessitates her return after a few
days with fresh supplies, and a relation of the
Ruby Wasp, named Parnopes came a ^ having learned
all about the habits of Bembex, waits for this re-
opening of the nest and slips in to deposit an egg
of her own. The Parnopes grub feeds on the
Bembex grub, and the mother Bembex continues
to bring freshly killed flies at the proper intervals
and never appears to suspect that she is nourishing
the murderer of her own offspring.

The experiences of the Mason Wasp are paralleled
by those of the Mason Bee (Chalicodoma muraria).
This bee, as we have seen (page 67) constructs its
cells of hard cement, in a cluster, and fills up the
spaces between and evens up the exterior by
more masonry. About the beginning of August
when the Mason Bee's grubs should be ful1 -grown
and about to turn into pupae, a Chalcid (Leucospis
gigas), got up with bands of black and yellow to
look like a wasp, comes along and makes a careful
survey of the mass of masonry. There is absolutely
no indication from without where the cells are
situated within, and how the Leucospis locates their
position is a great mystery — but she does it.

From the end of her hind body there is a long
boring apparatus and egg-placer combined. This
when not in use is kept in ? groove along the back ;
but now that she has satisfied herself as to the
position of the bee's cells, its position is reversed,
and it is gradually thrust through the strong

284 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

masonry. The time required for this operation
depends upon the thickness of the masonry at the
spot selected. It may be accomplished in a quarter
of an hour ; it may take three hours ! Fabre has
watched this burglar at her work, and marked her
incision of the masonry and put the date against
it. On opening the nests later he has found that
she has invariably hit upon the right spot and has
penetrated to a cell.

But although she has this marvellous sense, a sort
of second-sight, that enables her to see, as it were,
what lies on the other side of the masonry, it is
disappointing to find that in one respect her sense
is defective. It cannot tell her that in some of
the cells her intended prey has already perished
and its food-supply dried up or gone mouldy. Nor
does it protect her from making the mistake of
piercing a cell that has already been penetrated,
once, twice, or thrice, either by herself or another
of her kind. Perhaps it is a necessity of the case,
in order that some Chalicodoma grubs should
survive and come to the winged state. For it
must be explained that if a Leucospis egg hatches
and brings forth a grub, that grub sucks the right-
ful occupant of the cell and leaves only an empty
shrivelled skin.

In those cases where several Leucosfis eggs have
been placed in one cell, it is the care of the first-
hatched grub to search for the other eggs and
destroy them, for a Chalicodoma grub only serves
for the nourishment of one Leucosfis.

BURGLARS 285

There are a number of parasitical insects of this
order known as Ichneumon Wasps, which deposit
their eggs in or on the caterpillars of butterflies and
moths. These we take no notice of at present,
because they are not burglars. Some, however, are
entitled to be so called, because the female with
her long egg-placer pierces the walls of a tough
cocoon and lays its egg in the contained chrysalis.
Some of these appear to be as gifted as Leucospis
in finding the exact location of their hidden victim.
Thus, Ratzeburg saw a species of Pimpla piercing
a leaf with its ovipositor. This looked at first
sight as though Pimpla had changed its habits and
was laying eggs in vegetable instead of animal
substances ; but on looking beneath the leaf
a cocoon of the Lackey Moth was seen to be attached
to the under side, and though Pimpla could not
see this she knew by some other sense just where
to strike. A similar sense is possessed by other
Ichneumon Wasps that bore through solid wood
in order to deposit their eggs in wood-boring
caterpillars.

Under the head of Carpenters we have mentioned
(page 123) how the grub of the Horn-tail Wasp
(Sirex) feeds in the solid wood of pine-trees. Rhyssa
persuasoria is a large Ichneumon Wasp whose grub
lives at the expense of the Sirex grub, and to reach
the latter in its retreat the mother Rhyssa is pro-
vided with a delicate boring apparatus that is three
or four inches in length.

There are two remarkable things to be pointed

286 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

out in this connection. The first is the possibility
of so fine an instrument being capable of piercing
solid wood ; the second is the exactitude with
which the boring is made so that an egg can be
placed right in the tunnel of the Sirex. Unless
this could be accomplished all the labour of boring
would be in vain. Unless the Rhyssa grub on
hatching is in a position to get quickly to its prey
it must perish. It may happen that whilst the
Rhyssa is feeding upon its victim the Sirex grub
burrows deeply into the wood ; but having passed
through the intervening stages to the winged
condition it is then able to excavate a direct way
out to the air by means of its jaws.

It is somewhat sad to relate that some species
of the honourable family of bees have fallen into
evil courses and are now to be reckoned permanently
among the insect criminal class. The bees of the
genus Osmia are industrious little insects that
construct their cells in blackberry-stems, empty
snail-shells, and similar retreats. Osmia leucomelana
when busy burrowing the blackberry-stem is
watched by another bee, Stelis minuta ; and wheri
Osmia is piling up her provisions Stelis slips in
and deposits an egg long before the heap is com-
plete. Osmia's own egg is not laid until the cell
is fully provisioned and ready for sealing up ; so
that the Stelis egg hatches first, and the two grubs
(Stelis and Osmia) are at opposite ends of the
pollen-mass. Ultimately, when the pollen is con-
sumed they meet, and Stelis, having always the

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PLATE 39 THE OIL-BEETLE AND THE SITARIS.

Page 296

Above the newly hatched grubs of the Oil-beetle are waiting on the flower for a bee
to convey them to its nest. Just below it a grub is in the bee's cell, clinging to an egg
floating on honey. In another cell the chrysalis is awaiting its final change. The
lower half of the picture shows similar stages in the history of the Sitaris-beetle.

Drawn Iv T. Carr;ras.

BURGLARS 287

advantage of age and bulk, overpowers Osmia and
eats him.

The Nomad Bees (Nomada) in a similar way
enter the earth-burrows of Andrena (page 21), and
deposit there eggs in her uncompleted cells, with
a similar result ; and Melecta plays much the same
part in the burrows of Anthophora.

The Mason Bee (Chalicodoma), previously referred
to, has a hard struggle to maintain its existence,
for no fewer than sixteen different species of burglars
have been found in its cells, including Leucos-pis.
A few of these, it is suspected, may turn out to be
detectives on the track of the burglars, but when
allowance has been made for that probability the
effect of the industry of the others in checking the
reproduction of the hard-working Mason are
appalling.

