The Natural History of Insects: Illustrated by Numerous EngravingsHarper & Brothers, 1855 - Insects |
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abdomen acari animal ant-hill ant-lion antennæ ants aphides aphis appears attack become body bottom caterpillar cavity centre chrysalis coccus cocoon colour comb composed construct contrivance covered creature curious deposited eggs enemies feed feet female fixed flower furnished gallery glass hive gnat ground grubs habitation head hive bee hole honey Huber humble bee ichneumon inch inhabitants insect instinct juices labour larva larvæ lays leaf leaves legionaries legs length male manner mantle material means metamorphosis moth nature negro nervures nest nopal nymph observed oestrus organs oviparous ovipositor parenchyma perish pieces plant pollen prey proboscis proceedings propolis pupa purpose queen removed royal cells sand says Reaumur sects seems seen shape side silken skin sometimes soon species spider spins spot sting substance sucked surface swarm tail thread tion tree tribe tube wasp whole wings workers worm young
Popular passages
Page 237 - ... entirely exhausted, and it could spin no more. The arts it made use of to support itself, now deprived of its great means of subsistence, were indeed surprising. I have seen it roll up its legs like a ball, and lie motionless for hours together, but cautiously watching all the time ; when a fly happened to approach sufficiently near, it would dart out all at once, and often seize its prey.
Page 236 - ... the bands that held it fast, and contributed all that lay in its power to disengage so formidable an antagonist. When the •wasp was at liberty, I expected the spider would have set about repairing the breaches that were made in its net ; but those, it seems, were irreparable, wherefore the cobweb was now entirely forsaken, and .a new one begun, which was completed in the usual time.
Page 236 - Now then, in peaceable possession of what was justly its own, it waited three days with the utmost impatience, repairing the breaches of its web, and taking no sustenance that I could perceive. At last, however, a large blue fly fell into the snare, and struggled hard to get loose. The spider gave it leave to entangle itself as much as possible, but it seemed to be too strong for the cobweb. I...
Page 124 - ... some ants carry corn, and some carry their young, and some go empty, and all to and fro a little heap of dust. It taketh away or...
Page 237 - The insect I am now describing lived three years; every year it changed its skin, and got a new set of legs. I have sometimes plucked off a leg, which grew again in two or three days. At first, it dreaded my approach to its web, but at last it became so familiar as to take a fly out of my hand, and upon my touching any part of the web, would immediately leave its hole, prepared either for a defence or an attack.
Page 122 - They have a particular way of skipping, leaping, and standing upon their hind legs, and prancing with the others. These frolics they make use of both to congratulate each other when they meet, and to show their regard for the queen...
Page 237 - ... more curious. As the net is usually fixed in a perpendicular or somewhat oblique direction, in an opening between the leaves of some shrub or plant, it is obvious that round its whole extent will be required lines to which can be attached those ends of the radii that are furthest from the centre. Accordingly the construction of these exterior lines is the spider's first operation. She seems careless about the shape of the area which they...
Page 74 - During the confusion occasioned by a time of war in 1525, a mob of peasants, assembling in Hohnstein, in Thuringia, attempted to pillage the house of the minister of Eleude, who, having in vain employed all his eloquence to dissuade them from their design, ordered his domestics to fetch his bee-hives and throw them in the middle of this furious mob. The effect was what might be expected ; they were immediately put to flight, and happy to escape unstung.
Page 246 - Every day in fine weather, in autumn chiefly, do I see those spiders shooting out their webs and mounting aloft: they will go off from your finger if you will take them into your hand. Last summer one alighted on my book as I was reading in the parlour; and, running to the top of the page, and shooting out a web, took it's departure from thence.
Page 103 - ... conveniently pass and repass, spaces of about half an inch high being left between each comb. Although the combs are fixed to the sides of the nest, they would not be sufficiently strong without further support. The ingenious builders, therefore, connect each comb to that below it by a number of strong cylindrical columns or pillars, having, according to the rules of architecture their base, and capital wider than the shaft, and composed of the same paper-like material used in other parts of...