June beetle showing stages of development. The larva or grub worm is feeding on roots under ground; the pupa and adult are shown above ground.
The beetles come from the ground or may be plowed out in May and June and are commonly spoken of as May-beetles or June-bugs. They are usually of a yellowish-brown color and are often troublesome coming into the house at night where they buzz about the light, bumping into everything until they finally drop heavily to the floor. All country boys and girls know these beetles.
Collect a number of the grubs from the ground and examine them for legs, eyes and mouth. How many legs have they? Can you find eyes? What use would they have for eyes while in theground? Do they bite? Place them on the table and see how they move. What color are they? Do you find spines or hair on their bodies? Pull up a little grass by the roots and put it in a jelly tumbler with soil and put some of the grubs in with it. Water it so as to keep it growing and follow the development of the grubs.
Collect some of the beetles and put them in a bottle and watch them crawl about. Where are their wings? How can they get them out when they want to fly? How many legs have they? Examine the tip of the feet for hooks. What are these used for? Can they chew leaves? Where are their eyes? Do you find feelers and if so where?
Write a short description of the grub and the beetle and make careful drawings of them.
The Colorado potato beetle showing stages of development and work on a potato plant. Note the small patch of eggs and different sized grub on the plant and the grub, pupa and adult at side.
Thisis one of the worst pests of the potato. As the name would imply it came originally from Colorado but is common now all over the country. The full grown insect is short and thick with a hard shell, striped with yellow and black. The grubs, on the other hand, are soft and red or orange with black spots. Both the grubs and the beetles feed on potatoes and often completely strip them of their leaves. Since they feed on foliage they can be very quickly destroyed by dusting or spraying the plants with a poison such as Paris green or arsenate of lead. The patches of yellow or reddish eggs are found mostly on the under side of the potato leaves. When the fat grubs arefull-fed they go into the ground and change to pupae and later to the striped beetles. This pest should not be mistaken for the so-called old-fashioned potato beetles which are long and slender and either bluish grey in color or striped with yellow and black. These are blister beetles and are entirely different.
Watch for the first appearance of the adult beetles in the spring when the potatoes are just beginning to come up. They pass the winter under ground and in the spring come out ready to lay eggs on the young potatoes. Collect and examine the adults. How many stripes have they? Collect packets of eggs and count them. How many eggs in most packets? How are they attached to the leaf? How large are the grubs when they hatch from the egg? Examine the grubs where they are feeding on potatoes. Do they eat holes through the leaf, or do they eat awaythe entire leaf? How fast do they grow? Collect a few in a glass tumbler. Feed them and watch them grow. What do they do when you touch them? What does the hard backed beetle do when it is touched? Collect some of the large grubs with tightly stuffed bodies and put them in a jar with dirt or sand and see where theygo. After a week dig them out and see what they look like.
Write a short description of the eggs, grubs and beetle, its work and means of killing it when it is feeding on potatoes. Make careful drawings of a cluster of eggs, the grub and the beetle.
"Hurt no living thing:Ladybird, nor butterfly,Nor moth with dusty wing,Nor cricket chirping cheerily,Nor grasshopper so light of leap,Nor dancing gnat, nor beetle fat,Nor harmless worms that creep."
"Hurt no living thing:Ladybird, nor butterfly,Nor moth with dusty wing,Nor cricket chirping cheerily,Nor grasshopper so light of leap,Nor dancing gnat, nor beetle fat,Nor harmless worms that creep."
"Hurt no living thing:Ladybird, nor butterfly,Nor moth with dusty wing,Nor cricket chirping cheerily,Nor grasshopper so light of leap,Nor dancing gnat, nor beetle fat,Nor harmless worms that creep."
—Christina Rossetti.
Thelady-beetles comprise one family of small beetles, which is famous for the number of beneficial forms it includes. With but two exceptions the American forms feed upon other insects, in most cases pests such as plant-lice and scale insects. From the time they hatch from the egg until they pupate and again after the beetle stage is reached they are regular tigersafter plant-lice. They catch and hold their prey between the front feet while they devour it bodily. The larva of the lady-beetle has an astonishing capacity for in one day it will eat several times its own weight of plant-lice. Farmers and fruit growers could hardly get along without the help of these small beetles and yet unfortunately thousands are often destroyed by those who do not know of their beneficial work.
