Chapter XXVIII: Insects

There is nothing more beautiful, wonderful and interesting than insect life; there is nothing that offers a wider field for examination or affords more gratifying results. Under the head of insects are classed, in popular language, all the minute animals; but only those having six legs and two antennæ, and which undergo one or more changes or metamorphoses should be included; most of them have wings, and their name is derived from the word _insecta_, divided, which is applied to the divisions or articulations of their bodies. The outer part of their body is slightly bony, and to it the muscles are attached.

Insects exist in myriads; whole families are still undescribed, and many species unknown. Even in the old countries new discoveries are made yearly, and in the New World it can hardly be said that anything is authenticated on the subject. Facts concerning the commonest are most remarkable. One class of white ants, like our southern fellow countrymen, makes slaves of a darker race. Many beautiful flies live only a few hours. The eyes of the common house fly are composed of numerous surfaces or lenses, and their life, habits and instincts are a study in themselves. Being so numerous and so nearly allied, their classification is entirely imperfect, and like a similar attempt with any other part of animal life, a failure. Almost every scientific writer has invented a system of entomological distribution for himself, and their united efforts have produced endless confusion; the arrangement generally followed is that of Latreille, the father of modern entomology.

Insects are by him divided into two great divisions: those that live by chewing, _mandibulata_, and those that live by sucking, _haustellata_, whence the name applied to some of the human family. Of the former the beetles, _coleoptera_, are prominent, and among the latter the butterflies, _lepidoptera_. It is to be observed that the bees, although furnished with a sucking apparatus to collect honey, feed with mandibles, and are in the first class.

Latreille further divides the various groups as follows; and although English authors have made many changes, the alterations are of such doubtful utility that the original classification will be retained.

The first class is that of insects without wings, such as the _thysanura_, or those having a bushy tail, which are mandibulate. Parasites or lice, and fleas, both of which are suctional, the last having a metamorphose, but the first two not. All others have wings, but the second class includes those that have a hard covering or case, called an elytron, over their wings; the beetles, which have a horny wing cover and perfect metamorphose; the _dermoptera_, which have a horny wing cover but an imperfect metamorphose; the _orthoptera_, or straight-winged insects, their wings folding longitudinally, and having a leathery cover--all of which are mandibulate; and the _hemiptera_, which have the wings half leathery and half membranous, and the mouth suctorial, and in both of the latter the metamorphose is imperfect. In the third class the wings are naked and alike; it includes the _neuroptera_, or nerve-winged insects, in which the veins of the wings are like a net; the _hymenoptera_, the wings being membranous, and veined lengthwise--both families being mandibulate; the _lepidoptera_, or scale-winged insects, having delicate scales on the wings--this order is suctorial, and the entire three orders have four wings; the _rhipiptera_, which are mandibulate and have two balances or halteres before the wings which close like a fan, whence their name is derived, and the _diptera_, which have two halteres behind the wings--in these families there are only two wings.

The _orthoptera_ include, as familiar examples, cockroaches, crickets, katydids, and grasshoppers; the _neuroptera_ white ants, May-flies, caddis-flies, dragon-flies or devil’s darning needles, and hoodlbugs; the _hymenoptera_ common ants, wasps and bees; the _lepidoptera_ butterflies, moths, silk-worms, and humming-birds; the _hemiptera_ plant lice, cochineals, and locusts; the _diptera_ mosquitoes, house-flies, horse-flies, and bot-flies.

The order _hemiptera_ is frequently divided into two, according as the wings are of a uniform texture, _homoptera_, or of a varied texture, _heteroptera_; the _lepidoptera_ are divided into three classes--those that fly by day, and generally have the antennæ knobbed; those that fly in the twilight and have the antennæ thickened, and those that are nocturnal and have the antennæ slender. The English writers have transposed the families _grillidæ_ and _locustidæ_ to suit the popular translation of the Scriptures, and have introduced a separate order called _trichoptera_.

As they are principally minute objects, wise men wisely concluded the deficiency should be made up in length of name, and but one class appears under the weight of less than four syllables. The families composing these orders are almost innumerable, and only those that are allied to the subject in hand can even be mentioned. Amateur entomologists prefer the _coleoptera_ for their beauty and variety, and collections of insects are mainly composed of brilliant, gaudy and wondrous beetles, varying in size from the giant, as large as the pretty fist of one of the reader’s little female acquaintances, to the pigmy that is hardly perceptible to the eye. There is the beautiful and useful lady-bird, the wonderful lightning-bug, the elephant beetle with trunk and tusks, the hercules with stout heavy limbs, the palm weevil, whose disgusting grubs are eaten as delicacies by the deluded people of St. Domingo, and many other dangerous looking fellows with long sharp snouts that are really harmless, and innocent looking fellows that are really dangerous. The fly-fisher, however, relies for his pleasure mainly upon his imitations of the _neuroptera_ and _diptera_, and not so much upon the _coleoptera_.

