May Flies
The grown-up May flies mate, and then the female drops her eggs on the surface of the water. When she does this a fish will very often jump up and seize her, for fish are very fond of May flies, and lucky are the May flies to escape these ravenous enemies.
The eggs are heavy and sink to the bottom, where they hatch into these queer-looking larvæ that eat and grow and shed their skin just like the dragon fly larvæ.
Those brushes along their sides are the gills they breathe with.
See the gills moving swiftly back and forth; theylook as though the larva wished to swim with them, but this is not why it moves them so constantly.
The continual motion of the gills stirs up the water and keeps our larva supplied with fresh air.
Nellie is asking what gills are.
Well, gills in fishes and in such insects as have gills, and in crabs and lobsters and other creatures that live in the water, are parts that often look like fringes or flat plates.
The gills of fishes have a great many blood vessels running through them. The walls of these blood vessels are very thin, and the oxygen from the air that is in the water passes into the blood that is in the gills, and then this blood, all full of oxygen, circulates through the fish's body.
You see in fishes the blood vessels come into the gills and get the oxygen.
In insects it is different. There are air tubes running like tiny pipes all through the gills and into the body of the insect. The oxygen of the air that is in the water passes out through the walls of these tubes into the blood of the insect.
Yes, John, in fishes the blood comes to the air, in insects the air goes to the blood. The air passes into the air tubes of the insects, and thus is carried all through their bodies.
The blood takes the oxygen out of the air.
Without oxygen in the blood no animal could live.
Now let us go back to our May flies. They remain in the larval state a year, and some species remain two years. Think of living in the mud for two long years!
In the mud they creep about, eating, eating, eating. Then some summer day they leave the mud and swim to the surface of the water.
Pop! they are gone.
They were so quick about it we could not see what happened.
The larval skin burst open and forth leaped the May fly, like a winged fairy from a prison cell.
They do not come out slowly and wait for their wings to dry like the dragon fly.
May Flies
They spring out all of a sudden and fly away, leaving their cast-off skin in the pond.
Unless their motions were quick they might be snapped up by the fish that are so fond of them.
But though they seem to emerge thus quickly into perfect winged May flies, they are not quite done with infancy. They are still wrapped about by a very delicate skin that they have to get rid of. So they fly to a bush near the water and stay a little while until this skin splits and comes off, and they are free.
In spite of their quick motions when they spring from the water, many of the May flies fall back into it and are caught by the fish.
May Flies
It is said that the trout become fat and good-flavored when the May flies emerge, they eat so many of them. And what the fish do not catch the birds try to. Swallows and other insect-loving birds have a glorious feast when the May flies come out. For a season they live in the midst of more delicacies than they can possibly use.
Fish like the May fly larvæ, too, which is probably the reason the larvæ have learned to live in the mud, out of reach.
Fishermen dig up the larvæ for bait, so you see the May flies have a hard time to get safely through the world.
But in spite of difficulties a great many of them live, and some summer day out they come trooping.
The Fairy May Flies
They spring all at once from the surface of the water as by magic, hundreds and thousands, yes, millions of them. They fill the air, they cover everything.
The great naturalist Swammerdam, who was the first to make a thorough study of the May flies, thus tells us how they appeared in France one year:—
"I then saw a sight beyond all expectation. The ephemeræ filled the air like the snowflakes in a dense snowstorm.
"The steps were covered to a depth of two, three, or even four inches. A tract of water five or six feet across was completely hidden, and as the floating insects slowly drifted away, others took their places. Several times I was obliged to retreat to the top of the stairs from the annoyance caused by the ephemeræ, which dashed in my face, and got into my eyes, mouth, and nose."
These swarms of May flies appear only from three to five days at a time.
Wherever there are streams there are May flies, and the canals of Holland make good breeding places for them; no wonder, then, the Dutch, who you know live in Holland, have a saying, "As thick as May flies."
Although so many of the May flies perish at once, multitudes of them drop their eggs into the water to renew the race of May flies.
Stone Flies
Is it not wonderful that after so long a period of creeping about in the mud as larvæ, these graceful and beautiful little creatures have but a few hours in which to dance joyously about in the upper air on wings of gossamer? Some, indeed, live less than an hour, and some, that come out in the evening, finish their dance of life and perish before sunrise, without ever having seen the beautiful daylight.
