Search Results - The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online

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A761.14 Beagle Library: Cuvier, Georges. 1827-35. The animal kingdom arranged in conformity with its organization. With additional descriptions of all the species hitherto named, and of many not before noticed, by Edward Griffith and others. 16 vols. London: Geo. B. Whittaker. vol. 14: Insecta (1). Text

with the matters which surround it; nevertheless, it has been observed, that insects which live in a social state, and more particularly, in our climates, ants and bees, when they are assembled, develope a temperature almost equal to, if not higher than that of man. A thermometer, placed in winter in the centre of a hive, remains there, constantly elevated from 28 to 30 of Reaumur, and when these insects are [page] 7

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A761.14 Beagle Library: Cuvier, Georges. 1827-35. The animal kingdom arranged in conformity with its organization. With additional descriptions of all the species hitherto named, and of many not before noticed, by Edward Griffith and others. 16 vols. London: Geo. B. Whittaker. vol. 14: Insecta (1). Text

, ofchrysomelina cerambycin , c., and particularly wasps, ants, orthoptera, and araneid ; nevertheless, Southern China, and the Moluccas, appear to preserve a sort of superiority in giving birth to such lepidoptera as the papilio priamus, the bombyx atlas, c., whose dimensions surpass those of the American lepidoptera. A remarkable fact is, that Europe, Africa, and Western Asia, have scarcely any insects of the genus phasma, or spectrum, and that the species found there are small, while the Moluccas

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A761.14 Beagle Library: Cuvier, Georges. 1827-35. The animal kingdom arranged in conformity with its organization. With additional descriptions of all the species hitherto named, and of many not before noticed, by Edward Griffith and others. 16 vols. London: Geo. B. Whittaker. vol. 14: Insecta (1). Text

assistants, abandoned to her own resources, lays the foundations of the colony, and soon finds auxiliaries in the neuters which she begins to bring into the world. Such are the societies of wasps and humble bees. But those which are continuous, have neuters at all periods. Sometime these neuters, as among the ants and bees, are charged exclusively with all the labours and cares of the family. Sometimes they have no other functions than to watch for the defence of the community, and perhaps for

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A761.14 Beagle Library: Cuvier, Georges. 1827-35. The animal kingdom arranged in conformity with its organization. With additional descriptions of all the species hitherto named, and of many not before noticed, by Edward Griffith and others. 16 vols. London: Geo. B. Whittaker. vol. 14: Insecta (1). Text

number of perils by which they are menaced? It is very different with solitary insects. Their family, few in number, isolated, concealed, and occupying but a small space, can easily be withdrawn from the investigations of its enemies. But insects, united in great numbers in the same nest, have more unfavourable risks to run. The careful attention of the ants to their progeny affords an apt illustration of this point. The preservation therefore of such animals, and the pros [page] 11

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A761.14 Beagle Library: Cuvier, Georges. 1827-35. The animal kingdom arranged in conformity with its organization. With additional descriptions of all the species hitherto named, and of many not before noticed, by Edward Griffith and others. 16 vols. London: Geo. B. Whittaker. vol. 14: Insecta (1). Text

the second, while the society is maintained by this reciprocity of service. An activity common to all the members of the society, is thus the distinguishing characteristic of the termites, which are one of the most terrible agents of destruction in the equatorial countries. As they work only in their infancy, and are at this age deprived of wings, or only possess the rudiments of them, they then very much resemble ants in their habits. But their numbers being far greater, they construct vaster

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A761.15 Beagle Library: Cuvier, Georges. 1827-35. The animal kingdom arranged in conformity with its organization. With additional descriptions of all the species hitherto named, and of many not before noticed, by Edward Griffith and others. 16 vols. London: Geo. B. Whittaker. vol. 15: Insecta (2). Text

other writers, that these tender mothers extend their solicitude, even to excavating a ditch around the nest of their young ones; place themselves there as sentinels, and during dry weather raise the lump of earth to which they have confided their dearest hopes, so that the heat of the sun may penetrate into it, and warm it more effectually. Another kind of foresight has also been attributed to these animals; some will have it, that equally wise with the ants, they transport into their asylum

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A761.15 Beagle Library: Cuvier, Georges. 1827-35. The animal kingdom arranged in conformity with its organization. With additional descriptions of all the species hitherto named, and of many not before noticed, by Edward Griffith and others. 16 vols. London: Geo. B. Whittaker. vol. 15: Insecta (2). Text

ravagers. It has pleased Him that birds, ants, and other insects, should declare war against the young mole-crickets, or at least against the germs of this hurtful race. The plough of the labourer, in preparing the furrows where nutritious plants grow, crushes and destroys the insect which menaces them. Those singular orthoptera, the TRIDACTYLI, have the greatest relations with the acheta of Fabricius, and especially with the sub-genus which has been last under consideration. They are equally