The young of the insect tribe, when it issues from the shell in the shape of a worm, is known as the _larva_, although the larvæ of some butterflies are called caterpillars, and of certain flies maggots. When the larva begins its metamorphose it is named a pupa or chrysalis, and the covering with which it surrounds itself a pupa-case or cocoon. It then undergoes a wonderful change, becoming the full-formed insect or _imago_--the ugly worm, that a short time previous had surrounded itself with a silken cocoon, bursting its case and flying off a gay, attractive and resplendent butterfly. From crawling meanly over the ground or the foliage, leaving a slimy streak behind, or horrible with a greenish smooth body and clinging feet, or disgusting with innumerable bristles, it soars away, its gay plumage glittering in the sunlight as it flits from flower to flower, the envy and admiration of the human female sex. How much is there not in beauty!

Many insects live for years as worms, and but a few hours in their perfect state. The _ephemeræ_, so called from appearing in the morning and dying before night, often do not reach half that age, although if the sexes are separated they will sometimes attain the great age of several weeks. They may be regarded as sacrificing their lives for the tender passion. They cover our waters in Summer, warmed into existence by the sun’s rays, flitting in a graceful but inefficient way from place to place, or floating calmly upon the surface, dropping back into nonentity with the departing sunlight. They are sometimes, especially in the southern country, quite large, and include what among fishermen are known as the May flies.

In some classes the change from the larva is not so remarkable, the worm having much of the appearance, and many of the distinctive marks of the perfect fly, as for example the bee; in these the metamorphose is said to be imperfect. The eyes of insects are either compound, composed of numerous lenses, amounting in certain butterflies to thirty thousand, or simple, called _stemmata_, the latter alone being found in the larvæ, although in some of the beetles the larvæ have eyes in the head and tail both. They are often long in maturing; one species of locust, as is well known, remains seventeen years before coming to perfection, and many other families continue several years as larvæ. Some of the larvæ live in the earth, some in wood, and others under water; some hide themselves in a cocoon ere their metamorphose is effected, others build houses of stones or sticks, others have no protection; but all are wonderful. One swims upon the water, another walks upon its surface, a third crawls along at the bottom, although the majority live upon dry land. In defence they use a sting, simulate death, eject a poisonous liquid, or emit an offensive smell. The eggs mature in the running or stagnant water, in the ground, in the limbs of trees, in the foliage and stems, or in the fruit. Grasshoppers in the East, grubs among savages, snails among Frenchmen, ants among Brazilians, locusts among prophets, and, if all reports are true, certain minute parasites among Italians, have furnished pleasing and nutritious food.

But of all the marvels of insect life, that which is least consonant with nature and least credible to human understanding, is the fact that they appear spontaneously. “Why should a few drops of rain in a dusty road produce animalculæ never seen before? Why should a little permanent dirt originate two distinct parasites, according as

it accumulates on the head or body? Why should new insects year after year make a perpetually changing warfare against the farmer’s crops in gradation with the exhaustion of the soil? Why should the Hessians bring the Hessian fly, or _vice versa_, as you please? And a great many other Whys which never have been and never will be answered till the “heavens shall be rolled up as a scroll.”

Insects feed voraciously on leaves, vegetables, fruit, on human blood--sad to relate--and fortunately on one another. Mosquitoes, thank Heaven, have parasites that cling to the delicate rings of their bodies, stinging the arch-stinger, and inflicting by their venomous bites the same agonies the sufferers inflict on others. It is to be hoped those gentlemen will increase and multiply, and after exterminating mosquitoes may pay their addresses to the black gnats. Certain families, especially of the _coleoptera_, emit a species of phosphorescent light in the dark, occasionally light enough to read by. The majority of insects have wings, but many have not, and in some only one gender is winged. A few kinds, such as the locusts, katydids, crickets, death-ticks, emit sounds, to which man’s sympathies have added either a pleasant or painful association, and produce these peculiar cries generally by rubbing the wings or some part of the body. The wings of insects do not exceed four, and are often limited to two; their legs are six; some have antennæ or feelers, others long whisks from their tails.

The _neuroptera_, or net-winged insects, _florfliegen_, gauze-flies, as they are called by the Germans, include the principal pets of the fly-fisher. Their bodies are long, tapering and delicate; their wings, four, almost transparent and marked with net-like veins. They keep in continual motion for the purpose of catching smaller insects, on which they mainly feed, and generally deposit their eggs in the water, where the grubs live from one to two years on plants or other insects.

That most fearful looking, but really harmless and beneficent creature, the devil’s darning-needle, or dragon-fly, _libellula_, is a remarkable specimen of this family. They are called _demoiselles_ by the French, _wasserjunfern_, water-virgins by the Germans; but, in spite of these pretty appellations, are the tyrants of the surface of the ponds; they seize and tear to pieces all other insects, including butterflies and mosquitoes, and will clear a house of the common fly. They are cruel, rapacious and insatiable, and I do not know of their ever being used as bait for trout.

