Part 38

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, and devours it entirely. To change into a pupa, it shuts up the entrance to the shell with its old skin; and when arrived at the perfect state, quits the shell which served it as a temporary dwelling. The females of the _Drilus flavescens_ take refuge under stones and dry leaves, or crawl slowly along the ground; whilst the males, which fly with great ease, are on the plants and brushwood. These insects are not rare in the environs of Paris. M. H. Lucas has observed, in Algeria, near to Oran, another curious species, the _Drilus Mauritanicus_. The larva of this insect lives at the expense of the animal of the _Cyclostoma Volzianum_, which closes the entrance to its shell with a covering of some calcareous substance. It fixes itself on the edge of the shell, with the aid of its sucker, and directs its strong mandibles to the side on which the snail is obliged to raise the covering, either to breathe the air or to walk. In this position it has the patience to wait for many days at the door. The snail puts off for as long a time as he is able the fatal moment. But when, overcome by hunger or nearly stifled in his prison, he decides at last to open the door, the _Drilus_ profits immediately by this opportunity, and cuts the muscle which keeps back the foot of the snail. The breach being made, nothing more opposes itself to the entrance of the enemy. He slips in, and sets to work to eat at his leisure the unfortunate inoffensive mollusc, which affords him board and lodging. The _Ptilodadylides_, the _Eucinetides_, and the _Cebrionides_ belong to the same family. The first is exotic.

The _Elateridæ_ are rather large insects, often of hard texture, having the prosternum prolonged into a point (Figs. 551 and 552), and the antennæ indented saw-wise. They have the power of jumping when placed on their backs, and of alighting again on their legs. Hence their name of _Elater_ (derived from the same root as the word _elastic_). They produce, in leaping, one sharp rap, and often knock many raps when they are prevented from projecting themselves. This is the mechanism which permits the skip-jack to execute these movements. It bends itself upwards by resting on the ground by its head and the extremity of the abdomen, and then it unbends itself suddenly, like a spring. The point at the end of the thorax penetrates into a hollow of the next ring; the back then strikes with force against the plane on which it rests, and the animal is projected into the air. It repeats this manoeuvre till it finds itself on its belly, for its legs are too short to allow of its turning over. Its structure supplies it with the means and the strength of rebounding as many times as it falls on its back, and it can thus raise itself more than twelve times the length of its body.

The larvæ of the genus _Elateridæ_ (Fig. 553) are cylindrical, with a scaly skin and very short legs. They live in rotten wood or in the roots of plants. According to M. Goureau, they pass five years in this state.

The larvæ of the genus _Agriotes_ occasion considerable damage to wheat-fields. They have much resemblance to the meal-worm, or larva of the _Tenebrio_. The _Tetralobides_ are the largest of the _Elateridæ_, attaining to a length of two inches; and are inhabitants of Africa and Australia.