Yes, strange little beings are they.
They do us no harm and we should not kill them.
Let them live their short lives and be happy.
Stone Flies
John has been fishing.
What do you think he caught?
Nary fish, my dears, but a goodly number of stone flies, which he has brought to show us.
Yes, Mollie, they do remind us a very little of our May flies, only, of course, they are many times larger.
It is rather a clumsy creature in spite of its large wings, and John says he had no trouble whatever in catching it.
See, it has four wings, and the hind ones are the larger.
Yes, May, they fold up in plaits, like the sticks of a fan.
See its long antennæ and its compound eyes. Its eyes are not so large as are those of the dragon fly. It does not spend its time pursuing other insects, but is more like the May fly after it gets its wings.
Yes, Ned, it lives longer than the May fly, but it does not live very long, and it eats little.
It is a pretty little gray thing as it rests on the side of John's box, with its wings folded like a gossamer cloak over its body.
Stone Flies
It lays its eggs in the water, and out of them hatch little six-legged larvæ that are not troubled by want of appetite. If the winged stone fly does not eat, its larva does; it is like the other larvæ we know, always devouring something.
Stone Flies
Yes, Charlie, it feeds on living creatures, greatly relishing the larvæ of the May flies, or any other luckless insect infants it can capture.
It grows fast and moults several times, and when winter comes it hides away, only to come forth at the first breath of spring and continue its eating.
Like other larvæ that live under water, it does its breathing by means of gills, and these gills are in little tufts just above the base of each leg.
It lives under stones, which is why it is called the stone fly, and it slides quickly around a corner when you lift up its stone.
Fish are very fond of it, and hunt it as eagerly as it hunts larvæ. Since it makes good bait for brook trout, its life is always in danger. It finishesits growth in early summer, and emerges from its larval skin as a perfect winged insect.
Yes, indeed, John, you can often find dozens of the cast-off skins of the stone flies along the brook sides in the month of June.
The stone flies are harmless little people, and we should never kill one needlessly.
Stone Flies
Silver Fish
May has something here for us to look at. She says it is a slippery rascal. Let us see it. Oh, yes, you have it in that little box. See, the box has a glass top. May cut the top off the box herself, and fastened in a little pane of glass so we could see the rascal without danger of its escaping.
Pretty rascal! Like a little silver fish slipping about the box.
Yes, Charlie, it is called the silver fish. A land fish? Why, yes, it would be a land fish if it were a fish at all. But in spite of its name it is no fish. It is covered with shining scales, though, that are very much like fish scales, and it is shaped a good deal like a fish.
Oh, yes, it is an insect. You see it has six legs. But it has no wings.
No, it is not a young one.
It never will have any wings, no matter how old it may get to be.
It is flat, you see, and its scales make it very slippery, so that it is hard to catch and yet harder to hold on to after you have caught it. It goes flashing about like a little silver dart, and it loves to eat starch.
That is why May calls it a rascal. It eats the starch from the paste that fastens on her wall paper, and from book-bindings, so you see it makes things fall to pieces. But my! what a pretty rascal it is! Besides its name of silver fish, it is also called fish moth, though it is not a moth at all. It is also called bristle-tail, because of the long, bristle-like parts at the end of its body; and in some places it is called a slink, because, you know, it loves dark places, and when you uncover it in the daytime, it slips around a corner into the dark again.
Yes, it seems to slink about as if it were ashamed of itself, but it is not ashamed; it does not like the light, and it does not like us to see it.
Perhaps it is afraid of us.
Cockroaches
Children, here is a cockroach.
It was one of the first insects that came to live on the earth; cockroaches were here before people, and they are here yet.
You do not think it is pretty?
Neither do I.
I don't know anybody who thinks a cockroach pretty.
Oh, no, it won't bite you.
It will only get into your pantry and eat your food.
It will walk around in the night and frighten you if you go suddenly into the kitchen.
It will not frighten you on purpose, but when it hears you coming, it will run, and then maybe you will scream and run too.
What is that, May? You've a good mind to scream and run as it is?
Very well, scream and run if you want to; the cockroach won't care.
