Part 9

Body stout and flattened. Antennæ, palps, and tail-filaments very long. Fore legs broad, modified into true “digging legs,” superficially resembling the feet of a mole. Fore wings broad, but short, leathery. In a state of rest, the hind wings lie on the back, like a couple of tails. Colour dark brown. Principally occurs on peaty soils mixed with sand or clay, also on all soils which have become of firm consistency by the application of much manure. Their presence is therefore local. Very early in the year the mole-cricket leaves its winter hiding-place, and begins to make its passages near the surface. Where the female makes her nest the passage turns downward a little. The nest is 1⅗ of an inch in diameter, and its walls are compacted by the pressure of the hard body. The number of eggs is from 200 to 250; they are laid in lots with a few intermediate spaces. The young creep out in the spring, and are wingless. To begin with, they are white, but quickly become brown. The mother guards her young very carefully. These grow tolerably fast, and first begin to lead an independent life after the second moult. In October and November they undergo a third moult. Then, still in a wingless condition, they hide themselves, and do not moult again till April or May, when the wing-cases appear; while after the fifth moult (May, June) the mole-cricket becomes an adult insect, capable of reproducing. This insect is found in cornfields, gardens, grassland, and meadows, also in orchards and woods. It gnaws the roots of all kinds of plants, and often effects great damage in this way. The mole-cricket is also harmful on account of its passages, which are dug close to the surface. In this way it lifts young plants out of the soil; while older plants are killed, both by its gnawing and by its digging. Such plants can often be pulled up by grasping the leaves. All the plants wither in the place where the nest is found. Dry, cold winters kill almost all the mole-crickets; much drought in summer and also continuous wet are unfavourable to them. _Enemies_: moles, rooks, etc., butcher-birds, starlings, and the larger ground beetles. _Remedies_: Destruction of the nests, in June, to begin with, but also to be continued later. In those parts of a field where the plants are yellow or withered in a large circular patch (some 39 inches in diameter) the nest is felt for with the finger, and carefully lifted up, so that the eggs do not fall out. Mole-crickets can also be caught by means of flower-pots. The apertures in the bottoms of these are stopped with corks, and they are then sunk in the soil with their mouths on a level with the mole-cricket passages; they thus serve as pitfalls, from which the insects cannot escape. If during winter little heaps of horse dung are placed on the ground, the insects creep into them for the sake of the warmth, and can thus be collected and killed.

THIRD ORDER: =Neuroptera= (NET-WINGED INSECTS).

Insects with biting mouth-parts and four similar membranous wings, with numerous veins arranged in a net-like manner. The metamorphosis is either incomplete (p. 89: dragon flies, may flies, book lice), or complete (p. 89: ant lions, lace flies, snake flies, scorpion flies, caddis flies). The indigenous forms, with the single exception of book lice, feed upon animal food, usually on the juices of other insects. Several of them are tolerably useful in this way.

The =Dragon Flies= (_Libellulidæ_) fly about incessantly from place to place on bright warm days, and catch a large number of insects, especially butterflies and flies, among which are many that are harmful. The larvæ live in water, and feed on insects and such small deer, which, however, are of no importance to forestry or agriculture. They also devour fish-spawn, and may therefore be injurious in that way.

[Illustration:

FIG. 86.—The Common Lace Fly (_Chrysopa vulgaris_): _a_, eggs; _b_, the larva; _c_, cocoon; _d_, pupa contained in the same; _e_, open cocoon; _f_, adult insect; _a_, _c_, _e_, natural size; _d_, enlarged and natural size; _b_ and _f_ enlarged. ]

The =Lace Flies= (_Hemerobidæ_) when at rest are covered as with a roof by their fore and hind wings, which are almost alike, clear as glass, and finely veined. Head tolerably large, eyes large, abdomen elongated and slender. The extremely rapacious larvæ (Fig. 86, _b_) feed on the juices of the bodies of other insects, which they suck up by means of a pincer-like organ situated on either side of the mouth. The two pincers are perforated, and the tubes open on each side into the gullet; the body juices of the insects attacked thus flow into the gut of the larva. This is strongly built, and always much thicker and larger than the adult insect. Metamorphosis complete. Three genera belong to the lace flies:—

1. The delicate greenish, or greenish yellow, illsmelling =Gold-eyed Lace Flies= (_Chrysopa_), the larvæ of which chiefly feed on plant lice (a few species on caterpillars, also, and other small insect larvæ).