In America are found phosphorescent _Elateridæ_. These are the _Pyrophori_, which the Spaniards of South America call by the name of _Cucuyos_. They have, at the base of their thorax, two small, smooth, and brilliant spots, which sparkle during the night; the rings of the abdomen also emit a light. They give light sufficient to enable one to read at a little distance from them. The _Pyrophorus noctilucus_ (Fig. 554) is very common in Havannah, in Brazil, in Guyana, in Mexico, &c., and may be seen at night in great numbers, amongst the foliage of trees. At the time of the Spanish conquest, a battalion, just disembarked, did not dare to engage with the natives, because it took the Cucuyos which were shining on the neighbouring trees for the matches of the arquebuses ready to fire. "In these countries," says M. Michelet, "one travels much by night, to escape the heat. But one would not dare to plunge into the peopled shades of the deep forests if these insects did not reassure the traveller. He sees them shining afar off, dancing, twisting about; he sees them near at hand on the bushes by his side; he takes them with him; he fixes them on his boots, so that they may show him his road and put to flight the serpents; but when the sun rises, gratefully and carefully he places them on a shrub, and restores them to their amorous occupations. It is a beautiful Indian proverb that says, 'Carry away the fire-fly, but restore it from whence thou tookest it'"[127] The Creole women make use of the Cucuyos to increase the splendour of their toilettes. Strange jewels! which must be fed, which must be bathed twice a day, and must be incessantly taken care of, to prevent them from dying. The Indians catch these insects by balancing hot coals in the air, at the end of a stick, to attract them, which proves that the light which these insects diffuse is to attract. Once in the hands of the women, the Cucuyos are shut up in little cages of very fine wire, and fed on fragments of sugar-cane. When the Mexican ladies wish to adorn themselves with these living diamonds, they place them in little bags of light tulle, which they arrange with taste on their skirts. There is another way of mounting the Cucuyos. They pass a pin, without hurting them, under the thorax, and stick this pin in their hair. The refinement of elegance consists in combining with the Cucuyos, humming-birds and real diamonds, which produce a dazzling head-dress. Sometimes, imprisoning these animated flames in gauze, the graceful Mexican women twist them into ardent necklaces, or else roll them round their waists, like a fiery girdle. They go to the ball under a diadem of living topazes, of animated emeralds, and this diadem blazes or pales according as the insect is fresh or fatigued. When they return home, after the _soirée_, they make them take a bath, which refreshes them, and put them back again into the cage, which sheds during the whole night a soft light in the chamber. In 1766, a Cucuyo, brought alive from America to Paris, probably in some old piece of wood which happened to be on the vessel, caused great terror to the inhabitants of the Faubourg St. Antoine, when they saw it flying in the evening, glittering in the air. In 1864 a number of Cucuyos were brought from Mexico to Paris by M. Laurent, captain of the frigate _La Floride_. An experiment, made in the laboratory of the École Normal, showed that the spectrum of their light is continuous, without any black rays; it differs, besides, from the spectrum of the solar light by a greater intensity of the yellow colour. The light is produced probably as it is in the case of the _Lampyris_, by the slow combustion of a substance secreted by the animal. The Cucuyo can, nevertheless, at will, increase or diminish the splendour of this light by means of membranes which it superposes, like screens, in front of the phosphorescent bumps which it has on its thorax.

[127] "L'Insecte."

In the Indies, and in China, the women use for dressing their hair with, or as ear-rings, another Coleopteron of the same tribe, which begins even to be employed for this purpose by the women of the south of France. It is a _Buprestis_, of splendid colours, and of metallic brightness. Linnæus, as we said above, gave to it, wrongly, the name of _Buprestis_, which among the ancients served to designate a very different insect, the _Meloë_, of the family of the _Cantharidæ_; but modern naturalists have allowed this illegitimate title.

The _Buprestidæ_ walk heavily, but fly with the greatest ease during the heat of the sun, and settle on the trunks of trees exposed to its rays. In Europe, and especially in the North, they are very rare, and of very small size. They must be looked for on birch-trees, whose white colour seems to attract them. In the hottest parts of the world they are very abundant, of large dimensions, and adorned with sparkling colours. They do not jump, and are not endowed with the phosphorescent property. Their larvæ have no legs, are elongate, whitish, of a fleshy consistency, with the first ring of their bodies very much broadened. They live in the trunks of trees, between the bark and the wood, hollowing out for themselves irregular galleries, and remaining sometimes in this state for ten years before metamorphosing. Laporte de Castelnau and Gory have described and made drawings of about 1,300 species of _Buprestidæ_. Fig. 555 represents the _Buprestis imperialis_. The _Buprestis albosparsa_, the genera _Julodis_, the _Chrysochroas_, and the _Trachys_ belong also to the great family of _Buprestidæ_. The _Cleridæ_ are connected with the preceding. They have the thorax narrower than the elytra, and rather long; their integuments are less solid than those of the _Elateridæ_ and the _Buprestidæ_. The latter are phytophagous, the former carnivorous. The principal type of this family is the _Clerus formicarius_, russety, with the head and legs black, whose larva lives at the expense of the larvæ of the weevil. Another genus, the _Necrobia_, which lives on dried animal matter, has become celebrated, as it was the cause of the salvation of the greatest entomologist of France. The name of _Necrobia_ (from [Greek: nekros] and [Greek: biôs]) does not mean "which lives on dead bodies," but it means "life in death." Here is the story of which this name is destined to preserve the remembrance, and which Latreille himself has related in his "Histoire des Insectes." Before 1792, Latreille was known only from some memoirs which he had published on insects. He was then priest at Brives-la-Gaillarde, and was arrested with the curés of Limousin, who had not taken the oath. These unfortunates were then taken to Bordeaux in carts, to be transported to Guyana. Arrived at Bordeaux in the month of June, they were incarcerated in the prison of the Grand Séminaire till a ship should be ready to take them on board. In the meanwhile, the 9th Thermidor arrived, and caused the execution of the sentence which condemned the priests who had not taken the oath to transportation to be for a while suspended. However, the prisons emptied themselves but slowly, and those who had been condemned had none the less to go into exile, only their transportation had been put off till the spring.