We do not often see these big black fellows in the North, but sometimes we do. Down South cockroaches seem to be everywhere.
What, May? You are never going South, then?
Well, you do not need to go; the cockroaches won't care.
They have little heads and long antennæ, like threads.
What is that, May? You don't care anything about their heads? You don't want to know anything about cockroaches?
Oh, yes, you want to know about cockroaches. Remember how old they are.
They have six legs, you see.
You don't care how many legs they have?
Oh, yes, you do. They could not walk if they had no legs.
You wish they couldn't walk?
Dear me, May; you don't seem to like cockroaches.
Poor old cockroaches.
Cockroaches
Think how old they are.
What is that you say? They are old enough to know better?
Why, May, what have they ever done to you?
Nothing, only you don't like them?
Well, well, they don't like you, either. Poor old cockroaches; nobody seems to like them.
Perhaps they don't care.
Will you let me tell you where they came from?
They do not belong to this country.
Their natural home is tropical Asia.
You see, about four hundred years ago, the ships that bore fruits and other merchandise from India and other warm countries in Asia, bore, as well, a number of little, flat, reddish brown stowaways.
Cockroaches
Stowaways, as you know, are people that do not buy their tickets, but that hide among the ship's cargo, and so get free transportation to other countries.
Well, these little flat stowaways were not human beings, they were insects. Yes, May, they were the cockroaches.
When they landed from their hot land of Asia in cold England, they must have wondered what was to become of them. Many of them no doubt died, for they cannot stand cold weather at all; but some of them were carried, with the fruits and other things, quite unintentionally, of course, for nobody guessed they were there, into warm cellars and kitchen cupboards.
Thenthey felt at home!
They knew better than to leave the cosey nooks where they could hide away and sleep all day, and when they came out at night would find a delicious supper close at hand.
They are great eaters, you know, so what with the good things in the pantry and the warmth of the kitchen quarters they prospered wherever they could find a kitchen to live in.
Soon they spread all over the large cities of England and finally into even remote country districts.
Of course they found their way to the United States of America, and in many houses in the North they have taken lodging. But down South, where it is always warm enough, they have prospered greatly, and they are there in far greater numbers than in the North.
Besides, there is a large American cockroach that belongs to tropical America, but that has found its way pretty well over the country. And there are cockroaches that live in the woods, some of them coming in the night to visit our houses and help themselves from our pantries.
Yes, Mollie, the cockroaches eat almost anything they can find, and what they do not eat they spoil by an ill-smelling liquid they give out when disturbed.
It is this liquid that makes the cockroaches so veryoffensive to us. We cannot bear to touch one because of it.
Cockroaches eat one variety of food that nobody objects to their having. They are fond of bed bugs and greedily devour them.
Besides the large, dark, reddish brown cockroaches there is a little tan-colored fellow that is often very troublesome.
Cockroaches
It is not a native of this country, but is supposed to have been brought to England by soldiers from the Crimea, and later it found its way to America.
We call it the croton bug, but it is not a bug at all, it is a cockroach.
It is particularly numerous about water pipes, and, like the rest of the cockroaches, it hides in the daytime.
At night out troop crowds and crowds of the little tan-colored water bugs. They run about the floor, and over the pantry shelves. They get into everything they can find, and have a beautiful time.
They are funny little fellows, and if they were not so troublesome, we might admire them.
How they can run!
All the cockroaches run very fast, so that it is hard tocatch one. And they are hard and smooth, too, which makes it yet more difficult to catch them. They are well made to escape their enemies, and they are so flat they can hide in cracks or almost anywhere.
No, May, they do not fly very much. You see this one has short wings. It is a male cockroach. The female of this species of cockroach has no wings at all, only little hints of wings, as it were.
Such little useless wings we call "rudimentary" wings.
John says he thinks that is a long word for short wings.
Yes, but it is not a hard word,—ru-di-ment-ary, see if you can remember it.
The croton bugs have longer wings and they sometimes fly.
If you were to spread out the wings of a cockroach, you would find it had four.
What is that, May? You wouldn't spread them out for anything?
Yet wise men have been very much interested in our poor, ill-smelling old cockroaches, and have studied carefully all about them.