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A761.15 Beagle Library: Cuvier, Georges. 1827-35. The animal kingdom arranged in conformity with its organization. With additional descriptions of all the species hitherto named, and of many not before noticed, by Edward Griffith and others. 16 vols. London: Geo. B. Whittaker. vol. 15: Insecta (2). Text

be found of four or five lines in diameter. These are the habitations of females. In fifteen or twenty days after the larva has undergone its metamorphosis, the perfect insect issues from the cocoon through an aperture which it has made there, and leaves the envelope of nymph at the entrance. These larv may be easily reared in sand, providing care be taken to supply them with plenty of ants, flies, and other insects. Bonnet discovered, in the neighbourhood of Geneva, a larva of Myrmeleon, which

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A761.15 Beagle Library: Cuvier, Georges. 1827-35. The animal kingdom arranged in conformity with its organization. With additional descriptions of all the species hitherto named, and of many not before noticed, by Edward Griffith and others. 16 vols. London: Geo. B. Whittaker. vol. 15: Insecta (2). Text

presented may serve to give a sufficient idea of the industrious proceedings of the mason-ants; but there are some, such as the red ant of Linn us, and the yellow, which develope, if they establish themselves in the hollows of trees, another species of talent. The yellow ant, for instance (and our observations will equally apply to the other, or the myrmica), chooses the finest parcels of the rotten wood of these trees, mixes them with a little earth, and the webs of spiders, forms a substance of

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A761.15 Beagle Library: Cuvier, Georges. 1827-35. The animal kingdom arranged in conformity with its organization. With additional descriptions of all the species hitherto named, and of many not before noticed, by Edward Griffith and others. 16 vols. London: Geo. B. Whittaker. vol. 15: Insecta (2). Text

, from space to space, what is necessary to sustain their ceilings, should form together a single story; but as each has been pierced separately, the flooring cannot be very level; it is, on the contrary, very unequally hollowed, which is a great advantage for the ants, since the furrows are better adapted to retain the larv which they deposit there. The stories which are excavated in thick roots are less regular, but of a more light and delicate construction. We sometimes see fragments of from

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A761.15 Beagle Library: Cuvier, Georges. 1827-35. The animal kingdom arranged in conformity with its organization. With additional descriptions of all the species hitherto named, and of many not before noticed, by Edward Griffith and others. 16 vols. London: Geo. B. Whittaker. vol. 15: Insecta (2). Text

. We shall proceed at once to those hymenoptera, beginning with the tribe VESPARI . The WASPS (Vespa), like the ants and bees, live in society. They are comparable to the latter for their industry, and [page break

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A761.17 Beagle Library: Cuvier, Georges. 1827-35. The animal kingdom arranged in conformity with its organization. With additional descriptions of all the species hitherto named, and of many not before noticed, by Edward Griffith and others. 16 vols. London: Geo. B. Whittaker. vol. 17. Text

, simple, and sharp. The general colour is white, with a small tint of yellowish; and there are about sixty black bands, irregular, transversal, and forming, for the most part, interrupted rings. This reptile is about thirty inches in length at the most. The anguis scytale is an inhabitant of South America, particularly Cayenne and Surinam. It lives on caterpillars, worms, and small insects, but especially on ants. It appears to have the habits of the amphisb na. The negroes are very much in

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A761.17 Beagle Library: Cuvier, Georges. 1827-35. The animal kingdom arranged in conformity with its organization. With additional descriptions of all the species hitherto named, and of many not before noticed, by Edward Griffith and others. 16 vols. London: Geo. B. Whittaker. vol. 17. Text

Fontainbleau, where it was known under the name of aspic. It lives on small quadrupeds, mice, field-mice, lizards, frogs, toads, salamanders, young birds, and insects, such as flies, ants, canthar des, and even scorpions, according to Aristotle. It also feeds on mollusca and worms, and, like all the Ophidians, can support without any material suffering a fast of many months. In many shops of pharmacopolists it is said that vipers have been kept in casks for years without giving them any thing to eat. Like

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A761.02 Beagle Library: Cuvier, Georges. 1827-35. The animal kingdom arranged in conformity with its organization. With additional descriptions of all the species hitherto named, and of many not before noticed, by Edward Griffith and others. 16 vols. London: Geo. B. Whittaker. vol. 2: Mammalia (2) Text