"Latreille remained detained at the prison of the Grand Séminaire. In the same chamber which he occupied there was at the time an old sick bishop, whose wounds a surgeon came each morning to dress. One day as the surgeon was dressing the bishop's wounds, an insect came out of a crack in the boards. Latreille seized it immediately, examined it, stuck it on a cork with a pin, and seemed enchanted at what he had found.

"Is it a rare insect, then?" said the surgeon.

"Yes," replied the ecclesiastic.

"In that case you should give it to me."

"Why?"

"Because I have a friend who has a fine collection of insects, who would be pleased with it."

"Very well, take him this insect; tell him how you came by it, and beg him to tell me its name."

The surgeon went quickly to his friend's house. This friend was Bory de Saint Vincent, a naturalist who became celebrated afterwards, but who was very young at that time. He already occupied himself much with the natural sciences, and in particular with the classing of insects. The surgeon delivered to him the one found by the priest, but in spite of all his researches, he was unable to class it.

Next day the surgeon having seen Latreille again in his prison, was obliged to confess to him that in his friend's opinion this Coleopteron had never been described. Latreille knew by this answer that Bory de Saint Vincent was an adept. As they gave the prisoner neither pen nor paper, he said to his messenger, "I see plainly that M. Bory de Saint Vincent must know my name. You tell him that I am the Abbé Latreille, and that I am going to die at Guyana, before having published my 'Examen des Genres de Fabricius.'"

Bory, on receiving this piece of news, took active steps, and obtained leave for Latreille to come out of his prison, as a convalescent, his uncle Dayclas and his father being bail for him, and pledging themselves formally to deliver up the prisoner the moment they were summoned to do so by the authorities. The vessel which was to have conducted Latreille to exile, or rather to death, was getting ready whilst these steps were being taken, and while Bory and Dayclas were obtaining leave for him to come out of prison. This was quite providential, for it foundered in sight of Cordova, and the sailors alone were able to save themselves. A little time afterwards his friends managed to have his name scratched out from the list of exiles. It is thus that the _Necrobia ruficollis_ was the saving of Latreille.

The tribe of weevils is even much more numerous than that of the _Elateridæ_ and the _Buprestidæ_. One may know them by their head prolonged into a snout or trunk, by their rudimentary mouth, and by their elbowed antennæ. About twenty thousand species are said to exist. They feed on vegetables. Their larvæ are soft, whitish worms, without legs, with very small heads, and live in the interior of the stalks or seeds of plants, often occasioning enormous damage. They are one of the plagues of agriculture. Each of our dry vegetables, each variety of our cereals, has in this immense family its particular enemy.

First are the _Bruchi_. The Pea Weevil (_Bruchus pisi_, Fig. 556), which is brown with white spots, comes out of the pea at the end of the summer. The female lays her eggs on peas which are ripe, and still standing, in which the larva scoops out a habitation, and then makes its exit by a circular hole (Fig. 557). It remains at rest all the winter, and is not hatched till towards the following spring. The Bean Weevil (_Bruchus rufimanus_) marks each bean with many black spots. The vetch has also its special _Bruchus_. The Wheat Weevil (_Calandra granaria_), of a darkish brown, lays its eggs on the grains, of which the larvæ then eat the interior. A host of ways of getting rid of the weevil have been proposed. The best means is to store corn properly, and to keep the heap well aired. Let us mention further, the Clover Weevil, belonging to the genus _Apion_, the Weevil of the Rape (_Ceutorhynchus brassicæ_), the Turnip Weevil, &c., &c.

Fig. 556.--Pea Weevil (_Bruchus pisi_), magnified.

Fig. 557.--Pea pierced by the larva.

All vegetables, the vine, fruit trees, the ash, pines, &c., are eaten by some weevil or other. As an example we give a figure of the spotted _Pissodes pini_, which, as the figure shows, takes the precaution of cutting half through the young stems and the stalks of the buds of the pine, "so as," says M. Maurice Girard,[128] "that the sap flows only with difficulty into the withered organ, and cannot suffocate the young larvæ."