Cockroaches
If you dislike to touch the cockroach so much, perhaps you will look at this picture of a croton bug.
See, the upper wings are different; the cockroach does not fly with them, he merely uses them to cover up the under wings, and we call them wing covers.
It is the under wings the cockroach flies with.
Cockroaches may not be pleasant, but who can say they are not interesting?
What other insect lays its eggs in little bandboxes?
Here is one of the little boxes, shiny and hard.
Cockroaches
This little case is at first a sticky substance that soon hardens. The eggs lie in it side by side in two rows.
These cases remain attached to the abdomen of the female cockroach until the eggs are all laid. Then the case falls off, and soon out runs a crowd of infant cockroaches.
Cockroaches
The case is something like a satchel that shuts with a spring. The youngsters are packed close together, side by side, with their heads towards the mouth of the satchel.
As soon as one hatches it pushes open the side of the case and creeps out. Then the case springs together again to protect the rest of the brood.
They are funny fellows when they first come out, little and white-looking. But they eat and grow of course, and shed their skins, and after each moult they become darker in color.
Now, do look again at this cockroach I have taken such pains to catch for you and put into the tumbler.
I think even May will own that it has a cunning little head.
See it turn its head around to look at us.
After all, the cockroach is a knowing little fellow.
This one is hungry; it has had nothing to eat for some time. We will give it this crumb of cake.
Be careful, or it will get away; it can run very fast, and it is very quick, you see, in all its motions.
Ah, it is examining the crumb with the tips of its long antennæ.
See how daintily it touches the crumb.
It can smell with its antennæ, you know.
Now it has decided the cake is good to eat.
See how eager it is!
Cockroaches
It almost stands on its head to reach just the part it wants.
John says he does not understand how insects smell with their antennæ.
I can tell you a little about it, John.
If you look at one of the cockroach's antennæ underthe magnifying glass, you will see it is made up of a good many short pieces, or segments, as we call them, fastened together end to end.
Yes, Mollie, that is why it can move about so easily. It can curl up like a whiplash, you see.
Next the head is a round segment that fits into a socket.
Cockroaches
Double up your right fist and fit it into the half-closed palm of your left hand.
There! That is like the ball-and-socket joint.
You see you can move your fist around in all directions.
The insect can move its antennæ in all directions because they are fastened to its head by ball-and-socket joints.
On the segments of the antennæ, particularly towards the tip, are little dots.
You cannot see the dots without the help of a strong microscope, but they are there.
These little dots are sensitive spots. There is a nerve coming from the insect's brain to each dot.
Some of the dots are sensitive to odors, just as the nerves of our nose are sensitive to odors.
May thinks it is very funny that the insects smell with antennæ instead of with noses.
The insects, no doubt, would think it very funny forus to smell with, noses instead of with antennæ, if they thought about it at all.
The little dots on the antennæ are extremely sensitive to smells. They are often much more sensitive than our noses.
Put a bit of food at some distance from a hungry cockroach, and it will not be long before a pair of long, sensitive feelers will come waving to and fro out of some dark corner.
Cockroaches
Little Mrs. Cockroach has smelled the dainty morsel, and, as soon as it is dark, out she will run, her feelers moving eagerly this way and that, until she has found it.
Yes, May, insects also feel with their antennæ. That is why the antennæ are often called "feelers."
There are other dots on the segments that are sensitive to touch. Sometimes there are tiny hairs on the antennæ, also sensitive to touch.
The little fellows feel and smell, yes, and oftentimeshearwith their antennæ.
Many insects have spots sensitive to sound on the antennæ.
Yes, indeed, May, it is wonderful that such tiny threads as an insect's antennæ should hold so many kinds of sensitive spots.
An insect's antennæ are among the most wonderful things in the world.
AndIthink a cockroach, in spite of its bad reputation, is a very wonderful little fellow.
What is that, May? Our cockroach is drawing one of its antennæ through its mouth?
Ah, yes, see it clean its antenna, children.
It seems to nibble at it as it draws it through its mouth.
Insects are very careful to keep their antennæ clean.
It would not do to let these sensitive spots become covered with dust, you know.
Cockroaches
Walking Stick
Isn't this a pretty place to sit down and—
"Ouch! ow! ow! ow!"