The spotted lady-beetle; a, larva; b, pupa; c, adult; enlarged. (After Chittenden, U. S. Dept. Agri.)The convergent lady-beetle; a, adult; b, pupa; c, larva; all enlarged. (After Chittenden, U. S. Dept. Agri.)
The spotted lady-beetle; a, larva; b, pupa; c, adult; enlarged. (After Chittenden, U. S. Dept. Agri.)
The convergent lady-beetle; a, adult; b, pupa; c, larva; all enlarged. (After Chittenden, U. S. Dept. Agri.)
The lady-beetles, or lady-birds as they are often called, are fairly uniform in shape and color. They areoval or round in outline with the back rounded or elevated and the underside flat. In color they are usually either orange or yellow, checkered or blotched with black or black with yellow or bright orange markings. They closely resemble small tortoises. Unfortunately several plant feeding beetles are similar in shape and color which casts reflections on the lady-beetles.
The grub of the lady-beetle is usually black or dull colored with red or yellow markings which make it very conspicuous. It runs about over foliage and is broad in front and tapers to a point behind. When the grub is full fed it attaches the top of its bodyto a leaf, twig or other object and pupates. In the pupal stage it is often protected with spines and is able to lift the front end of the body up and down when disturbed, producing a light tapping sound.
The lady-beetle usually hides in rubbish about the base of trees or in some cases even enter homes for the winter months, coming out with the spring to deposit small masses of oval yellow or orange eggs on plants infested with lice. They breed rapidly and with the help of parasites and other beneficial insects usually control the plant-lice pests.
Examine about fruit trees, shade trees, truck crops and in wheat fields for the brightly marked beetles. Watch them move about the plant in search of food. Can they fly? Do you find them eating the leaves? Do you find any green lice near them? See if they feed on these lice. Examinealso for the soft bodied, tiger-like grubs. Do they eat the lice? Do they travel fast? Have they wings? See if you can find any of the pupae attached to limbs or twigs and if so, tickle them with a straw or a pencil and see them "bow." Keep a record of the different trees and plants on which you find lady-beetles.
Collect several of the beetles and the grubs and keep them in a bottle or jelly glass. Leave them without food for a day and then give them some green plant-lice and watch them devour the lice. How many lice can one eat in a day? How do they go about devouring a louse? Do they simply suck out the blood, or is the louse completely devoured? Supposing that for each apple tree in Missouri there are one hundred lady-beetles and that each beetle devours fifteen lice in a day, does it not seem worth while protecting them and encouraging such work? A little time spent in acquainting one's self with the good work of such forms as these willhelp greatly in the fight on our insect foes. Make drawings of and describe briefly the different stages of the lady-beetles.
Cast off skin of dragon-fly nymph, showing shape and position taken on a twig when the adult winged form emerged from the last nymph stage.
Whatchild is there that is not familiar with the insect commonly known as the dragon-fly, snake doctor or snake feeder? Every lover of the stream or pond has seen these miniature aeroplanes darting now here, now there but ever retracing their airy flight along the water's edge or dipping in a sudden nose dive to skim its very surface. At times it is seen to rest lazily, wings out-stretched, perched on some projecting reed or other object. But when approached how suddenly it "takes off" and is out of reach. The dragon-fly is an almost perfect model of the modern monoplane. Its two long wings on either side are the planes, its head the nose, its thorax the fuselage and its long projecting abdomenthe tail or rudder. On wing the dragon-fly is one of the swiftest and most powerful insects. The dragon-flies are found all over the world being most abundant in the warmer regions where rainfall and bodies of water are abundant. For breeding they require water, their immature stages living under water feeding on aquatic animal life. Our present order of dragon-flies is the remains of an ancient race of insects of immense size. From fossil remains we learn that ancient dragon-flieshad a wing expanse of three feet.