Cephalotes, have a large and thick muzzle, which indicates powerful jaws, and the faculty of biting with force. The kiodote, on the contrary, by its large head, and very slender muzzle, which narrows off suddenly from the eyes announces, what is really the fact, very weak jaws, incapable of acting with any degree of force. The resemblance, in this respect, subsisting between the kiodote and some of the edentata, with long muzzles, which live on ants, c., would lead us to suppose that these small teeth

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A761.02 Beagle Library: Cuvier, Georges. 1827-35. The animal kingdom arranged in conformity with its organization. With additional descriptions of all the species hitherto named, and of many not before noticed, by Edward Griffith and others. 16 vols. London: Geo. B. Whittaker. vol. 2: Mammalia (2) Text

feed principally on white ants, fruits, and honey; but as little of its habits are known with any certainty, it may rationally be presumed, on viewing the teeth, that it is as carnivorous as Bears in general. A disgusting story in the Oriental Field Sports, Major Smith is inclined to refer to this species, of a poor Indian who had his hands and arms literally ground into a pulp by the teeth of a Bear. If so, this would be the Baloo, a name generally given to the Ursus Malayanus. The presence of

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A761.06 Beagle Library: Cuvier, Georges. 1827-35. The animal kingdom arranged in conformity with its organization. With additional descriptions of all the species hitherto named, and of many not before noticed, by Edward Griffith and others. 16 vols. London: Geo. B. Whittaker. vol. 6: Aves (1). Text

sails and anticipate the storm. We see again black legions of ravens beating the air with their wings and the rooks clamouring in the fields at the approach of rain. On such occasions the heifer in the pasture snuffs in the air with elevated head; the frogs croak in the marshes the ants bring back their chrysalides to the nest; and fishes come to the surface of the water to respire. All animals appear to presage the tempest; and it is thus that shepherds and labourers constantly exposed to the

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A761.06 Beagle Library: Cuvier, Georges. 1827-35. The animal kingdom arranged in conformity with its organization. With additional descriptions of all the species hitherto named, and of many not before noticed, by Edward Griffith and others. 16 vols. London: Geo. B. Whittaker. vol. 6: Aves (1). Text

serving for themselves did nothing but copy and compile the traditions of the natives. Marco Polo informs that the Roc a bird of Madagascar carried up elephants into the air*. Herodotus was acquainted with ants which were smaller than some dogs but larger than some foxes. We must always be on our guard even in the present age against the exaggerated accounts of form and size. Were we to trust to the rash assertions of the inhabitants we might easily believe that in Egypt and South America

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A761.07 Beagle Library: Cuvier, Georges. 1827-35. The animal kingdom arranged in conformity with its organization. With additional descriptions of all the species hitherto named, and of many not before noticed, by Edward Griffith and others. 16 vols. London: Geo. B. Whittaker. vol. 7: Aves (2). Text

worms, naked caterpillars, ant's eggs, and those of other insects, which they distribute equally to the young. When the food is abundant near die nest, they content themselves with carrying it at the end of their beak, as they do when they bring up their young in aviaries. The little ones have the body covered with feathers in less than fifteen days, and quit the nest before they are able to fly. They then are observed to follow their parents, jumping from branch to branch. As soon as they can

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A761.07 Beagle Library: Cuvier, Georges. 1827-35. The animal kingdom arranged in conformity with its organization. With additional descriptions of all the species hitherto named, and of many not before noticed, by Edward Griffith and others. 16 vols. London: Geo. B. Whittaker. vol. 7: Aves (2). Text

pots not very deep are provided for them to eat and drink out of; in one of these is water, in the other sixty or seventy of the above-mentioned worms, and in the third the usual aliment given to them, (which we shall explain by and by,) to which are joined the eggs of ants. It is necessary to familiarise them with their new domicile; branches covered with leaves should be put into it, and the floor spread with moss; trees in boxes, evergreens, such as laurels, c., are still better, as [page] 1

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A761.07 Beagle Library: Cuvier, Georges. 1827-35. The animal kingdom arranged in conformity with its organization. With additional descriptions of all the species hitherto named, and of many not before noticed, by Edward Griffith and others. 16 vols. London: Geo. B. Whittaker. vol. 7: Aves (2). Text

as it has great analogies with the wrens we chuse to notice its habits here. In these it differs from the ant-caters; it is solitary, pereches on trees, and never descends to the earth, but for the purpose of ants and other inseots, of which it also eats. It differs from them still more by its song, which is peculiarly fine; whereas all the ant-eaters utter nothing but eries or sounds, totally destitute of all modulation. The traveller, who wanders through the immense and [page] 4