The Insect World Being a Popular Account of the Orders of Insects; Together with a Description of the Habits and Economy of Some of the Most Interesting Species

It is with this rostrum, which resembles a case of surgical instruments, that the _Nepa_ pierces and sucks little aquatic insects, not even sparing its own species. Its wound is...

As for the manner of freeing a tree once invaded by this insect, the most simple plan is to rub the trunk and the branches, in order to crush the insects, or to employ a brush o...

"When opened, the cellular tissue on the surface of the body beneath the skin is seen to be injected with air, as if a quantity of soap bubbles were scattered over it, or a dish...

The female, or queen (Fig. 313), is smaller than the male, and has a longer body than the working bees, and the wings, shorter in proportion, cover only the half of its body, wh...

The Diptera, besides their variety and the number of their species, are remarkable on account of their profusion. The myriads of flies which rise from our meadows, which fly in...

If the Mole Crickets, or _Courtilières_, have spades on their front legs, their hind-legs are very little developed, so that it would be perfectly impossible for them to jump, p...

never dreamt of such victuals, for it lives entirely on the sap of large vegetables. The fables of the poet, who is called in France, one never knows why, "Le bon La Fontaine,"...

Arrived at a state of complete development, the larva of the _OEstrus_ imprisoned in the stomach of the horse leaves the membrane to which it has been fixed, then directing the...

Francis Huber was the first to describe these duels between the queens. We quote an interesting account which he has left us of a combat which he watched on the 12th of May, 179...

In the province of Constantine the locust appeared almost simultaneously, from the Sahara to the sea, and from Bougia to La Calle. At Batna, at Setif, at Constantine, at Guelma,...

The nests of ants (Figs. 361, 362) are known under the name of ant-hills. They vary very much, both as to their form and the materials employed in making them--wood and earth ar...

"It began," says Réaumur, "by coming almost entirely out, and left only its hinder part within. It moved its head forwards as far as was necessary to enable it to seize a partic...

Is it not extraordinary that there are caterpillars which live on the nettle?--that they eat the leaves of this plant, armed as it is with stinging bristles, which cause such sm...

M. Plateau has studied the power of traction in some insects, the power of pushing in the digging insects, and the lifting power of others during flight. He has thus been able t...

In the eighteenth century the intendants of the provinces tried, but with very slight success, to give a fresh impetus to sericulture in France. The Abbé Boissier de Sauvages pu...

This family contains a great number of species, the type of which is the Rose Beetle (_Cetonia aurata_), of a beautiful green colour shot with gold, with transverse whitish line...

We will only mention here the Cherry-tree _Ortalis_, whose larva lives on the pulp of that fruit. This fly is about a line and a half long. It is of rather a metallic black colo...

This is the way in which the hatching of ordinary bees takes place, workers and males; the first, twenty days after they are laid; the second, twenty-four days after. The rearin...

In our rapid description of the digestive apparatus of insects, it only remains for us to mention certain purifying organs which secrete those fluids, generally blackish, causti...

These insects do not live together in societies. Indifferent neighbours, they do not lend each other mutual assistance. They have their parasites, the _Melactas_, like the humbl...

The caterpillars live and metamorphose themselves in portable cases, which they manufacture from the membranous portions of leaves, whose flesh alone they eat. These cases are g...

Réaumur saw large districts of grassy swamps in Poictou, which, in certain years, furnished very little grass for the cattle, on account of the ravages caused by these larvæ. Th...

We pass on now to the history of another family--namely, the _Gallinsecta_, as Réaumur calls them, or _Cocci_. They pass the greatest part of their lives--that is to say, many m...

In the large rearing houses there is a special chamber for the incubation. Various simple, convenient, cheap apparatuses, whose main object is to create a permanent warm and dam...

In a book of this kind we can only mention some types among these last insects, which claim our attention in what we might almost call a tyrannical manner. We will, therefore, c...

It is to the genus _Acherontia_ that a well-known moth belongs. We refer to the Death's-head Moth (_Acherontia atropos_). It is the largest species of hawk-moth. This insect pre...

Huber adds that, having returned to the pillaged nest to examine it more closely, he saw some ashy-black workers bringing back to their home the few larvæ which they had succeed...

This popular French book on Insects has been placed in my hands in order that the scientific portions of it should be examined and, if necessary, corrected. This task has been a...

In 1858 M. Guérin-Méneville presented to the Académie des Sciences of Paris the first moths and the first eggs laid in France of the _Attacus Cynthia_. This able entomologist de...

But the pregnant female leaves all these dimensions far behind. Her abdomen becomes two thousand times as big as the rest of her body! She then attains to six inches in length,...

We must dwell longer on the head. It is generally rounded, compressed in front, longer than it is broad, and furnished with fine or scaly hairs. The important organs of which th...

In the perfect state, as well as in that of the larva and the pupa, the _Libellulæ_ are carnivorous. Their rapid flight makes them expert hunters, and their enormous eyes embrac...

The Red Admiral Butterfly (_Vanessa Atalanta_, Fig. 163) has bands of vermilion colour on the upper side of its wings, which are black above, and variegated beneath with differe...

The larva of the _Drilus flavescens_ fixes itself upon the shell of the snail by a sort of sucker, like a leech. Little by little it slips in between the mollusc and its house,...

The tribe of _Tenebrionidæ_, called formerly _Melasomas_, because they are nearly all black, resembles in some points the _Carabici_. They seek after dark places, and avoid the...

"After having covered your head with a veil, if the swarm has settled in a difficult place, and you are afraid of being stung, you hold the hive under the cluster of bees and ma...

The _Hydrophili_, very different to the group which we shall presently consider, are herbivorous, and are to be found on the leaves of aquatic plants. The _Hydrophilus piceus_ (...

Animals do not contribute much towards limiting the number of cockchafers, although the latter are not wanting in natural enemies. Among insects, it is the large species of _Car...

Bombyx, 210; Caterpillar of, 220; of the Ailanthus, 245; of the Castor-oil, 247. " Atlas, 249. " Cynthia, 245. " mori, 210, 220; Apparatus for Stifling the Chrysalides of, 236;...

Moth, Definition of, 193. " Bee-hive, 270. " Brown-tailed, 253. " Burdock, 282. " Carpet, 282. " Cherry-tree, 282. " Clothes, 270. " Currant, 268. " Emperor, 249. " Fur, or Skin...