[128] "Metamorphoses des Insectes," p. 116.

_Scolytus_, _Hylesinus_, and _Bostrichus_, which are connected with the weevils, hollow out galleries between the wood and the bark of different trees, when in the larva state, and devour the leaves in the adult state. Fig. 559 represents the _Hylesinus piniperda_. The _Scolyti_ are sometimes so numerous in the forests, that the trees are tattooed all over by the larvæ. In 1837, they were obliged to cut down, in the Bois de Vincennes, 20,000 feet of oak trees, aged from thirty to forty years, completely ruined by the ravages of the _Scolytus_, whose larva is here represented (Fig. 560). The genus _Tomicus_, hairy, and of a tawny colour, are a terrible plague to pine forests. In 1783, in the Forest of Hartz, 1,500,000 of trees were destroyed by these insects. Often have the priests implored, in the churches, the Divine clemency, to put an end to the devastations made by them.

We arrive at the tribe of the _Longicornes_, which contains beautiful insects, of elegant shape and varied colours, sometimes also of rather large dimensions.

The genus _Cerambyx_ has the antennæ very long; they exceed in some of the species two or three times the length of the body. The larvæ are large whitish worms, which live in the wood of trees, the adult insects frequenting flowers, rotten trees, &c. In the month of June, on the Continent, one meets on the oaks with the Great Capricorne (_Cerambyx heros_, Fig. 561), of a dark brown, whose larva (Fig. 562) scoops out its galleries in the interior of the tree, and often occasions much damage.

The _Chrysomelidæ_ are other phytophagous insects, dressed in the brightest colours, having short and thick-set bodies. The larvæ, soft and ovoid, devour the leaves of trees. One of the best known species is _Lina populi_, of a bronzed colour, with red elytra, whose larva (Fig. 563), of a greenish grey, devours the leaves of the poplar-tree. The _Galerucæ_ and the _Alticæ_ belong to the same family, as also do the _Cassidæ_, the _Crioceres_, and the _Donaciæ_. The _Cassida viridis_ frequents nettles and artichokes; the elytra are of rounded form. Fig. 564 represents the _Crioceris merdigera_, a great rarity in this country. The _Crioceris asparagi_, or Asparagus Beetle, tawny, and barred with black, resembles it in habit.

The last tribe of Coleoptera comprises the _Coccinellidæ_, or Lady-birds (Fig. 565). These little globular, smooth insects, red or yellow, with black spots, are very useful to us, for they clear the trees of the aphides and other mischievous insects. Their larvæ (Fig. 566) make use of their front legs to carry their prey to their mouths. When danger threatens a _Coccinella_, it hides its feet under its body, and remains sticking to the stem of the bush. If you touch it, it allows itself to fall to the ground, but sometimes opens its elytra, and flies off rapidly. It also exudes from the articulations of its abdomen a yellow mucilaginous liquid, of a pungent and disagreeable odour. This is the only means of defence possessed by this little inoffensive being, which deserves in all respects the name of "Bête à bon Dieu," which the French children give it.

INDEX.

*** ITALICS ARE WOODCUT ILLUSTRATIONS.

Abdomen, The, 1, 167.

Abdominal Cavity, contraction and dilation of, 16.

Abraxas grossulariata, 268.

Acalyptera, 70, 85.

Acanthia ciliata, 94. " lectularia, 92.

Acanthops, 291.

Acherontia Atropos, 203, 204.

Acilius fasciatus, 480. " " _Male and Female_, 480. " sulcatus, 480. " " _Male and Female_, 480.

Acridium, 300. " migratorium, 301.

_Acrocinus longimanus, Thorax of_, 6.

Acronycta aceris, Larva of, 151. " " _Larvæ of_, 152, 153 (_three figs._).

Ædia pusiella, 269. " _pusiella_, 269.

Ædipoda migratorium, 301.

Agrion, 423.

Agriotes, Larvæ of the Genus, 512.

Ailanthus Silkworm, 245.

Alimentary Canal of Insects, 8, _et seq._

Alticæ, 520.

Alucita granella, The, 279.

Amphidasis betularia, 268.