The dragon-fly is a beneficial insect thruout life. The young feed on mosquito wigglers and similar life in ponds and streams while the adults dart here and there over ponds, fields or lawn catching mosquitoes and other winged insects. Many look upon the dragon-fly as a dangerous stinging insect but it is entirely harmless and can be handled without the least danger. They vary greatly in size and appearance. The so-called damsel-flies forma group of dragon-flies or Odonata which rest with the wings in a vertical position and the young aquatic stages are more slender. In color markings dragon-flies include all hues of the rainbow tho as a rule they do not have such extravagant colors as the butterflies.
One of our common dragon-flies found about ponds and streams.
Go into the fields and study and collect the different kinds of dragon-flies and their young stages from the bottoms of ponds. How swiftly can they fly? Do they fly high in the air as well as near the water or surface of the earth? Can you see them catch other insects? Do birds catch them and eat them? Take a position along the edge of a pond and as they come flying by swing swiftly with your net and catch one. Examine it carefully. Note the strength of the long, slender wings with their lace-like network of veins. Measure the distance across the back from tip to tip of wings. Comparethis with the length from tip of head to the tip of the abdomen. Examine the head with its large compound eyes and the chewing mouth parts. Note the strong thorax which is filled with muscles to operate the wings in flight. How many segments are there to the abdomen?
With the hands or with a bucket dip up a quantity of mud and trash from the bottom of a pond and pile it on the bank. As the water soaks away watch for signs of life in the mass. If you find a few small creatures, say half an inch long with large head and eyes, broad body and with six rather long legs they are probably the nymph stages of dragon-flies. Wash the mud off of them so that you can examine them carefully. With a straw probe in the mouth and you will find that the lower lip is a long elbowed structure which can be suddenly thrown out in front of it and with a pair of pincher-like prongs at the tip it can catch and hold its prey. Some formskeep their bodies covered with mud so that they can slowly creep up close to their prey.
Collect several nymphs and keep them in a jar of water and study their movements and feeding habits. Disturb one with a pencil or straw and see how it darts forward. It has a water chamber in the large intestines, including also the respiratory tracheal gills, from which the water can be suddenly squirted which throws the insect forward. The escaping stream of water forces the insect forward on the same principle as the rotating lawn sprinkler. If you collect some almost mature nymphs and keep them for a time in a vessel of water you may see them crawl out of the water, shed their skin and change to winged adults. Collect a few adults of different species for pinning in your permanent collection.
Thiscommon blackish or earth-colored bug is usually called the squash stink-bug. It has a very disagreeable odor which gives it this name. When disturbed it throws off from scent glands a small quantity of an oily substance which produces this odor. This is a protection to it for few birds or animals care to feed on it. Most species of sap or blood sucking true bugs have a similar protecting odor.
Pumpkin in field covered with adults and nymphs of squash stink-bug.
The squash bug feeds largely on squash and pumpkins. It has a slender beak with needle-like mouth parts which are stuck into the plant for extracting the sap. It feeds only on plant sap. When it can not get squash or pumpkins it will feed on watermelons, muskmelons and related crops. It isvery destructive to these crops. It not only extracts sap thus weakening the plant but it also seems to poison theplant while feeding. In this way its bite injures the plant something like the effects of the bed-bug's bite on our flesh. It feeds first on the leaves and vines often killing them in a few days. Later it may cluster and feed on the unripe squashes or pumpkins in such numbers as to completely cover them. Every country boy or girl has seen these stinking bugs on pumpkins in the corn field, at corn cutting time in the fall.
Cluster of golden-brown eggs of squash stink-bug showing two recently hatched nymphs.
The squash bug lives thru the winter as the matured winged insect. It flies from its food plant to winter quarters late in the fall. For winter protection it may enter buildings, hide under shingles on roofs, crawl into piles of lumber, under bark of dead trees or stumps or hide under any similar protection. When its chosen food crops begin to come up in the spring it leaves its winter home and flies in search of food. After feeding for a time the female lays patches of oval, flattened, gold-colored eggs set on edge. Whenfirst deposited the eggs have a pale color but in a short time the golden color appears. In some cases only three or four eggs may be found in one patch while again there may be twenty or thirty of them. They are so brightly colored that they can easily be seen and most boys and girls have seen them on the leaves of squashes or pumpkins.