Fabre broke up one of the masses of masonry
which comprised nine cells, and found only one
that had not been criminally entered by an enemy.
In these eight cells the proper occupant had either
been eaten by the burglar or had been starved to
death owing to the interloper having consumed its
stores of food. Three had fallen victims to the
grub of a two-winged fly (Anthrax tr if as data), the
others to enemies of its own class, including Leu-
cospis (two), Stelis (two), and Dioxys (one).

The latter Chalcid has been noticed flying around
and making observations during the building opera-
tions ; and it is believed that when the Mason has
gone off for a further supply of pollen, Dioxys has

288 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

deposited an egg in the pollen-mass. This egg
hatching soon after the cell has been sealed up,
the Dioxys larva has avoided further trouble by
eating the Mason's egg and then consuming the
provisions. High as is the percentage of destruction
in the case cited, it is not the worst, for Fabre says
he has frequently examined nests without finding a
single cell that had not been attacked by one or
other of these parasites.

Colletes is a small hairy bee, in general appear-
ance somewhat like the Honey Bee. It burrows
into hard sandy banks, and in the burrows constructs
its cells. There is a small group of other bees
named Efeolus which exist solely at the expense
of Colletes, and they have adopted a rather " cute "
way of locating their victim's nest without the
fag of searching for it. Epeolus variegatus has
discovered that Colletes daviesanus has a fondness
for the pollen of tansy. So E-peolus frequents the
tansy flowers, and when Colletes comes along to
get another supply of pollen it is easy to shadow
her to her nest, get in as soon as her back is turned,
and leave the fatal eggs behind.

Then there are several species of Gcdioxys of
similar marauding habits, and they prey chiefly
upon the Upholsterer Bees (Megacbile), also upon
Osmia. Friese says that when Goelioxys sees the
rightful owner of the nest returning with a fresh
supply of pollen she seeks to get out of the way
and not be seen ; but it is a characteristic of all
these burglars not to act in a way that is likely

BURGLARS 289

to arouse suspicion or resentment. One can even
imagine them asking a polite question as to the
progress of the work, and indulging in a little
judicious flattery as to the perfect manner in which
it is being carried out.

It is contended by some authors that the victim-
ized bee would never suspect that anything was
wrong, even if she caught the interloper in the act
of depositing eggs, and would only experience
annoyance from a stranger being present and
possibly getting in her way. Some observers have
stated that if a bee returns and finds a stranger in
her burrow, she politely withdraws to give the
intruder an opportunity for departing. It is
contended that the artizan having no knowledge
of what happens to her offspring after she has sealed
up her cells cannot have any fear — even if she sees
a strange egg on her store — that anything can
interfere with the due course of development. It
may be so, but one feels that if there is anything in
" instinct " it is here it would come into play to
warn the parent.

Such relationships as we have mentioned are
quite common between different species of the
Hymenoptera ; but some of them are so much
like those we have described that our readers would
scarcely thank us for going into details with the
others. Several, however, we must mention briefly.
The industrious bees that laboriously gather pollen
— not for their own use, but in order that their
unseen progeny may have sufficient food to last

'9

290 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

them through their larval stage — are characterized
by a special arrangement of the hind pair of legs,
the shank being flattened or hollowed and fringed
with stiff hairs which convert it into a basket in
which the closely packed pollen can be carried
home.

The bees who act as cuckoos have no such pro-
vision, and it is a nice point whether their present
depraved status is due to the persistence in evil
courses of their ancestors, or whether the niggardli-
ness of Nature is responsible for their depravity.
On the one hand it may be that originally they
were fitted out with pollen-baskets, but that the
continued non-use of them caused these to dwindle
and ultimately disappear. On the other hand they
may have been at the beginning what they are now,
in which case it would be unreasonable to find fault
with their dishonest mode of life.

Before much was known of the actual habits of
these bees it was assumed from the absence of the
pollen- baskets that they were parasites. Then in
the case of the genus Sphecodes, which has an incipient
pollen-basket, it was variously suggested that this
was the beginning of a better condition of affairs,
and that it was the last survival of what was once
upon a time in the history of the race a properly
developed basket. To give point to the first view
it was stated that some of them had been observed
burrowing on their own account. It may be that
they do at times strive after a better mode of life,
for which at present they are ill-fitted, but on

BURGLARS 291

the whole there can be no doubt that their pre-
vailing habit is to have their young brought up at
the expense of the burrowing bees Andrena and
Halictus.

A more remarkable case is that of the Humble
Bees (Bombus) and the Cuckoo Bees (Psitbyrus).
Here the two tribes are so much alike in size,
clothing, and colouring that only an expert can tell
you which is which. But if one examines the
hind legs of the two the difference is at once
manifest in the presence and absence of the pollen-
basket respectively. It was formerly thought that
these Cuckoo Bees — of which we have five species —
were merely messmates of the Humble Bees, in
some way making return for their food and lodging ;
but there can be no doubt that they are actual
parasites, thriving at the Humble Bee's expense,
and bringing about the deterioration or absolute
ruin of the colony.

The Cuckoo Bees are all males and females :
there is no worker class. Each species in colour
mimics that species of Humble Bee upon which it
preys, but is usually somewhat larger. Why there
should be this mimicry is not clear, for it does not
impose upon the Humble Bee. The mother of
the colony detects the cheat, and in some species
attempts to eject the intruder. But this appears
always to result in the Humble Bee being killed,
and the progress of the colony being checked, of
course. This is apparently the Cuckoo's object.
She helps herself to the contents of the honey-pot,

292 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

and with the Humble Bee's wax constructs cells
for her own eggs. Her grubs have to be fed by
the exertions of the Humble Bee workers, and the
mother of the colony being dead, there are no
more Humble Bee eggs to develop into more
workers. The presence of cocoons belonging to the
Cuckoo Bees in the combs of Bombus can always
be detected* by their larger size.

The Humble Bees have other intruders in their
nests. Among them in this country is a curious
creature (Mutilla) whose wingless female in form
much resembles a large ant, but its hairy covering,
brightly coloured, gives it a likeness to a bee. Its
affinities are really closer with the digging wasps
(F os sores). They are very rarely seen, except by
those whose studies lead them to explore the nests
of wild bees. The wingless female with eggs to
lay crawls into the nest of the Humble Bee, finds
out the bee-grub in its cell, and, it is supposed,
pierces the body of the grub and lays an egg inside
it.

