INSECT ARCHITECTURE
LONDON: PRINTED BY W. CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.
INSECT ARCHITECTURE
BY
JAMES RENNIE
NEW EDITION, MUCH ENLARGED
BY THE REV. J. G. WOOD, M.A.
AUTHOR OF “HOMES WITHOUT HANDS,” ETC.
WITH NEARLY TWO HUNDRED ILLUSTRATIONS.
LONDON:
BELL AND DALDY, YORK STREET,
COVENT GARDEN.
1869.
EDITOR’S PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION.
The proprietors of this interesting work having felt that much additional knowledge of the subject has been obtained since the book was written, have asked me to supply characteristic examples of Insect Architecture which were not to be found in its pages. I have accordingly added a considerable number of such examples, in most cases accompanied by figures drawn from the specimens described. I have not been at liberty to alter or expunge, and am not, therefore, responsible for any portion of the letterpress except those passages which are enclosed in brackets [ ]. Some of the specimens from which the figures have been drawn are in my own collection, but the greater part are to be found in the British Museum.
CONTENTS.
PAGE CHAPTER I. Introduction 1 CHAPTER II. Structures for Protecting Eggs 21 Mason-Wasps 22 Mason-Bees 38 Mining-Bees 50 CHAPTER III. Carpenter-Bees 55 Carpenter-Wasps 62 Upholsterer-Bees 64 CHAPTER IV. Carder-Bees 74 Lapidary-Bees 79 Humble-Bees 79 Social-Wasps 80 CHAPTER V. Architecture of the Hive-Bee 112 Preparation of Wax 115 Propolis 126 The Building of the Cell 131 CHAPTER VI. Architecture of the Hive-Bee—continued. Form of the Cells 139 Irregularities in their Workmanship 148 The Finishing of the Cells 154 CHAPTER VII. Carpentry of Tree-Hoppers 164 Saw-Flies 168 Icarias 176 CHAPTER VIII. Leaf-Rolling Caterpillars 181 CHAPTER IX. Insects Forming Habitations of Detached Leaves 195ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE 1. Eggs of Insects, magnified 16 2. Larvæ 17 3. Pupæ 18 4. Insects in the Imago or perfect state 19 5. Mason-Wasp 23 6. Jaws of Mason-Wasp 24 7. Cuckoo-Fly 25 8. Mason-Wasp’s Nest and Cocoons 25 9. Mason-Wasp 25 10. Nests, &c., of Mason-Wasps 26 11. Towers built by Mason-Wasp 29 12. Nests of Pompilus punctum 29 13. Scolia Xantiana, and section of its burrow 35 14. Mason-Bee 38 15. Exterior wall of Mason-Bee’s Nest 39 16. Cells of a Mason-Bee 39 17. Cells of Mason-Bees 46 18. Cells of Chalicodoma 49 19. Nest of Synagris calida 50 20. Cell of Mining-BeeINSECT ARCHITECTURE.
CHAPTER 1.
INTRODUCTION.
It can never be too strongly impressed upon a mind anxious for the acquisition of knowledge, that the commonest things by which we are surrounded are deserving of minute and careful attention. The most profound investigations of Philosophy are necessarily connected with the ordinary circumstances of our being, and of the world in which our every-day life is spent. With regard to our own existence, the pulsation of the heart, the act of respiration, the voluntary movement of our limbs, the condition of sleep, are among the most ordinary operations of our nature; and yet how long were the wisest of men struggling with dark and bewildering speculations before they could offer anything like a satisfactory solution of these phenomena, and how far are we still from an accurate and complete knowledge of them! The science of Meteorology, which attempts to explain to us the philosophy of matters constantly before our eyes, as dew, mist, and rain, is dependent for its illustrations upon a knowledge of the most complicated facts, such as the influence of heat and electricity upon the air; and this knowledge is at present so imperfect, that even these common occurrences of the weather, which men have been observing and reasoning upon for ages, are by no means satisfactorily explained, or reduced to the precision that every science should aspire to. Yet, however difficult it may be entirely to comprehend the phenomena we daily witness, everything in nature is full of instruction. Thus the humblest flower of the field, although, to one whose curiosity has not been excited, and whose understanding has, therefore, remained uninformed, it may appear worthless and contemptible, is valuable to the botanist, not only with regard to its place in the arrangement of this portion of the Creator’s works, but as it leads his mind forward to the consideration of those beautiful provisions for the support of vegetable life, which it is the part of the physiologist to study and to admire.