In a few days after they are laid they hatch and out of each crawls a small, long-legged blackish or greenishyoung bug called the nymph. These little fellows usually stay in a crowd hiding on the under side of a leaf. After feeding for a time their leaf begins to turn yellow and soon dies. Then they move to a new leaf. As they feed they grow rapidly and after shedding their skins they change to the second nymph stage. This shedding of their skins or molting occurs five times before they mature. Of course each time before the old skin or suit of clothes is discarded a new one is developed beneath. The females may continue to deposit eggs for later clusters of young. They become most abundant on the crop late in the fall. Just before cold weather sets in the adults again seek winter shelter.
This is a very difficult insect to control. Since it feeds on liquid sap only it is impossible to kill it by spraying the crop with a poison such as arsenate of lead. It can not chew and swallow such poison. The young can be killed fairly well with a spray or dustcontaining nicotine but such treatments are not effective against the adults or nearly mature nymphs. A better method is to destroy all the bugs possible in the fall before they go to the winter protection and then watch for and destroy the adults and the eggs masses in the spring when they appear on the young crop. If the first adults and the eggs and newly hatched nymphs are destroyed the crop can be protected against the destructive work later.
Squash stink-bug adult and nymph extracting sap from squash.
Plant a few squash hills in the garden in the spring and also plant a few seeds in rich dirt in discarded tin cans or flower pots. As the spring advances and the squashes start to vine watch for squash bugs on them. Examine in piles of lumber, stove wood and under bark for some of the bugs before they come to the squash hills. If any are found put them on the squash plants in flower pots and cover them with apint mason fruit jar. Watch for eggs to appear on the plants and also examine for eggs on the squashes in the garden. When eggs appear examine them carefully, measure them and write a brief description of them. Try to mash them between your fingers. When they hatch carefully study the young nymph and describe it. Can you see the slender beak which incloses the mouth parts? How many joints are there to the antennae? As the nymph grows watch it shed its skin. How does it do it? Where does its skin first crack? Save the cast skinand try to follow the nymph thru all the nymph stages to the adult. Collect a bottle of the nymphs of varying sizes from the garden. Examine them and describe the different stages. Can you see the wings forming on the backs of the older nymphs? How many small wing pads are there? Examine the adult closely and write a careful description of it. Can you find where the secretion that causes the odor is produced? How long will the odor stay on your hands? Can you wash it off? Spread the wings of the adult and make a careful drawing of one front and one hind wing showing accurately the wing veins. In the garden try to protect all the hills of squash from the bugs except one or two used for your studies. Write a brief description of your methods of control.
Forthis chapter any common species of plant-louse may be used. If the study is made in the spring the louse on rose, apple, clover, wheat or any other crop may be used. If the study is made in the fall the species on turnips, corn or other plant or crop may be selected. The different species vary greatly but for these studies any available species will be satisfactory.
Black winter eggs of Aphis showing how they are deposited in masses on twigs of apple. (After U. S. Dept. Agri.)
The plant-louse or aphis is a sap-sucking insect which feeds and multiplies rapidly often seriously injuring crops. The loss of sap together with the poisoning effect of the bite causes the weakening of the plant or leaf with its ultimate death if feeding continues. The greatest damage is usually done during cold springs or during a coolrainy period. This prevents the enemies of the louse from increasing and attacking it while the weather may not be too severe to prevent the louse from working. Under favorable climatic conditions the natural enemies of the louse as a rule are able to hold it in check. The principal enemies of the louse are certain small insect feeding birds, lady-beetles, syrphid-flies, lace-wings and tiny wasp parasites. The beneficial work of the lady-beetles is discussed in an earlier chapter. The birds and lady-beetles devour them bodily, the larvæ of the lace-wings and syrphid-flies extract their blood while the wasps live as internal parasites.
In the latitude of Missouri the plant-lice as a rule live thru the winter in the form of a fertile egg attached to the twigs of trees and shrubs. The winter egg is produced by a true female plant-louse. As a rule there is only one generation of true males and females produced each year. This brood develops late in the fall to produce the fertilizedwinter eggs. In the spring these eggs hatch and the tiny nymphs begin to extract sap. On maturing they begin to give birth to young lice. Throughout the summer this method of reproduction continues. These summer forms are known as the stem mothers or agamic females. These are not true females for they produce living young in place of eggs and during the summerno male lice are produced at all. This is nature's way of increasing the race of plant-lice rapidly. Late in the fall again a brood of true males and females is produced. During the summer the plant-lice increase more rapidly than any other type of insect.