In about three days the egg hatches and the
Mutilla gradually consumes the bee larva, and
when it has completed its destructive work it spins
a cocoon inside the skin of its victim. When it
has run through its course and arrived at the
ultimate stage, if a male, it soon leaves the nest ;
but the females regale themselves at the Humble
Bee's honey-pot before seeking adventures outside.
Another burrowing wasp (Sapyga) instead of
making a burrow for itself, as its kindred do, takes

BURGLARS 293

possession of the burrows that the solitary bee
Osmia has made in a bramble-stem. It lays its eggs
there, and the young Sapyga grub begins life by
eating the egg of Osmia, and thereafter consumes
the provisions laid up by the bee.

Some of the parasitic wasps confine their depre-
dations to the nests of other wasps. Thus Pompilus,
one of the Spider- hunting Wasps (see page 29),
has its nest invaded by a relative named Ceropales,
who lays an egg on the freshly brought in spider,
and so anticipates Pompilus' own egg-laying. More
frequently Ceropales, like Epeolus, saves herself the
trouble of hunting out Pompilus' nest by watching
Pompilus when she is stalking spiders. When she
has secured her prey and is flying heavily home
with it, C era-pales, flying light, overtakes ' and lays
an egg upon the burden. One is inclined to
sympathize with Pompilus in this matter, but some
observations of Ferton's tend to withhold our pity
and make us exclaim " arcades ambo " ; for he says
that when Pompilus has caught a spider, one of
her own tribe may come along and despoil her of
it forcibly.

Larrada australis waits until Sceliphron latus, one
of the Mud-dauber Wasps (see page 81), has made
her mud-cell and provisioned it, and then — under
the eyes of the builder — proceeds to partition off
part of the cell and its food-supply in which she
lays her own egg. It is to be presumed that the
Larrada grub eats up the Sceliphron grub. Whittell
says there is a little preliminary skirmishing between

294 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

householder and burglar, as if each were doubtful
of the attitude of the other, but it ends in Sceliphron
allowing Larrada to carry out her plan. This
looks like another failure of instinct. There is no
room for reasoning in the matter, for none of
these wasps has any inherited knowledge of what
happens to her offspring, and the grub that suffers
from such dishonest proceedings never survives to
transmit the knowledge to descendants.

Perhaps one of the most audacious examples of
these burglarious practices is afforded by the
habitual, everyday conduct of the little yellow ant
Solenofsis fugax. This ant seeks out a nest of
Formica fusca, an ant twice its size, and constructs
its own galleries in the walls of fusca's habitation.
From these galleries it makes entrances into the
chambers of the larger ant and lives cheaply at the
expense of Formica on its grubs and chrysalides.
It might be inquired, why do the larger ants permit
this ? There appears to be only one reason, and
that is that their superior size puts them at a
disadvantage. When in danger of being caught
the smaller ants slip through their minute holes
and tunnels where Formica cannot follow them.
Forel says that these entrances and exits are so
carefully contrived that they only just permit the
passage of the Solenopsis.

One might suppose that from living for geriera-
tions in such close proximity, some sort of friendli-
ness would have been established between the two
species ; but that is not so. When they chance to

BURGLARS 295

meet, the individuals of the two races fight furiously,
in which the small size of the burglar is compensated
by the possession of a sting.

The cunning of the Solenopsis is curiously like
the operations of the scientific human burglars,
who, having ascertained that certain business
premises are worth looting, rent some adjoining
property and then quietly cut through the inter-
vening walls or tunnel under the basement to effect
a secret entry that will give them access to the
treasures of the more industrious firm.

One of the burrowing wasps (Tachytes), that
provisions its nest with stung Mantis, has its labours
for its prospective progeny destroyed by the grub
of one of the Blister Beetles (Cerocoma scb&fferi),
which eats up the provisions and so starves the wasp
grub. This is not the only beetle given to such
nefarious practices. There are two that belong
to this same family of Blister Beetles that have
long been known to victimize solitary bees of the
genus Antbo'phora (see page 27), and another one
of a neighbouring family that acts in a similar
unfriendly way to the Social Wasps.

The methods of the two first (Sitaris and Meloe)
are so astonishing that a recital of them must
appear to the ordinary reader, unused to the strange
ways of Nature, as a bit of Munchausen literature.
At the same time they afford an interesting com-
mentary upon " unerring instinct " — and other
matters. Here, briefly put, is the story of the
Oil Beetles (Meloe). There are numerous species—

296 INSECT AKTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

seven are known to the collector of British beetles
— and a common species may frequently be seen
in spring dragging its bloated blue-black body
across country paths. It is probably a female
seeking for a favourable spot in which to deposit
her eggs. These she plants in batches in holes in
the ground, and it is calculated that her total out-
put of eggs amounts to about ten thousand.

Now, seeing that these beetles exude an unplea-
sant oil-like yellow secretion from their joints
which renders them objectionable to creatures
that feed upon insects, there does not at first sight
appear to be any need for such lavish fruitfulness.
What becomes of this progeny ? The Oil Beetles
are not insects that appear in swarms. It is estim-
ated that only one in a thousand gets beyond the
first larval stage. We should say that the estimate
is too high, for we do not find the species any
more plentiful to-day than we found it forty years
ago. What becomes of the nine thousand nine
hundred and ninety-odd will appear, and give
point to Tennyson's lines on Nature :

" So careful of the type, she seems ;
So careless of the single life."

The Oil Beetle's eggs hatch and give origin to
larvae that have little likeness to the usual types
of beetle-grubs. They have six long legs, and are
quite active little runners and climbers. They|are
long-bodied, but this length only extends to about
one-tenth of an inch. As soon as they have escaped

BURGLARS 297

from the egg-shells and the earth, they start climb-
ing the stems of flowering plants, and continue
until they have reached the flower. Here they
wait patiently until some other insect visits that
flower in quest of nectar or pollen. When such a
visitor arrives the larva at once clings to its body,
and is carried away unnoticed.

This larva is called a triungulin, because each of
its six feet ends in three claws, and it appears to be
formed solely with a view to this indispensable act
of its life — the clinging to a particular kind of bee.
But it is here that its instinct fails. In order that
it may justify its existence it should cling only to
a bee of the genus Antho'phora. As a matter of fact,
it will cling to any insect that is sufficiently hairy
to enable its hooked feet to hold on. Unless it
catches the right bee it perishes, the success of
the operation depending upon the triungulin being
conveyed to the bee's nest.