2. The =Aphis Lions= (_Hemerobius_: _H. hirtus_, with hairy veins on the fore wings; _H. dipterus_, with hind wings almost entirely absent), the larvæ of which also feed on aphides, and make a case from their sucked-out skins.

3. The =Ant Lions= (_Myrmeleon_), of which the fat, thick-set larvæ, which have a large head and strong grasping pincers, dig out in the sand funnel-shaped holes, at the bottom of which they hide, lying in wait for ants and the like, which step on the edge, when the sand gives way and causes them to fall in. The species of the first two genera are of service as destroyers of aphides; the ant lions are of no importance.

The =Scorpion Flies= (_Panorpatæ_) have attached to the head a kind of proboscis, the upper side of which is formed by a prolongation of the forehead, and the under side by the maxillæ and lower lip, while the upper lip and mandibles are hinged on at its tip. Here belongs the slender-bodied =Scorpion Fly= (_Panorpa communis_), an insect found in May, and again in July or August, on the leaves of trees and shrubs, when it is sunny. While the abdomen of the female ends in an ovipositor, it bends upwards in the male, and terminates in a pincer-like organ; hence the name “scorpion fly.” Wings flecked with brown. Scorpion flies catch on the wing a very large number of butterflies and moths, and are therefore useful to some extent.

FOURTH ORDER: =Hymenoptera= (MEMBRANOUS-WINGED INSECTS).

Upper lip and mandibles short; the latter used for biting. Maxillæ loose-jointed, so that they can be stretched out considerably; elongated in those which lick the juices of flowers. In the last-named forms the larva’s lips are still more elongated, and may even form a tongue or proboscis-like organ, which may bear lateral appendages (“secondary tongues”). Wings, four, all membranous, with relatively few veins (Figs. 61, 90). Metamorphosis complete; larvæ very various; pupæ free (p. 93). The female usually possesses an ovipositor, the structure of which varies a great deal, and which serves in many species, not only for egg-laying, but also for protection (digging wasps); in others exclusively for offence or defence (“stings” of bees and wasps), while the same opening serves for the passage both of eggs and excrement. The abdominal glands, secreting a sticky substance by which the eggs are attached, are modified into poison-glands in those Hymenoptera which possess a sting. In those forms where the ovipositor is not modified into a sting, it is used for piercing, biting, or sawing. The Hymenoptera with saw-like ovipositor first make an opening in wood or in a leaf by means of the saw-teeth in its edge, and then lay an egg in this hole.

[Illustration:

FIG. 87.—Head of Honey Bee. _A_, compound eyes; _a_, simple eyes; Fh, antennæ; _Z_, tongue (under lip); _b_, labial palps; _Fz_, elongated maxillæ; the mandibles and upper lip remain short. ]

Many Hymenoptera (all digging wasps, gold wasps, ichneumon flies, and gall flies—several true bees and wasps) live alone, or in pairs. Others form colonies, in which division of labour is always so far carried out that there are _reproductive individuals_ and _workers_. The former (males and females; in colonies of bees—“drones” and “queen”) are only present in small numbers in any particular colony. They live merely for the perpetuation of the species. At most the males seek their own food, while the females are usually fed by the workers. Workers, on the other hand, are individuals in which the (female) reproductive organs remain in a low state of development, so that they are sterile. They seek food for the larvæ, and usually for the adult reproductive individuals as well. They also wage war against strange intruders.

Family: =Apidæ= (_Bees_).

The bees, by means of their very much elongated mouth-parts (maxillæ and lower lip or “tongue”), collect honey from many different kinds of flowers. Body somewhat unwieldy, usually hairy. The fore wings are not, as in wasps, folded together longitudinally when in a state of rest. Eyes round. The legless, almost maggot-like larvæ are fed with pollen or with a mixture of pollen and honey.