Plant-lice vary in size, color and general appearance. Many are green while some are red or black or covered with a cottony secretion.
Plant some melon, radish or other seeds in fertile soil in pots for use in this study. When lice appear on crops in the garden or field, collect a leaf with a few on it and carefully transfer them to the leaves on your potted plants. Watch the lice feed and increase from day to day. A reading lens or a magnifying glass will be helpful as plant-lice are very small. How do they move about? Can you count their legs? How many have they? Can you see their eyes and feelers?When feeding observe how the beak is pressed against the leaf. Disturb one while it is feeding and see it attempt to loosen its mouth parts.
Common apple aphis showing a winged and wingless agamic summer forms at a and c, one with wing pads formed at b, and a recently born young at d. (After U. S. Dept. Agri.)
In the garden examine and see if you can find lady-beetles or other parasites attacking the lice. Collect some of the enemies of the lice for your collection. Make a gallon of tobacco tea by soaking one pound of tobacco stems or waste tobacco in one gallon of water for a day or use one ounceof forty per cent nicotine sulphate in three gallons of soap suds and spray or sprinkle infested bushes or vegetables with it. In an hour examine and see what effect it has had on the plant-lice. Nicotine is the most effective chemical for killing plant-lice. Do any of the lice develop wings? If so, how many? Wings develop on some of the lice at times when a plant or crop becomes too heavily infested by them. This enables some of the lice to spread to new food plants before old plants are completely destroyed and the colony of lice starved.
Wooly apple aphis, showing how they cluster in masses on limbs and secrete the white, wooly protection over their bodies.
Make a careful enlarged drawing of a winged plant-louse and a wingless one showing legs, feelers, beak, honey dew tubes on back and body segmentation. If ants are seen to attend the lice observe them carefully and describe their work. The ants feed on a sweet honey dew excretion discharged by the lice.
"Simple and sweet is their food; they eat no flesh of the living."—Von Kuebel.
"Simple and sweet is their food; they eat no flesh of the living."
—Von Kuebel.
Onecan hardly believe that this small, ever busy creature each year gathers many million dollars worth of products for man in this country alone to say nothing of its inestimable value on the farm and especially in the orchard, where it assists in carrying pollen from blossom to blossom. It is of far greater value to man as a carrier of pollen than it is as a honey gatherer and yet under especially favorable conditions in one year a strong colony may produce between twenty-five and thirty dollars worth of honey.
Worker, queen and drone honey bees; all about natural size. (After Phillips, U. S. Dept. of Agri.)
Stages of development of honey bee; a, egg; b, young grub; c, full-fed grub; d, pupa; all enlarged. (After Phillips, U. S. Dept. Agri.)
The general habits of the bee are fairly well known by all. They live in colonies consisting largely of workers, one female or queen and males or drones. Whenever the number of workers becomes sufficiently large to warrant a division of the colony, a young queen is reared by the workers and just before she matures, the old queen leaves with about half of the workers to establish a new colony. This division of the colony is called swarming. If a hive, box or other acceptable home is not provided soon after the swarm comes out and clusters,it may fly to the woods and establishes itself in a hollow tree where the regular work of honey gathering is continued. This accounts for so many bee-trees in the woods. The bee has been handled by man for ages, but it readily becomes wild when allowed to escape to the woods.
The bee colony offers one of the best examples to show what can be accomplished by united effort where harmony prevails. Certain of the workers gather honey, others are nurses for the queen and young brood in the hive, others guard the hive and repel intruders, and others care for the hive by mending breaks and providingnew comb as it is needed. Each knows its work and goes about it without interfering with the work of others. It is one huge assemblage of individuals under one roof where harmony and industry prevail.