This train of reasoning is peculiarly applicable to the economy of insects. They constitute a very large and interesting part of the animal kingdom. They are everywhere about us. The spider weaves his curious web in our houses; the caterpillar constructs his silken cell in our gardens; the wasp that hovers over our food has a nest not far removed from us, which she has assisted to build with the nicest art; the beetle that crawls across our path is also an ingenious and laborious mechanic, and has some curious instincts to exhibit to those who will feel an interest in watching his movements; and the moth that eats into our clothes has something to plead for our pity, for he came, like us, naked into the world, and he has destroyed our garments, not in malice or wantonness, but that he may clothe himself with the same wool which we have stripped from the sheep. An observation of the habits of these little creatures is full of valuable lessons, which the abundance of the examples has no tendency to diminish. The more such observations are multiplied, the more are we led forward to the freshest and the most delightful parts of knowledge; the more do we learn to estimate rightly the extraordinary provisions and most abundant resources of a creative Providence; and the better do we appreciate our own relations with all the infinite varieties of nature, and our dependence, in common with the ephemeron that flutters its little hour in the summer sun, upon that Being in whose scheme of existence the humblest as well as the highest creature has its destined purposes. “If you speak of a stone,” says St. Basil, one of the Fathers of the Church, “if you speak of a fly, a gnat, or a bee, your conversation will be a sort of demonstration of His power whose hand formed them, for the wisdom of the workman is commonly perceived in that which is of little size. He who has stretched out the heavens, and dug up the bottom of the sea, is also He who has pierced a passage through the sting of the bee for the ejection of its poison.”
If it be granted that making discoveries is one of the most satisfactory of human pleasures, then we may without hesitation affirm, that the study of insects is
There is, perhaps, no situation in which the lover of nature and the observer of animal life may not find opportunities for increasing his store of facts. It is told of a state prisoner, under a cruel and rigorous despotism, that when he was excluded from all commerce with mankind, and was shut out from books, he took an interest and found consolation in the visits of a spider; and there is no improbability in the story. The operations of that persecuted creature are among the most extraordinary exhibitions of mechanical ingenuity; and a daily watching of the workings of its instinct would beget admiration in a rightly-constituted mind. The poor prisoner had abundant leisure for the speculations in which the spider’s web would enchain his understanding. We have all of us, at one period or other of our lives, been struck with some singular evidence of contrivance in the economy of insects, which we have seen with our own eyes. Want of leisure, and probably want of knowledge, have prevented us from following up the curiosity which for a moment was excited. And yet some such accident has made men naturalists, in the highest meaning of the term. Bonnet, evidently speaking of himself, says, “I knew a naturalist, who, when he was seventeen years of age, having heard of the operations of the ant-lion, began by doubting them. He had no rest till he had examined into them: and he verified them, he admired them, he discovered new facts, and soon became the disciple and the friend of the Pliny of France”[B] (Réaumur). It is not the happy fortune of many to be able to devote themselves exclusively to the study of nature, unquestionably the most fascinating of human employments; but almost every one may acquire sufficient knowledge to be able to derive a high gratification from beholding the more common operations of animal life. His materials for contemplation are always before him. Some weeks ago we made an excursion to West Wood, near Shooter’s Hill, expressly for the purpose of observing the insects we might meet with in the wood: but we had not got far among the bushes, when heavy rain came on. We immediately sought shelter among the boughs of some thick underwood, composed of oak, birch, and aspen; but we could not meet with a single insect, not even a gnat or a fly, sheltered under the leaves. Upon looking more narrowly, however, into the bushes which protected us, we soon found a variety of interesting objects of study. The oak abounded in galls, several of them quite new to us; while the leaves of the birch and the aspen exhibited the curious serpentine paths of the minute mining caterpillars. When we had exhausted the narrow field of observation immediately around us, we found that we could considerably extend it, by breaking a few of the taller branches near us, and then examining their leaves at leisure. In this manner two hours glided quickly and pleasantly away, by which time the rain had nearly ceased; and though we had been disappointed in our wish to ramble through the wood, we did not return without adding a few interesting facts to our previous knowledge of insect economy.[C]