Most bees are colonial, and in these we find, besides the reproductive individuals, workers which prepare the nest. This is for the most part made up of “cells,” in the construction of which the most various substances are used according to the species, _e.g._ wax, sand grains, chewed wood, fragments of leaf. In each nest there is at the same time only _one_ queen, who lays her eggs in the cells; the larvæ are therefore developed in these cells, other cells serve for the storage of pollen or honey. In the non-colonial bees there are no workers; in a few of these species (parasitic bees, cuckoo bees) the female lays her eggs in the cells of other species, which, like foster parents, undertake the care of the strange larvæ. These species are naturally devoid of the apparatus for securing and carrying pollen. In several bees (honey bees, humblebees) this end is attained by the much-broadened shanks and first, very large foot-joints of the hind legs. Other bees (_Megachile_) carry pollen on the under side of the abdomen.

Bees play a very important part in the pollination (fertilization) of many cultivated plants.

The =Honey Bee= (_Apis mellifica_) cannot be spoken of here; reference must be made to works on apiculture.

The =Humblebees= (_Bombus_) are tolerably large, stout, thick-set, and hairy. They construct nests below the surface of the soil (often in peaty places), made up of oval or irregular waxen cells the size of a hazel-nut. They fly rapidly, always making a humming sound. Many species are black, with yellow and white, or red transverse stripes.

Honey-producing flowers in which the corolla is so long that even the proboscis of humblebees cannot reach the honey hidden at the bottom of the flower, (tobacco, field and garden beans) are gnawed at their base by the sharp mandibles of the bees, so that a hole is made in the calyx and corolla through which the tongue can be put. In this way the ovary is sometimes wounded, and the normal development of the fruit rendered impossible. Perhaps a certain amount of damage, always however inconsiderable, may thus be effected.

Family: =Vespidæ= (_Wasps_).

Mouth-parts as in bees. Also with stings. Slender, and either hairless or only slightly hairy. Eyes kidney shaped. Fore wings folded together longitudinally when at rest (Figs. 61 and 88).

A distinction is made between solitary and social wasps; the latter possess males, females, and workers. Only the fertilized queens survive the winter. In the spring each of these begins to construct a nest (Fig. 88). In the wasp’s nest each comb consists only of a single layer of cells, the openings of which are turned downwards. In a single nest several of these horizontally placed combs are usually found one over another, and are connected together by means of vertical pillars. Some nests are built in hollow trees, others in holes in the ground; others hang freely from trees, in which case they are covered by several layers of a papery substance. The combs and cells are also made of paper, to prepare which the insect gnaws and crushes decaying wood, and especially bark, with its mandibles, mixing the crushed material with saliva. In this way a pulp is made which is used in the construction of the nest, and dries into a kind of paper. The opening of the nest is in its under side (Fig. 88).

[Illustration:

FIG. 88.—The Common Wasp (_Vespa vulgaris_) and its nest. ]

During spring and summer the queen, or “wasp-mother,” lays only eggs from which workers are hatched, which undertake the work of nest-construction and care of larvæ, so that the queen can devote herself exclusively to the function of reproduction. Towards autumn males, and females capable of being fertilized, are also hatched; these last afterwards live over the winter in the fertilized condition.

During summer the larvæ are fed by the workers with finely chewed insects or with honey. They do not, however, suck the honey from flowers, but steal it from several species of bee, or else form it in their stomachs from sugary materials drawn from sweet fruits.

Wasps are harmful or troublesome in three ways: (1) by gnawing the bark of trees; (2) by feeding on sweet fruits; (3) by the painful stings which they inflict. These are most dangerous in hot summer days. If a nest situated in the soil is destroyed during ploughing the alarmed insects attack both men and horses, cases being known where their stings have proved fatal. The pain is chiefly caused by the poison introduced into the wound. On this account if the sting remains sticking in the skin it must not be drawn out simply with the fingers, but carefully, by means of the nails, lest the poison-bag is pressed and thus still more poison brought into the wound. _Remedies_: Cooling substances, _e.g._ ground carrots, apples or pears, cabbage leaves, damp sand. Rubbing in ammonia. If there is acute inflammation, a compress with sugar of lead.