Throughout the long, hot summer days the workers are busy from daylight until dark gathering nectar, while at night they force currents of air thru the hive to evaporate the excess water from the nectar. When flowers are not available near the hive they simply fly until they find them, be it one, two or more miles. As long as they are able to gather honey they continue to do so and when they give out they drop in the field and are forgotten, others rushing to take their place. Often when winter is approaching and the store of honey is low the less vigorous ones are cast out from the hive and left to die. If man could learn a few of the lessons which the bee teaches, he would be a better, a more useful and a wiser addition to society.
Two colonies of bees poorly cared for. Note box hives, crowding, lack of shade, and high weeds. It is a crime to treat bees this way.
Go into the fields and study the work of the bee. Follow it from flower to flower. See if it visits different kinds of flowers or if it gathers its whole load of honey from one kind. Make a list of all the blossoms you find bees visiting. Does the bee move slowly from flower to flower? Can you see it thrust its tongue into the flower? How long does it stay on one blossom? Does it visit red clover? Pull a red clover blossom apart and compare the depth of the blossom with the length of the honey bee's tongue, and determine the reason why it does not visitred clover. The bumble-bee has a much longer tongue so it can get the nectar from red clover blossoms. Without the bumble-bee clover seed could not be successfully grown. Can you see small balls of yellow pollen on the hind legs of the bee? The pollen is collected from blossoms and ispasted on to the outside of the hind legs in the pollen basket. When the bee returns to the hive, it stores the small balls of pollen in the cells of the comb for use later in the preparation of bee-bread. When the bee is disturbed in the field does it fly away or will it sting? When it stings does it always lose its sting? What makes the sting of the bee poisonous? Examine the wings of bees in the field and note how they are torn from continued work of gathering honey. The older ones often lose so much of their wings, that they can no longer carry loads of honey. Where is the honey carried and how is it placed in the honey cells in the hive?
A strong colony of bees properly housed and shaded. This colony in a very unfavorable season stored about 50 pounds of surplus honey.
Go now to a hive and study the bees as they go and come. Do those returning fly as fast as those which leave? Why not? When they return do they come direct to the mouth of the hive? Do those which leave fly direct from the hive or circle about first? Can you detect guards whichmove about at the entrance of the hive? What happens when a fly or other insect alights near the opening? Will the bees sting when you disturb them about the hive? If possible study the colony inside the hive. To do this you will need smoke to subdue the guards and a veil to protect the face. Can you find the queen? Is she larger than the workers? Examine for honey-comb, bee-bread, worker brood, queen cells and drone cells. If possible study the actions of a colony while swarming.
Write a brief report of what you can learn of the life, work and habits of the honey bee.
"Happy insect, what can beIn happiness compared to thee?Fed with nourishment divine,The dewy morning's gentle wine!"Nature waits upon thee still,And thy verdant cup does fill;'Tis filled wherever thou doest treadNature's self thy Ganymede."Thou doest drink and dance and sing,Happier than the happiest king!All the fields which thou doest see,All the plants belong to thee,All the summer hours produce,Fertile made with early juice,Man for thee does sow and plough,Farmer he, and landlord thou."
"Happy insect, what can beIn happiness compared to thee?Fed with nourishment divine,The dewy morning's gentle wine!"Nature waits upon thee still,And thy verdant cup does fill;'Tis filled wherever thou doest treadNature's self thy Ganymede."Thou doest drink and dance and sing,Happier than the happiest king!All the fields which thou doest see,All the plants belong to thee,All the summer hours produce,Fertile made with early juice,Man for thee does sow and plough,Farmer he, and landlord thou."
"Happy insect, what can beIn happiness compared to thee?Fed with nourishment divine,The dewy morning's gentle wine!
"Nature waits upon thee still,And thy verdant cup does fill;'Tis filled wherever thou doest treadNature's self thy Ganymede.
"Thou doest drink and dance and sing,Happier than the happiest king!All the fields which thou doest see,All the plants belong to thee,All the summer hours produce,Fertile made with early juice,Man for thee does sow and plough,Farmer he, and landlord thou."
—FromThe Greek of Anacreon.