Let us suppose that the particular individual in
which we are interested has boarded the right bus,
so to speak, and arrived in the burrow of the Antho-
fhora, where there is a cell fully provisioned with
honey, upon which the bee now deposits a floating
egg. The triungulin is waiting for this act, and
before the bee has time to seal up the cell it slips off
the bee and balances itself nicely upon the bee's egg.

At this stage of existence it is incapable of feeding
upon honey ; the one thing that it appears able
to take in the way of nourishment is the bee's egg,
and this it devours. The egg of a bee may appear

298 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

to be a very small matter, but it serves the triungulin
for several days ; and then the insect casts its first
skin and appears in a different form. It now more
closely resembles the grub of the cockchafer, and
is capable of floating on the honey and of feeding
upon it. But how many of its kindred, hatched
from the multitudinous eggs of the same mother
beetle, have perished ! In due time it consumes
all the honey, changes into a chrysalis, and finally
into a perfect Oil Beetle.

There is another beetle — rare in this country —
named Sitaris, which curiously goes through a
similar experience, also in connection with an
Antho'phora bee. It is more plentiful in the South
of France than it is with us, and Fabre has managed
to work out its life-history with tolerable com-
pleteness, a matter of considerable difficulty, as
will be understood from the following brief state-
ment :

Sitaris humeralis is not so prolific as Meloe, but
she lays at least two thousand eggs, and takes care
to place them in the ground very near to the
burrows of Antbophora. This happens some time
in August, and the eggs hatch about the end of
September. There are well-stored honey-cells
close at hand, and one would expect that the little
black Sitaris triungulins would at once go to them
and begin feeding. But the sensation of hunger
is at present unknown to them ; they simply
huddle together and pass the winter where they
were born.

BURGLARS 299

In spring — about April or May — they wake up,
and begin to look about them. Should any hairy
insect come within reach they seize upon it, whether
it be bee, fly, or beetle, and as a result the vast
majority fail to proceed farther on their proper
way of life. The first of the new Anthofhoras to
issue from their cells are males ; and as these
hang about in the burrows for a few days until
their wings and integuments have hardened pro-
perly, a number of the Sitaris triungulins have a
good opportunity for attaching themselves, and
they take advantage of it.

But they appear to know that they have not yet
got hold of the insect that can directly help them-
to work out their destiny. About a month later
the female bees emerge, and as these are being
courted by the males, the triungulins contrive to
transfer themselves from one to the other. The
females busy themselves, of course, in the making
of cells, and the triungulin, knowing that it has
reached its destination, gets off as soon as the bee
lays an egg on the store of honey.

The cell is sealed up, and the little Sitaris com-
mences to feed upon the egg. This repast lasts
about eight days, and then it casts its skin, and
emerges as a very different creature, with exceed-
ingly short legs and a shortened inflated body which
enables it to float on the honey with safety. Its
spiracles or breathing-holes are placed along each
side of the back, instead of along the sides as usual
in larvae, so that it can breathe without risk of

300 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

the spiracles becoming clogged. The only exertion
demanded of it is the sucking up of the honey, and
there is enough of this to occupy it for about forty
days.

This brings it to the middle of July, when it
changes again, becoming much like the puparium
of a fly. In this condition it may remain for a
month, or for eight months. Those of the shorter
period return to much the same condition as
that in which they consumed the honey. A little
later it becomes a chrysalis, and in August or
September it emerges as a Sitaris beetle. The
tardy individuals pass the winter in the false pupal
condition, and finish their changes in spring.
This, it will be seen, is one of the most complicated
and remarkable of insect life-histories.

XIII

LAMP-BEARERS

301

XIII
LAMP-BEARERS

THOUGH the bearers of lights produced and main-
tained by their own vital chemistry are common
enough among creatures of the sea, they are exceed-
ingly rare upon land. The ocean has many back-
boned light-bearers in the luminous fishes of the
deeps, but no terrestrial back-boned animal has
such power. The Lamp-bearers of the land are
all small invertebrate animals, and with very few
exceptions they are beetles. A hundred years ago
it was believed that there were others among the
bugs — the so-called Lantern Flies — but the belief
has long been given up ; though science has em-
balmed the error in their Latin name Fulgora.

The name of our Glow-worm (Lampyris nocti-
luca) will at once arise to the mind of any reader
who has met with the male insect, and knows
therefore that it is a beetle, and not a worm, as
the unfortunate folk-name leads many to suppose.
This misconception is due, of course, to the fact
that the female, who carries a far more powerful
lamp than her mate, is not merely wingless, but
lacks also the wing-covers which many wingless

303

304 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

beetles are endowed with, as though to give them
an air of respectability and prevent their being
included in a lower class.

The female Glow-worm is certainly not like any
terrestrial worm, though in the sea we could find
specimens that would justify the comparison. She
is soft and depressed, and her back shows plainly
the segments of her structure. On the under side
of her hind body and near to its extremity are
three light-giving patches on each side. During
the daytime she remains hidden among the grass
and moss of hedgebanks, feeding upon snails, which
she literally " eats out of house and home."

In the evening she temporarily leaves her repast
and climbs up the stem of some weed in order that
her lamps shall be raised just above the grass, and
gives a twist to her hind body so that the light
may be more fully revealed to the world in general,
and perhaps to the other sex of her own kind more
particularly. This is not the universal opinion of
its use, some authorities pointing out that there
are thousands of nocturnal creatures who contrive
to find partners without any such aid. That is so ;
but seeing that in this case the female is wingless
and unable to drag herself far from her feeding-
ground, it is at least feasible that the luminosity
is made use of by the species for this purpose.

It may be stated that no better explanation has
yet been offered. Opponents of this view point
out that some other reason is indicated by the
fact that the larva is also luminous, and not only

LAMP-BEARERS 305

the larva, but the pupa and egg as well. It is quite
certain that in neither of these stages can the insect
make use of luminosity in this connection ; but, as
Messrs. Priske and Main point out, " there are
instances in other animals of organs present in the
male and immature forms which are only functional
in the mature female."

The male also has a small degree of light, but
his lamps are no bigger than pin-heads. Now, it
appears to us that if the females' light were not for
the purpose of attracting the male, the latter would
give as brilliant a display as his partner.