_Andrenæ, Gallery of an_, 367. " The, 367.

Anomala, 456. " Vitis, 456.

Anostostomæ, The, 300.

Ant, 313, 377. " Ashy, 382. " " _Male, Female, and Worker_, 382. " Ashy-black, 382. " " _Male, Female, and Worker_, 382. " Black, 382. " Blood-red, 382, 393. " _Blood-red_, 390. " _Brazilian Umbrella_, 379. " Brown, 382. " _Ant, Hill, section of_, 381. " Jet, 382. " Mason, 382. " Mining, 382, 392. " " _Male, Female, and Worker_, 392. " _Nest, sections of_, 379. " Red, 380, 382, 383, 390. " " _Larva of_, 383. " " _Male, magnified_, 378. " " Pupa of, 383. " " _Pupa of_, 383. " Russety, 382, 390. " _Russet_, 390. " Turf, 382. " Yellow, 382. " White, _see_ Termes. " " _Nests of_, 403, 410.

Antennæ, 5; Function of, 5.

_Antennæ_, 169.

Anthia, 489. " _thoracica_, 491.

Anthocharis cardamines, 177, 178. " _cardamines_, 177.

Anthocopas, The, 367. " papaveris, 367.

Anthomyia, 84. " pluvialis, 84. " _pluvialis_, 84.

Anthomyzides, 70, 84.

Anthophora parietina, 364. " _parietina_, 363.

Anthophoras, The, 364.

Anthrax, 51. " sinuata, 52.

Anthrenus museorum, 475.

Antithesia salicana, 269, 271. " _salicana_, 271.

Ant-lion, 402, 425. " _Ant-lion_, 424. " _Funnel of_, 425. " _Larva, Cocoon, and Pupa of_, 425.

Apatura Ilia, 190. " _Ilia_, 190. " Iris, 190.

Aphidæ, The, 101.

Aphides and Ants, 128, 389. " _and Ant_, 128. " _Ant Milking_, 389. " _Winged_, 117. " _Wingless_, 117.

Aphis, Charles Bonnet on the, 120; of the Apple, 118; of the Oak, 121; of the Plantain, 120.

Aphrophora, The, 112. " _Larva of the_, 113. " spumaria, 114.

Apiariæ, The, 314.

Apis fasciata, 356. " mellifica, 356. " Peronii, 356.

Aptera, Probable Dismemberment of the Order, 27.

Argyrolepia æneana, 269, 271. " _æneana_, 271.

Articulate Animals, egg state common to, 20.

Ascalaphus, 427; Larva of, 427. " _Larva of_, 427. " meridionalis, 427. " _meridionalis_, 427.

_Asida, Antennæ of a Species of_, 5.

Asilidæ, 49.

Asilus crabroniformis, 50. " _crabroniformis_, 50.

Ateuchus, 458. " Egyptiorum, 460. " sacer, 460.

Attacus, the genus, 210, 241; of the Ailanthus, 245; of the Castor-oil, 247. " Atlas, 249, 250. " _Atlas_, 250. " Cynthia, 245. " _Cynthia, Eggs, Larvæ, and Cocoons of_, 246. " Mylitta, 241, 243. " _Mylitta_, 244. " " _Cocoon of_, 245. " Pernyi, 241, 243. " _Pernyi_, 244. " " _Cocoon of_, 243. " ricini, 247. " yama-maï, 241. " _yama-maï_, 242. " " _Cocoon of_, 242. " " _Larva of_, 241.

Attagenus pellio, 475. " _pellio_, 475.

Bee, 313; Cells constructed by, 324; Bellows used to Stupefy, 355; _Bellows used to Stupefy_, 355. " _Cells constructed by_, 325. " Banded, 356. " Carding, 358. " Carpenter, 364. " _Cluster of, hanging to a branch_, 323, 337. " _Larva of_, 331. " _Leg of a_, 318. " _seen through a Magnifying Glass_, 322. " _taking a Swarm of_, 350. " _Trunk of_, 318. " Common, 317, 356. " Humble, 313, 357; Male, 358. " Larva of, 331. " Leaf-cutting, 367. " Ligurian, 356. " Male, 319. " Mason, 366. " Mining, 367. " Moss, 360. " Queen, 319. " Solitary, 362. " Upholsterer, 367. " Wood-piercer, 364. " Worker, 317.