Why, May, what is the matter?
Anybody would think you had seen a cockroach.
What has she found, John?
Oh, it is a walking stick!
Why do I call it that?
Look and see.
Does it not look like a stick?
And does it not walk?
Then why is not walking stick a good name for it?
May thinks its legs look like a collection of pine needles, for they are green and flat on the upper joints.
It is as pretty as it is queer, with its brown body and its green legs.
This is the male walking stick; the female has brown legs. She is brown all over, just the color of dried leaves, and she is not as slender as her mate.
Mollie thinks it is the long and slender thorax that makes the walking stick look so queer.
See its thorax. Its six legs are attached to its thorax, which is as long and as slender as the abdomen.
John thinks it looks queer because everything about it is so long and slender.
Walking Stick
Long antennæ, long legs, long thorax, long abdomen—that is Mr. Walking Stick.
Sir, why do you have such long antennæ? Can you hear and feel and smell extra well because of them?
I wish you could tell us about them.
Now where is it?
Oh, yes, it is standing on that brown twig. It is so nearly the color of the twig and so much the shape of a little stick itself, that it is not easy to find it.
There, it is walking off again.
Walking Stick
It has a good name, for I am sure that if a stick tried to walk, it could not do it more awkwardly.
See now, what it is doing, hanging by one foot from that twig.
How still it is.
Who would imagine, seeing it thus for the first time, that it was a living creature?
The walking sticks feed on leaves, and I suppose their queer shape and their color protect them from being eaten by birds.
A bird would have to be very close to a walking stick to tell it from a twig.
The female drops the eggs on the ground, and leaves them to hatch out and make their way in the world as best they can.
Walking Stick
The young walking sticks look just like their parents, only of course they are very small, and they are green in color, like the leaves they eat.
Yes, little Nell, I should like to find some too; they must be cunning little things.
They eat and grow and moult, and eat and grow and moult, until they are grown up.
There are a good many species of walking sticks in the world, particularly in hot countries; and to their family belong the longest of known insects, some being nearly a foot long. Just imagine a walking stick a foot long!
And some of them are quite prettily colored, though certain species are not pleasant to handle, as they give forth a bad-smelling milky fluid when disturbed.
They are gentle little folk, all of them, and move slowly about over the leaves and twigs, not wishing to harm any living thing.
Some members of the walking stick family have wings, and these are even more curious than those that have none.
Their wings and legs are flattened to look like leaves, so that it is very difficult to find them among the foliage.
Walking Stick
Yes, May, they are also the color of the leaves they live among.
Here is a picture of one that will give some idea of these strange little people.
We have none of these leaf-like insects in our country, but we do have a near relative to the walking sticks, though it does not feed on leaves, I assure you.
How many of you are acquainted with his lordship, the praying mantis?
Walking Stick
Charlie says he has seen these fellows in Kansas, and Nellie says she has a cousin in the South who has told her about them.
Here is a picture of one; is it not a beauty!
Its wings are green and its body is brown, so that it can stealthily creep about among the foliage without being noticed.
When at rest it holds its front legs up as though it were raising its arms in an attitude of devotion.
But not a thought of devotion lies in that cruel little head. There is only one idea there; and if any unwary insect were to come along, those devotional arms would be thrust out with incredible rapidity, and the unfortunate insect clasped tightly in them.
Then the mantis, hugging its prey in the strong trap-like clasp of its spiked legs, would coolly proceed to devour it alive, eating it as a boy would eat an apple.
Walking Stick
This praying mantis is called a "mule-killer" in the South, where the people think the brown liquor it spits out of its mouth, when disturbed, is fatal to mules.
The mantis is also called a devil-horse, a rear-horse, a camel-cricket, and many other names inspired by its outlandish appearance.
Some have even thought it looked wise, standing in that knowing attitude with extended arms, and so it has been called prophet and soothsayer, as though it could foretell what is going to happen.
Undoubtedly it never foretells anything but the approaching death of some insect and possibly a coming change in the weather, for insects often knowwhen the weather is going to change long before we do.
Although our mantes are brown or green, there are a great many species living in hot countries that are much more brightly attired; and when you find yourself on a visit to the tropics, you must look for the flower mantis.