Besides, if you compare the eyes of the two
sexes, you will see that whilst those of the female
are small, those of the male are so highly developed
that almost the whole of his head consists of his
large eyes. Are not these eyes developed to a far
greater extent than those of the female in order
that he may the better see where her light is shining ?
He is certainly attracted by light in a manner that
other of our native beetles are not ; and we have
witnessed male Glow-worms flocking by scores
through an open window because a bright lamp
shone within. Till then we had never imagined
the Glow-worm was at all plentiful in that district,
and the impression we formed was that they had all
taken the lamp to be a fine and very luminous
female.

In connection with the difference in the eyes of
the two sexes noted above, Dimmock says : " When
one sex of any species of Lampyridse emits intenser

20

306 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

light than the other sex, the less luminous sex has,
as a rule, the best developed eyes ; this is especially
marked in the case of the large eyes of males of
species in which the female is luminous, but
apterous."

There is very little difference in the appearance
of the larvae and the fully developed females. From
the laying of the egg to the emergence of the
perfect insect from the chrysalis a period of about
twenty-one months is covered, the insects becoming
inactive during winter. Both larvae and perfect
insects feed upon snails and slugs. Such creatures
when attacked exude a great amount of slime, and
the larva has a special implement for dealing with
this when it has got smeared over its body. Such
a coating might seriously interfere with the proper
action of the breathing apparatus by closing some
of the spiracles ; but from the last segment of its
body the insect can protrude a bunch of whitish
filaments which it uses as a brush by curving the
flexible hind body and drawing the brush over the
soiled part.

As to the nature of the luminosity of the Glow-
worm and other Lamp-bearers, there is much
difference of opinion among the authorities. One
says it is due to the slow oxidation of a special
substance in the cells of the light-giving region,
controlled by the nervous system. Another says
he has found in the Fire-fly that it is due to the
reaction of two substances called luciferase and
luciferine, the former found only in the luminous

LAMP-BEARERS 307

organs and the latter in the blood, and the entry
of blood into these organs produces the manifesta-
tion. It may be pointed out, however, that neither
of these explanations will account for the luminosity
of the egg, where there are neither air-tubes nor
blood-vessels.

Whatever be the true explanation of its chemistry,
it is certain that the exhibition is under the control
of the insect, as may be proved on capturing an
individual. Gilbert White was of opinion that the
Glow-worm puts out her light between eleven and
twelve o'clock at night ; and although no modern
observer appears to have taken the trouble to
check this statement, it is quite probable, for
many nocturnal insects have definite hours of
flight, and if the male Glow-worm ceases to fly
about that hour one might expect the female to
conserve her light by switching it off at the time
when the experience of the race has proved it to
be ineffectual. This, of course, presumes again
that the light is of sexual importance.

On this point, as to the reason for the lumines-
cence, it should be mentioned that Mr. Belt
contended that it was protective. He found that
the insects were distasteful to insectivorous mammals
and birds ; and, therefore, it would be an advantage
to the species that their enemies should be able to
recognize them at once by their light, and so avoid
them. This explanation, however, does not go
far enough.

It is not generally known that the Glow-worm

3o8 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

is not the only luminous insect that is found in
Britain. There is another species which has no
folk-name, but we may call it for distinction' sake
the Little Glow-worm (Phospbtenus hemipterus).
The male is not uncommon in places, but the
female appears to be rare. Neither sex has wings,
and its light-giving powers are very feeble.

Another species which has been occasionally
taken in this country, but is very plentiful in the
South of Europe, is the Italian Fire-fly (Luciola
italic a). In this species — a beetle again in spite
of the name — both sexes are provided with wings
but the female is altogether feebler and less highly
developed than the male. This probably accounts
for the fact that the female is accounted very rare
the swarms that on warm evenings in May anc
June display their light in the air consisting almost
entirely of males. The feebler female, like our
wingless Glow-worm, keeps to the herbage near
the ground. The Italian Fire-fly is a little smaller
than our male Glow-worm. Another European
species of Glow-worm is known as Lampyris splendi-
dula.

Eaton has timed the duration of the flashes of
the Italian Fire-fly's light and finds that it is
from a third to a fourth of a second, and that they
are repeated about thirty-six times in a minute.

The strange grub-like condition of our female
Glow-worm appears to be accentuated in a South
American species known as Phengodes hieronymi,
The winged male is especially noticeable on account

LAMP-BEARERS 309

of its remarkable antennae, which are developed
into feather-like organs. As his eyes do not exhibit
any undue development, it may be conjectured
that he finds the wingless female by some other
sense than sight, in which the branched antennae
assist him. The female is said to have been long
known in Paraguay as the Railway Beetle, for
reasons that will appear ; but it is difficult to
understand how any one not an entomologist could
suspect that it had any connection with beetles.
Railway Worm would be the much more likely
term.

The reason for its association with railways is
the allegation that along its sides it has numerous
points from which a green light is produced, whilst
from either end a strong red light glows. The
statement as to the green lights is convincing
enough, but the red lights we are not so sure of.
Haase publishes a figure of one of these Railway
Worms (reproduced in Cambridge Natural History)
in which the position of the side lights is indicated,
but there is no reference to the head and tail lights.
These are probably not luminous spots at all, but
bright-red colour-markings.

The Fire-flies of the American tropics are
beetles of another family, represented in Britain
by the Skipjacks or Click Beetles, of which our
destructive Wire Worm is one of the larvae. The
old books of travel in the West Indies made these
Fire-flies or Cucujos quite familiar to the English
reader. It was not so in earlier days when Sir

3io INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

Thomas Cavendish first landed in the West Indies.
The idea of flying lights had not yet got abroad ;
so when in the evening brave Sir Thomas and his
party saw lights moving in the woods they were
convinced that their enemies, the Spaniards, were
advancing upon them, and they sought safety in
their ships.

But though the Fire-flies were unknown to
Cavendish, they had already become known to
literature, for Peter Martyr, who was contemporary
with Columbus, has left us some account of them
in his Decades, which Southey quoted in the notes
to his Madoc. Peter says that in the Spanish West
Indies the natives employed these living lamps
instead of candles, and when abroad at nighl
travelling, hunting or fishing, they tied a Cucujo
to each big toe and needed no other light. He also
says that they employed them in their houses, not
only to light the apartments, but to prey upon
the gnats, which were a dreadful pest. This state-
ment is very doubtful, though made in good faith.

To capture the Cucujos the native would go out
of the house at the beginning of twilight, carrying
a burning fire-brand in his hand, and ascend the
first hillock that his light might be better seen by
the beetles. There he would swing the firebrand
around and call "Cucuie, Cucuie." The simple
people, Peter says, believe that the Fire-flies come
in response to their call, but for his part he believes
that the fire is the attraction.