Family: =Fossores= (_Digging Wasps_).

Several species of this group resemble the wasps in their habits, as well as through their black and yellow-tinged abdomens; but they are always distinguished from these by their fore wings, which are not folded together in a state of rest, and by their eyes, which are not kidney shaped. The shanks and feet possess thorns serviceable for digging. The sting of the female has no barbs, so that it is not torn off and left behind in the wound. The digging wasps are not social. They are lively and active; in summer the female often flies busily about near the ground in order to find a place for bringing up her young. She digs a hole in the earth in which she lays an egg. Then she buries an insect to serve as food for the young when hatched. Lest the insect to be buried should decompose, while, on the other hand, a living animal would not allow itself to be buried, the wasp first brings the insect into a condition in which it cannot make any voluntary movements. For this purpose most species sting the captured prey several times in the body, and thus often injure the ventral ganglia (p. 84); by this treatment the insect is not killed, but reduced to a condition of apparent death. Most digging wasps are useful, since they chiefly bury destructive kinds of insects. The =Common Sand Wasp= (_Ammophila sabulosa_, Fig. 89), buries caterpillars; the =Path Wasp= (_Pompilius viaticus_), spiders; the =Weevil-killing Sand Wasp= (_Cerceris arenaria_) and the =Fly-killing Sand Wasp= (_Mellinus arvensis_) respectively bury weevils and flies.

[Illustration:

FIG. 89.—The Common Sand Wasp (_Ammophila sabulosa_); natural size. ]

Family: =Formicidæ= (_Ants_).

Large strong mandibles adapted for biting; maxillæ and lower lip not prolonged like a proboscis. Workers wingless; the males and reproductive females have weakly veined wings. In correspondence with these facts, the mesothorax which bears the larger wings is most strongly developed in the last, but the prothorax in the workers. Abdomen united with the thorax by a one- (_Formica_) or two-jointed (_Myrmica_) stalk. All female ants, and naturally workers too, possess poison-glands, the secretion of which accumulates in a poison-bladder; but the sting is lacking in all species of _Formica_. The stingless ants (_e.g._ the Red Wood Ant, _F. rufa_) inflict a wound with their strong mandibles, and then, bending the abdomen forwards under the thorax, squirt the contents of the poison-bladder into the wound. Ants form colonies, always of large size, and consisting of reproductive and sterile individuals. Their food is both of animal and vegetable nature, but chiefly consists of insects and similar small animals. They mostly devour caterpillars, but also dead or wounded beetles (_e.g._ cockchafers), mammals, birds, and reptiles. As destroyers of caterpillars they are of use, but this is true more of those living in woods than those which inhabit fields and meadows. Ants are fond of all sweet substances; when they enter houses the sugar jar is very often the end they have in view. They are particularly fond of licking up the sweet juice which aphides excrete from their abdomens. On plants infested with aphides many ants are found which greedily sip up all the drops hanging from the abdomens of the aphides; they may even promote the shedding of the juice by stroking the abdomens of the little animals with their antennæ. There are, indeed, species of ants which carry the aphides to the plant parts on which they thrive best, and again, when these are sucked dry, transport them to other uninjured parts. Sometimes aphides are kept in the overground or underground nests of the ants. The common yellow meadow ants shelter aphides in their subterranean nests, where they live on the roots of grasses and other plants. In order to get, when necessary, fresh food for these “milch kine,” they occasionally enlarge the nest, so that new plant roots are laid bare, and they then carry the aphides to these.