Theants are closely related to the bees and are similar to them in many respects. They live in colonies consisting of workers, drones, and a queen. The males or drones appear at swarming time and the workers are divided into various castes—warriors, guards, nurses, etc. Those families of ants, however, which seem to have what approaches real intelligence, far outstrip the bees in many respects. In some cases ants seem to be able to plan and carry out lines of work very much the same as man does. The various stages of human intelligence or races of men from the savage to the intelligent man are in a way similar to the various races of ants. There are ants which live as hunters, others whichlive as shepherds and still others more highly developed which grow crops either in or near the nest as is the case with the fungus growing ants. This striking similarity between the development of ants and man offers ground for much speculation.
Ant hill showing activity and stages of development; a, egg; b, young grub; c, pupa; d, worker; e, queen with wings; f, worker carrying young grub; all enlarged. The ant hill and workers at work much reduced.
Some ants may be of considerable value to man while others are thesource of great annoyance and injury. The tidy housewife usually places the ant in the same category with cockroaches and bed-bugs and the corn growers attribute much of the injury to young corn to the work of the small cornfield ant which acts as a shepherd of the corn root-louse. Ants are usually more destructive by protecting and caring for other pests than by attacking the crop direct.
Every country child is familiar with ants. They are met every day during the summer, scampering across paths, tugging at some unfortunate insect, or sticking to one's tongue when he eats berries. Ants are as numerous as the stars in the skies and vary in size. They are found from the tropics to the frozen north, in deserts, swamps and in fact, almost any place where plants or animals live. They do not waste time building or manufacturing a complicated nest like wasps and bees, so when food is scare, or for other reasons they need to move they simply"pack up" and migrate. This, together with the fact that they feed on almost every imaginable kind of plant and animal material, accounts in part for the fact that they are the rulers of the insect world.
It is easy to study the out-door life of ants, but it is most difficult to follow their activities in the nest. Go into the field or out on the school grounds and watch along paths or bare spots for ants. Soon red or black fellows will be seen hurrying along after food; ants are always in a hurry when they are after food. Follow them and watch them catch and carry home small insects. If they do not find worms or other small insects, drop a small caterpillar near one of them and see what happens. Can they drag away a caterpillar as large as themselves? Some of them may be after honey dew, fruit juice or other material of this nature and they should be observed collectingit. Ants collect about plants or shrubs which are overrun with green lice, and feed on a sweet liquid which the lice produce. Watch them collect the honey dew from the lice. Do they injure the lice? Can you see the two short tubes on the back of the louse?
Locate an ant nest or hill. Observe the workers carrying out small pellets of earth or gravels. Is the earth they bring out the same color as the surface soil? How deep may they go to get it? Do they move about as if they were in a hurry? Who sends them out with the earth? Why do they bring it out? Is it dropped as soon as the ant comes out of the hole or is it carried some distance? The small ant found along paths usually makes a small ridge all the way around the entrance. While some of the ants are making the nest, others are collecting food. Watch for some of these and see what they bring. Do they stop to eat before going down into the nest? Dig into a large ant hill and see what can be found. Describebriefly what is found. Do you find any small soft grubs and oval cocoons? These are the young ants and they are perfectly helpless and must be fed, bathed and cared for by the workers or nurses. The workers pick these up between their pinchers and carry them away when the nest is disturbed. Do the workers fight to protect the nest? Collect some of the workers which are carrying away the young and keep them in a jar with bits of bark and see what they do with the young.
Describe briefly what you are able to find out about ant life and behavior; also make drawings of an ant, the young and a nest.
"A pensy ant, right trig and clean,Came ae day whidding o'er the green,Where, to advance her pride, she sawA Caterpillar, moving slaw.'Good ev'n t' ye, Mistress Ant,' said he;'How's a' at home? I'm blyth to s' ye!'The saucy ant view'd him wi' scorn,Nor wad civilities return;But gecking up her head, quoth she,'Poor animal! I pity thee;Wha scarce can claim to be a creature,But some experiment O' Nature,Whase silly shape displeased her eye,And thus unfinished was flung bye.For me, I'm made wi' better grace,Wi' active limbs and lively face;And cleverely can move wi' easeFrae place to place where'er I please;Can foot a minuet or jig,And snoov't like ony whirly-gig;Which gars my jo aft grip my hand,Till his heart pitty-pattys, and—But laigh my qualities I bring,To stand up clashing wi' a thing,A creeping thing the like o' thee,Not worthy o' a farewell to' ye!'The airy Ant syne turned awa,And left him wi' a proud gaffa."The Caterpillar was struck dumb,And never answered her a mum:The humble reptile fand some pain,Thus to be bantered wi' disdain.But tent neist time the Ant came by,The worm was grown a Butterfly;Transparent were his wings and fair,Which bare him flight'ring through the air.Upon a flower he stapt his flight,And thinking on his former slight,Thus to the Ant himself addrest:'Pray, Madam, will ye please to rest?And notice what I now advise:Inferiors ne'er too much despise,For fortune may gie sic a turn,To raise aboon ye what ye scorn:For instance, now I spread my wingIn air, while you're a creeping thing!'"