On certain festival days in June the beetles were

LAMP-BEARERS 311

collected in great numbers and fastened to the
dress of young people and the trappings of horses,
upon which the youngsters would ride through the
streets after dark. On such occasions many wanton
wild fellows rub their faces with parts of a freshly
killed Cucujo " with purpose to meet their neigh-
bours with a flaming countenance."

This Cucujo or Fire-fly is the Pyro^'horus noctiluca.
There are a large number of species in the genus
Pyrophorus, but they are not all Fire-flies, though
probably the majority are more or less luminous.
P. noctiluca is the only one whose life-history has
been dealt with satisfactorily. As we have said,
the perfect insect is very like our Skipjack, but
much larger. It measures about an inch and three-
quarters in length, and is of a rusty-brown colour.
On the hard shield-like crust of the fore body
(thorax), there are two oval spots which the older
writers thought were the creature's eyes, because
they are luminous in the evening. But the chief
source of light is on the under side at the junction
of the fore body and the hind body, which is not
visible except when the beetle is on the wing.

Like those of the Glow-worm, the eggs of the
Cucujo are said to be luminous; and the larva has
the same quality. But there is an increase of the
light-bearing spots during the larval period. At
first the larva has only one luminous area — just
behind the head ; but at a later change of skin this
is supplemented by a row of luminous points along
the sides above the spiracles or breathing-pores.

312 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK

A minute species of Fire-fly (Pboturus pennsyl-
vanicus), common in the Eastern United States,
has wings in both sexes. It is yellowish in colour,
with a few ill- defined lines of brown or black. In
the Mississippi Valley its place is taken by Photinus
pyralis. Its larva lives upon earth-worms and
soft-bodied insects, which it hunts for underground.

INDEX

Abispa, 86

Acanthocinus cedilis, 119
Acherontia atropos, 275
Aoridiida, 265, 267
Agenia carbonaria, 85
Ageronia feronia, 276
Agricultural Ant, 214
Ammophila, 35, 81, 107; A.
sabulosa, 36 ; A . hirsuta, 37,
38 ; A. gracilis, 37 ; A. urna-
lis, 37 ; A. yarrowii, 38
Anabolia nervosa, 198
Andrena, 21, 23, 26, 287, 291
Anobium striatum, 117 ; ^4. /gs-

sellatum, 117
Ant as grain-storer, 211
Anthidium bellicosum, 131; ^(.
diadema, 130; ^4. manicatum,
129 ; ^4. septemdentatum, 131
Anthophora, 27, 295, 297
Anthrax tri fas data, 287
Anthrenus musceorum, 239
Ant-rice, 214
Ants, 6

Ants, Agricultural, 214; Har-
vesting, 212 ; Leaf -cutting,
218; Parasol, 218; Saiiba,
218

Ants' " Kohl-rabi," 223
Aphenogaster barbara, 212; A,

structor, 2 12

Aphilanthops frigidus, 49
Aphis Lion, 207
Aphodius, 54
u4£is mellifica, 140, 143; .4.

dorsata, 142
Apoica pallida, 175
Apterostigma, 223
Arindy-silk, 9
Aristida stricta, grass grown by

ants, 214
Aromia moschata, 118

Asparagus Beetle, 275

Astata, 39

Ateuchus pihtlaria, 53

^4//« providens, 217; ^4. cepha-

lotes, 218 ; ^4. discigera, 222 ;

^4. hystrix, 222
Austrian Wasp, 166
^4^eca, 224

Bacon Beetles, 237

Bark Beetle, 113

Bee, Big, 142 ; Carder, 129, 156 ;
Carpenter, 97, 139; Cuckoo,
291 ; Honey, 139 ; Humble,
I5I-58, 272, 291 ; Leal-
cutting, 28, 131 ; Mason, 67,
139, 287 ; Mining, 21, 139

Bee-bread, 149

Bee Flies, 248

Bees, Wild, 22, 25, 27

Bembex, 40-3, 46 ; B. rostrata,
40, 282 ; B. ciliata, 41

Big Bee, 142

" Biscuit Weevil," 117

Blister Beetle, 295

Blow-fly, 245, 246

Blue-bottle, 232, 245, 246, 273

Bombus, 151 ; B. agrorum, 157 ;
B. sylvarum, 157 ; B. terres-
tris, 157

Bostrichus, 116

Brephos notha, 122

Brown China-mark, 194

Brown Lacewing, 207

Buprestis splendida, 118

Burnet Moths, 14

Burrowing Wasps, 39-50

Caddis Flies, 197
Caddis Worms, 197
Calicurgus, 29

313

INDEX

Calliphora vomitoria, 245, 246
Camberwell Beauty, 17
Camponotus, 224 ; C. pennsyl-

vanicus, 109 ; C. herculaneus,

in

Carder Bee, 129, 156
Carpenter Ants, 109, 177
Carpenter Bees, 97, 139
Carpenter Beetles, 112
Carrion Beetles, 237
Carrion- chafers, 274
Cassida, 206
Castnia eudesmia, 14
Cataclysta lemnata, 196
Caterpillar tents, 15, 16, 17
Cecropia Moth, 10 *
Celery Fly, 64
Cemiostoma laburnella, 60 ; C.

spartifoliella, 61
Cemonus unicolor, 104
Cerambycida, 117
Ceramius lusitanicus, 76
Ceratina, 134
Ceratina cyanea, 101
Cerceris arenaria, 45 ; C. labiata,

46

Cefocowa schcsfferi, 295
Ceropales, 293
Chalcid, 283
Chalicodoma muraria, 67, 283,

287

Charter gus chartarius, 175
Chelonia, 276

China-mark Moths, 194, 196
Chloroccelus tanana, 262
Chrysis ignita, 73, 281 ; C.

bidentata, 282
Cicada, 254 ; C. septemdecim,

258 ; C. tibicen, 261
Cicindela campestris, 55
Cigale, 257
Clearwings, 121
Click Beetle, 309
Clock Beetle, 53
Clothes Moths, 183
" Clumsy Tailor," 192
Clythra quadrimaculata, 204 ; C.

quadripuncta, 275
Clytus, 118
Cockchafer, 54
Ccelioxys, 288
CcelonitAS abbreviates, 86