It mimics in color the brilliant hues of the showy orchids in which it hides.
It does not seem to wear its gorgeous robes from a love for the beautiful, however, but rather that it may the better lie concealed in the heart of the gay flowers, to pounce upon unsuspecting insects that come there for refreshing draughts of honey.
Walking Stick
In some parts of Africa the mantis is worshipped by the natives, and in France these fellows are believed to point out the way to travellers by stretching out one leg when questioned.
Its strange attitude, with uplifted arms, has won the mantis regard in all parts of the world, though the insects it clasps in these uplifted arms would not be likely to share the good opinion held of this hardy cannibal.
For it is a cannibal, and enjoys eating another mantis as much as anything else.
The mantes are terrible fighters, too, and if there is a meeting between two of them, there is very apt to be a battle in which one is vanquished and devoured by the other.
Walking Stick
Our mantis lays its eggs, thirty or forty in number, on tree twigs, and they are embedded in a soft substance that soon becomes very tough and horny. These strange egg-cases of the mantis are easily recognized because they look as though they were braided on top, as you can see in the picture.
Yes, May, the tough covering is to protect the eggs from wet and from prying birds and hungry insects.
Walking Stick
The young mantes are similar to their parents, only they have no wings. But they hold up their spiny front legs and catch insects, and they grow and moult in the usual way.
While we have been talking about leaf-like insects and mule-killers our walking stick has gone off.
Well, well, let him go, and good luck go with him.
I am glad you like the walking stick, children.
And now, May, let me tell you something.
This queer fellow is a very near relative of your friend, the cockroach.
Grasshopper Tribes
Don't you often wonder where they come from? The swarms of grasshoppers in the late summer?
Charlie says he walked across a field last night where he believes there were as many grasshoppers as there were blades of grass.
Just think of it! and yet they do not seem to do any harm.
In some places, however, they do a great deal of harm.
They come flying in swarms that darken the sun, and they settle on the trees and the crops and eat up every green thing. There is nothing a Western farmer dreads so much as the passing of the grasshoppers.
Grasshoppers are funny little fellows, and we like them—when there are not too many of them.
Summer would not seem quite like summer unless we heard the grasshoppers shrilling.
There are a great many species of them, and we have placed them in two divisions,—The Shorthorned Grasshoppers and The Longhorned Grasshoppers.
Grasshopper Tribes
They have no horns, of course, but some have short antennæ that stick out like little horns, and those we call shorthorned.
The right name for the shorthorned grasshoppers is locusts.
We call another insect a locust, but the shorthorned grasshoppers are the true locusts.
Some say it was these locusts that John the Baptist ate with his honey in the wilderness.
The Shortened Grasshoppers
A good many people in different parts of the world still eat locusts.
They are said to be good food when roasted, but I would rather eat roasted peanuts.
Come here, little locust, and let us look at you.
Now, stand still, and show us your short "horns."
See its eyes!
Yes, May, they are compound eyes, but I do not know how many facets they have.
What a funny little rabbit face it has.
See it move its little mouth parts.
It bites bits out of the leaves and chews them up very fast.
Has it teeth? May is asking.
Well, yes, but not like our teeth. Sometime you must see the mouth parts of the grasshopper under the microscope. They are very interesting.
Mollie says the locust has a cape on.
John says the cape is the top of its thorax.
Grasshopper Tribes
Frank has been counting its legs; he says it has six.
See it walk. It uses all six legs to walk with.
But it does something besides walk with its hind legs.
Yes, it jumps with them. How long and large they are! Now watch it jump.
See! It draws those long hind legs close up to its body, then suddenly straightens them out—and away it goes as though it had been shot from a spring board.
John says its hind legs work just like a spring, and so they do. It can leap several times the length of its body. Amy thinks it should be called a grass-jumper instead of a grasshopper.
Suppose we all look carefully at the locust's long hind leg, segment by segment.
What, John? You do not know what a segment is?
Well, a segment is the part between two joints. The joints are where the leg bends, you know.
May proposes that we draw a picture of the long hind leg.
It will be fun to try.
There are two tiny segments close to the body.
If you are not careful, you will find only one.
You must look sharp to see both of them.
How well Charlie has drawn his! He has both the little segments.