During the greater part of the year only workers, larvæ, and pupæ are found in an ants’ nest, but reproductive individuals appear in summer, disappearing again before the cold weather comes on. As soon as there is a sunshiny day they fly out, usually in large numbers. After pairing, the females let themselves fall to the ground; they then either tear off their own wings or this is done for them by the workers, which search them out and take them to the nest, where the laying of eggs quickly begins. The legless larvæ have feebly developed mouth-parts, and are fed by the workers on food broken down by them. The pupæ vary; in the sting-bearing ants (_Myrmica_) they are naked, in the stingless ants (_Formica_), on the other hand, they are invested in a cocoon. The latter kind of pupæ, known by the incorrect name of “ants’ eggs,” are collected and used as food for insect-eating birds. The nests are made either out of pine-needles and small branches heaped together (=Red Wood Ant= = _Formica rufa_), or they eat out passages and cell-like spaces in sound tree trunks (the larger =Wood Ants=, e.g. _F. herculeana_ and _F. ligniperda_) or in decayed tree trunks (=Small Wood Ant= = _F. fuliginosa_); others (=Yellow Wood Ants= = _F. flava_, etc.) make passages and cavities in the ground, throwing up the earth into ant-hills. _Damage_: Several species do harm by excavating the soil, either in meadows and cornfields, by which the plants are killed and harvesting rendered difficult, or under summer-houses and dwelling-rooms. Others destroy tree stems. They are indirectly harmful on account of the way in which they care for aphides, causing these pests to increase to a greater extent than would otherwise be the case. _Remedies_: If ants have got into a room the nest must be found if possible, and the insects there destroyed with paraffin or boiling water. If it proves to be too difficult to find and destroy the nest, all the openings by which the ants can enter must be stopped up with lime to which some extract of colocynth has been added. The nests found in fields and gardens may sometimes be destroyed by quickly digging them up, pouring paraffin over them, and then igniting it. It is also a good plan to frequently tread or roll down the ant-hills which are thrown up, as in this way they will be dispersed in the end. Ants are of service in forestry, but scarcely in agriculture.

Family: =Ichneumonidæ= (_Ichneumon Flies_).

The species of ichneumon flies deviate in many ways from one another, but they all have similar habits and play a similar part in nature. They all have a longer or shorter ovipositor, always surrounded by two flaps, and serving for laying eggs in other animals. Those which seek their prey in branches and leaves generally possess a very short ovipositor not obvious on cursory examination; those which lay their eggs in insects inhabiting crevices, _e.g._ wood insects, are often provided with a very long ovipositor. No colonies and, consequently, no workers.

The female ichneumon fly generally lays her eggs in the body of an insect larva, on which the ichneumon larvæ developed from these eggs feed, using up the reserve matter stored up in the fat body (p. 92). Caterpillars are most infested; then follow false caterpillars, and then the larvæ of weevils and leaf beetles. The eggs of a few kinds are laid in pupæ, or even in the eggs of moths and butterflies. They always select for this purpose those insects which possess reserve material. The large kinds of ichneumon fly lay only a single egg in one host, especially if the latter is not of large size; many of the smaller ichneumons, on the other hand, lay many eggs (Fig. 90) in one host, even up to a hundred or more. A caterpillar containing ichneumon eggs does not at first appear different from other caterpillars, except that a dark spot or patch usually indicates where its body was pierced by the ovipositor of the ichneumon fly. The parasite breathes while in the host by bringing the tip of its abdomen (where the main stem of the air-tube system opens) into connection with one of the host’s spiracles. Since the larva feeds altogether upon perfectly digestible substances an anus is superfluous and is absent. Many ichneumon larvæ are ready to become pupæ when the host is about to pass into the same condition; the larva then bores through the skin of the latter, which quickly dies. Other species do not attack the organs of the host so soon, but allow it to become a pupa in peace, and then themselves become pupæ inside it; later on, one or several ichneumon flies come out of this pupa instead of a moth or butterfly. It is obvious that ichneumon flies are very serviceable by destroying a large number of harmful insects. They cannot, indeed, prevent the increase of any particular noxious insect, but, when this takes place, they themselves increase to a greater extent, and finally appear in such numbers as to make an end of the pest.

[Illustration:

FIG. 90.—The Yellow-legged Ichneumon Fly (_Microgaster glomeratus_) of the Cabbage Caterpillar. Left, the adult insect; right, the larva (both enlarged). In the middle, Cabbage Caterpillar and a heap of Microgaster pupæ. ]