Coleophora, 186, 200 ; C. rfw-
cordella, 191 ; C. fuscidinella,
187 ; C. juncicolella, 192 ; C,
saturatella, 191 ; C. siccifolia,
192

Colletes, 27, 128 ; C. daviesanus,
288

Colobopsis, 112

Compass Ant, 89

Coprides, 52

Crabro capitosus, 105 ; C. c&ry-
sostomus, 105 ; C. clavipes,
105 ; C. dimidiatus, 105 ; C.
interruptus, 105, 106 ; C. /e«-
costomus, 105 ; C. quadrima-
culatus, 105 ; C. sexmaculatus,
105 ; C. signatus, 105 ; C. s/tr-
picola, 1 06

Creophilus vnaxillosus, 237

Cricket, House, 262, 271 ; Field
C., 56, 264, 271 ; Mole C., 56,
271 ; Wood C., 262

Crioceris asparagi, 275 ; C. wwr-
digera, 206

Cryptocephalus, 206

Cryptocerus atratus, in

Cuckoo-Bees, 291

Cucujos, 309

Currant Clearwing, 122

Cyphomyrmex, 223

Cyrtophyllus concavus, 270

Dasypoda kirtipes, 23-5"!
Death's-head Hawk Moth, 275
" Death Watch," 117
De Geer's Leaf-miner, 59
Dermestes, 237 ; P. lardaritts,

237 ; .D. vulpinus, 238
Dicranura vinula, 3, n
Dingar, 142

Dionychopus nivtus, 276
Dioxys, 287
Dolichoderus, 177
Dolichotoma palmarum, 206
Dor Beetle, 53, 275
Dorcus parallelopipedMS, n6
Dragon Moth, 13

Elaphidion villosum^ 117
Emperor Moth, 9
Epeolus, 293 ;
Eri-silk, 9

INDEX

Eucera longicornis, 27
Euchirus longimanus, 273
Eumenes, 77-9 ; E. arbuslorum,
77 ; E. coarctata, 77 ; E.
conica, 78 ; E. pomiformis,
77 ; E. unguiculata, 78

Fenusa pumila, 64

Festoon Moth, 14

Field Cricket, 56, 264

Fire-fly, 311, 312

Flesh-fly, 84, 246

Fly Bug, 208

Formica fusca, 294 ; F. vufa, 204

Fulgora, 303

Gadflies, 41

Geometers, 4

Geotrupes stercorarius, 53, 273 ;
G. typhous, 33

Gipsy Moth, 14

Girdler Beetles, 118

Glanville Fritillary, 17

Glow-worm, 303 ; Little Glow-
worm, 308

Goat Moth, 14, 120

Gold- tail Moth, 14

Grayling Butterfly, 15

Green Bottle, 246

Green-fly scalps, 208

Green Grasshopper, 269

Green Silver- lines, 276

Green Tortrix, 5

Gryllotalpa vulgaris, 56, 271

Gryllus domesticus, 262, 271 ; G.
campestris, 56, 264, 271

Hairy-legged Miner, 23
Halictus, 25, 291
Hammock Moth, 204
Hanging-gardens of Ants, 224
Harvesting Ants, 212
Hemerobius, 207
Heterogena asella, 14
Hister, 237
Histerida, 119
Hodotermes havilandi, 225
Holly-leaf Fly, 64
Homalomyia canicularis, 244
Honey Bees, 139, 140
Honey-comb built from top
downwards, 146

Honey Wasps, 176
Hornet, 166, 173
House Cricket, 262
House Fly, 241, 244
Humble Bees, 151-38, 272, 291
Hybocampa milhauseri, 13
Hydrocampa nympheata, 194
Hydropsyche, 200
Hylesinus fraxini, 115
Hylophila prasinana, 276
Hylotrupes bajulus, 119
Hyponotneuta padella, 15 ; H.
cognagella, 15

Ischnogaster melleyi, 174
ItaUan Fire-fly, 308

Katydids, 269

Laburnum Miner, 60

Lackey Moth, 16

Lagoa opercularis, 14

Lamprosoma, 206

Lampyris noctiluca, 303 ; L.

splendidula, 308
Lantern Flies, 303
Large Horn- tail, 123, 285
Larrada australis, 293
Lasius fuliginosus, 108, 177 ;

L. niger, 109

Leaf-cutting Bees, 28, 131-36
Leaf Miners, 58-64
Leaf-rolling caterpillars, 4
Leucospis gigas, 283
Lierman, 261

Light Orange Underwing, 122
Lily Beetle, 206
Limacodes testudo, 14
Limnophilus flavicornit, 198 ;

L. pellucidus, 198 ; L. rhom-

bicus, 198

Locusta viridissima, 269
Longicorns, 117
Lucanus cervus, 116, 274
Lucilia casar, 246
Luciola italica, 308
Lunar Dung Beetle, 53
Lunar Hornet Clearwing, 122
Lymexylon navalg, 1 16

Malacosoma neustria, 16
Maple Leaf-cutter, 201

INDEX

Marsh Fritillary, 16
Mason Bees, 67, 139, 287
Mason Wasps, 67, 71-86, 281
Mathematician corrected by

Bees, 145
Maybug, 54

Megachile, 131, 288 ; M. albo-
cincta, 136 ; M. argentata, 28,
135 ; »• centuncularis, 84,
135 I M. circumcincta, 135 ;
M . lanata, 84 ; M. ligneseca,
I35 ', M. versicolor, 135 ; M.
willughbiella, 135

cinxia,

,

Melipona, 67, 140
Melit&a aurinia, 16 ; M.

Mellinus arvensis, 44 ; M.