"A pensy ant, right trig and clean,Came ae day whidding o'er the green,Where, to advance her pride, she sawA Caterpillar, moving slaw.'Good ev'n t' ye, Mistress Ant,' said he;'How's a' at home? I'm blyth to s' ye!'The saucy ant view'd him wi' scorn,Nor wad civilities return;But gecking up her head, quoth she,'Poor animal! I pity thee;Wha scarce can claim to be a creature,But some experiment O' Nature,Whase silly shape displeased her eye,And thus unfinished was flung bye.For me, I'm made wi' better grace,Wi' active limbs and lively face;And cleverely can move wi' easeFrae place to place where'er I please;Can foot a minuet or jig,And snoov't like ony whirly-gig;Which gars my jo aft grip my hand,Till his heart pitty-pattys, and—But laigh my qualities I bring,To stand up clashing wi' a thing,A creeping thing the like o' thee,Not worthy o' a farewell to' ye!'The airy Ant syne turned awa,And left him wi' a proud gaffa."The Caterpillar was struck dumb,And never answered her a mum:The humble reptile fand some pain,Thus to be bantered wi' disdain.But tent neist time the Ant came by,The worm was grown a Butterfly;Transparent were his wings and fair,Which bare him flight'ring through the air.Upon a flower he stapt his flight,And thinking on his former slight,Thus to the Ant himself addrest:'Pray, Madam, will ye please to rest?And notice what I now advise:Inferiors ne'er too much despise,For fortune may gie sic a turn,To raise aboon ye what ye scorn:For instance, now I spread my wingIn air, while you're a creeping thing!'"
"A pensy ant, right trig and clean,Came ae day whidding o'er the green,Where, to advance her pride, she sawA Caterpillar, moving slaw.'Good ev'n t' ye, Mistress Ant,' said he;'How's a' at home? I'm blyth to s' ye!'The saucy ant view'd him wi' scorn,Nor wad civilities return;But gecking up her head, quoth she,'Poor animal! I pity thee;Wha scarce can claim to be a creature,But some experiment O' Nature,Whase silly shape displeased her eye,And thus unfinished was flung bye.For me, I'm made wi' better grace,Wi' active limbs and lively face;And cleverely can move wi' easeFrae place to place where'er I please;Can foot a minuet or jig,And snoov't like ony whirly-gig;Which gars my jo aft grip my hand,Till his heart pitty-pattys, and—But laigh my qualities I bring,To stand up clashing wi' a thing,A creeping thing the like o' thee,Not worthy o' a farewell to' ye!'The airy Ant syne turned awa,And left him wi' a proud gaffa.
"The Caterpillar was struck dumb,And never answered her a mum:The humble reptile fand some pain,Thus to be bantered wi' disdain.But tent neist time the Ant came by,The worm was grown a Butterfly;Transparent were his wings and fair,Which bare him flight'ring through the air.Upon a flower he stapt his flight,And thinking on his former slight,Thus to the Ant himself addrest:'Pray, Madam, will ye please to rest?And notice what I now advise:Inferiors ne'er too much despise,For fortune may gie sic a turn,To raise aboon ye what ye scorn:For instance, now I spread my wingIn air, while you're a creeping thing!'"
—Allan Ramsay.
Transcriber's Note:Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note. Punctuation has been normalised. Dialect, informal and variant spellings remain as printed. Hyphenation discrepancies in the illustration captions have been amended to match the main text.