/osws, 45
M0/o$, 295

Melolontha vulgaris, 54
Methane anderssoni, 267
Microcentrum retinerve, 270
Micropterna, 199
Mimic Beetles, 237
Mining Bees, 21-8, 139
Mole Cricket, 56
Monohammus, 118
Motuca, 41
Mud- daubers, 81, 293
Afttsca domestica, 241
Museum Beetle, 239
Mushroom- growing Ants, 219
Musk Beetle, 118
Mutilla, 292

Nacerdes melanura, 117

Necrophorus, 233, 275

Nepticula anomelella, 59 ; AT.
atricapitella, 60 ; A7. atrico-
lella, 60 ; A7. betulicolella, 60 ;
AT. floslactella, 60 ; AT. »'gwo-
bilella, 60 ; N. luteella, 60 ;
N. marginicolella, 60 ; AT.
microtheriella, 60 ; A7", o^ya-
canthella, 60 ; A7", perpygma-
ella, 60 ; AT. splendidissimella,
60 ; AT. tityrella, 60 ; AT. t/w-
cevella, 60

Oak Egger, 13
Oak Primer, 117
Oak Tortrix, 5

Odynerus anormis, 75, 108 ; O.

conformis, 75, 107 ; O. £am-

^MW, 76, 281 ; O. laevipes, 107 ;

O. melanocephalus, 107 ; O.

reniformis, 74 ; O. spinipes,

71, 282 ; O. trifasciatus, 107
(Ecophila smaragdina, 6
Oil Beetles, 295
Oncideres, 118
Orthoptera, 262
Osmia, 131 ; O. leucomelana,

102, 286 ; O. papaveris, 136 ;

O. tridentata, 102

Painted Lady Butterfly, 17
Panurgus, 23, 27
Paper, invented by wasps, 161
Papier mache made by wasps,

J75

Parnopes carnea, 283
Peacock Butterfly, 17
Pelobius tardus, 275
PelopcBUs fistularis, 79
Pemphredon lugubris, 104
Pentatoma, 39

Perophora sanguinolenta, 204
Pheidole providens, 217
Phengodes hieronymi, 308
Philanthus, 42, 47 ; P. apivorus,

48 ; P. triangulum, 48 ; P.

punctatus, 48

Phosphanus hemipterus, 308
Photinus pyralis, 312
Photurus pennsylvanicus, 312
Phyllocnistis suffusella, 62
Phyllotoma aceris, 201
Phytomyza ilicis, 64
Pimpla, 285
Pissodes, 116
Platysamia cecropia, 10
Pneumora scutellaris, 267
Pogonomyrmex barbatus, 214 ;

P. crudelis, 215
Polistes gattica, 174
Polybia scutellaris, 176
Polyrhachis, 6, 177
Pompilus, 29-33, 85, 107 ; P.

quinquenotatus, 32
Porphyraspis tristis, 207
Propolis, 150
Prosopis, 127
Pseudodoxia limulus, 193

INDEX

317

Psithyrus, 291

Psyche, 183

Puss Moth, 3, ii

Pyrameis atalanta, 17 ; P. car-

dui, 17
Pyrophorus noctiluca, 311

Railway Beetle, 309
Raspberry- leaf Miner, 64
Red Admiral Butterfly, 17
Reduvius personatus, 208
Rhagium bifasciatum, 119; R.

inquisitor, 119
Rhyacophylax, 200
Rhygchium brunneum, 86 ; R.

nitidulum, 86
Rhyssa persuasoria, 283
Rove Beetles, 237
Rozites gongylophora, fungus

grown by ants, 223
Ruby- tail Wasp, 73, 281

Saccophora, 193

Sacred Scarab, 50, 232

Sand Wasps, 35-9, 81

Sapyga, 292

Sarcophaga carnaria, 84, 246

Saturnia carpini, 9

Satyrus semele, 15

Saw-flies, 123

Sawfly Tailor, 201^

Scarabaus sacer, 50

Sceliphron lestus, 82, 293 ; S.

madraspatanus, 82 ; 5. spiri-

fex, 8 1

" Scissor- grinder," 225
Scolytus destructor, 113 ; 5.

pruni, 115 ; S. rugulosus, 115
Sericomyia borealis, 273
Sericomyrmex opacus, 223
Serictcria, 7
Sericostoma, 198
S«sta tipuliformis, 122
Sesiida, 121
Setina, 276
Setodes, 198
Seventeen-year Cicada, 258, 261,

262

Sexton Beetles, 233, 275
Silk- glands, 7
Silkworm, 3, 7, 8
Silpha, 237

Sinodendron cylindricum, 116
Sire* £t'£as, 123, 285
Sitaris, 295 ; 5. humeralis, 298
" Six o'clock " Cicada, 225
Skipjacks, 309
Skipper Butterflies, 15
Small China- mark, 196
Small Tortoiseshell Butterfly, 17
Social Wasps, 162
Solenopsis fugax, 294
Solomon's injunction, 211
Soronia punctatissima, 121
Sphecius speciosus, 43
Sphecodes, 290
S/)A^, 22, 34, 42
Spider-hunting Wasps, 29, 83,

293

Squeaker Beetle, 275
Stag Beetle, 116, 274
Staphylinus, 237
Stelis minuta, 286
Stenobothrus curtipennis, 267 ;

S. melanopleurus, 267
Synaeca cyanca, 175

Tabanus, 41

Tachytes, 39, 295

Xanana, 263

TenthredinidcB, 123

Termes angustata, 225

Termites, 86, 225

Te#*X 260

Thliboscelus camellifolius, 263

Tiger Beetle, 55

Timberman Beetle, 119

Tinea pellionella, 184 ; T. t;a*-

/e«a, 1 86

Tomicus typographies, 113, 227
Tortoise Beetles, 206
Tortrix, 4, 5
Trappers, 200
Tree Wasp, 166, 170
Triangle Moth, 14
Trichoptera, 197
Trochilium crabroniforntis, 122
7>o# sabulosus, 274
Trypan&us, 120
Trypanus cossus, 14, 120
Trypeta onopordines, 64
Trypoxylon albitarse, 79 ; T.

aurifrons, 79
Tumble-dung Beetle, 52

INDEX

Tussock Moth, 14
Tussore- silk, 9
Typhoid Fly, 243

Vanessa antiopa, 17 ; V. io, 17 ;

V. urtica, 17
Vapourer Moth, 14
Vespa, 162; V. arborea, 166 ;

F. austriaca, 166 ; F. crabro,

166, 173 ; F. germanica, 166,

249 ; F. norvegica, 166, 172 ;

F. rw/a, 166 ; F. sylvestris,

166 ; F. vulgaris, 48
Volucella, 248 ; F. bombylans,

249 ; F. pellucens, 249

Wasp Beetle, 118

Wasp, Austrian, 166 ; Burrow-
ing, 39-5° J Common, 48 ;
Mason, 61, 71-86, 281 ; Sand,
35-9, 8 1 ; Spider, 29, 85,
293 ; Tree, 166, 170

Watchman Beetle, 53

" White Ants," 86-94, 225

Wood Ant, 204

Wood Cricket, 262

Wood Leopard Moth, 12 1

Xylocopa violacea, 97

Zeuzera pyrina, 121
Zygana, 14

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Insect artizans and
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