The _phryganea_, or water-moth, is one of the favorites of the fly-fisher. Its grubs surround themselves with a case formed of wood or grass, and are used by him as bait under the name of caddis-worms. They are the favorite food of the trout in early spring. But the _ephemeridæ_ include most of the specimens imitated by the fisherman. The larvæ of these live in the water, for one or more years, and then, swimming to the surface, suddenly change into winged insects, delicate and beautiful. They sometimes appear in myriads, their dead bodies covering the water. A few make a second change after flying about for a time, and crawl out of their skins once more, leaving their old clothes, to all appearance perfect, sticking to a tree or fence. On their first appearance they are said to be in the _pseudimago_ state, and to them the name duns is applied by the fly-fisher; when they change to the _imago_ or perfect fly, they are called piscatorially spinners. There are exceptions to this uniformity, as with the May-flies; the green drake is the _pseudimago_, and the grey drake the _imago_.

The _phryganidæ_ and _ephemeridæ_ are easily distinguished; in the former the wings lie close along the back, projecting beyond the body; the antennæ or feelers are long, and there are no whisks; in the latter the wings stand upright from the body like a butterfly’s, the antennæ are very short, and there are two, or occasionally three, long delicate whisks.

The _phryganidæ_ attach their eggs to the foliage overhanging the water, whence upon hatching the larvæ fall, and immediately proceed to construct, of twigs or gravel, miniature houses like a snail’s shell, where they reside in peace and safety. These cases are lined with silk, spun from the insect’s mouth, and are so light as not seriously to impede its swimming and rambling in search of food, and being open at both ends, allow him a view of the outside world. The larvæ live mainly on aquatic plants, and when the proper time arrives, they close the ends of their houses with a species of grating, and commence the dormant state of the pupa. In this they remain a few days, and then emerging from their case, they ascend to the surface, burst their skin, and fly away in their perfect state of beauty.

The _ephemeridæ_ deposit their eggs in the water, where they soon hatch, and where the grub, which lives usually on clay or vegetable matter, resides, occasionally for several years, hiding under stones or in holes in the mud. It then becomes a pupa, and after accomplishing its time, rises to the surface, throws off its skin, and flies away, bearing the name of dun; it shortly alights on a tree or fence, and sheds its entire skin, withdrawing even its delicate wings and minute whisks from their previous covering. Its colors in the second stage are usually more brilliant, and under the name spinner it enjoys the pleasures of life, perpetuates its species and dies in a few hours. While laying its eggs, it will be noticed either resting on the water or floating up and down over it. Certain species can swim well under water, and I believe descend to the bottom to deposit their eggs. I have had numbers alight on my pants when I was wading a rapid stream, run down my legs to the bottom, crawl over the stones, and with a zig-zag motion swim against the current to the surface. Rocks are frequently seen darkened with flies, that on any sudden approach drop into the water and disappear.

The _ephemeridæ_ include the blue dun, which becomes the red spinner in its final state; the marsh brown, which changes to the great red spinner; the turkey brown, that is transformed into the little dark spinner; the iron blue dun, that becomes the jenny spinner; the green and grey drakes, the July and August duns, and many others. The _phryganidæ_ comprise the sand and cinnamon flies and the grannom or green-tail, besides many undescribed. Of the _diptera_, which are distinguished by having but two wings, we have the cowdung-fly, the golden dun midge, and the black gnat; of the beetles, the peacock and fern flies and marlow buzz; of the _hymenoptera_, the red ant and orange-fly; and occasionally crickets and grasshoppers are imitated.

These are a few, and but a few, of the beautiful insects that sport around or upon our lovely lakes and streams; the advancing heat of Spring warms them into life; they burst forth, enchanting man with their beauty, and gaily pass a few days or hours, surrounded by innumerable dangers, which they seem never to heed. One kind succeeds another as the summer advances, usually the more gaudy during the greatest heat, till they crowd the ponds, the air, the bushes with indescribable brilliancy. I have seen, toward evening, yellow sallies appear in myriads, their dead bodies literally covering the water; and in the St. Lawrence rivers, dead eel-flies lie in such masses as to give the effect of sea-weed.

It is very desirable that fishermen should, for their own sakes as well as the sake of science, pay more attention to the habits and peculiarities of these insects. The study of nature in its minute productions is wonderful; the observations of individuals combined is of great value, and adds immensely to the general store of knowledge; something more would be effected than the mere pleasure of taking a large mess, and the reproach of idleness removed from our enjoyments. To be sure, the men of science, by the use of ridiculous foreign names and the confounding of a confused and worthless system, have done all they can to discourage such an undertaking and repel such aid; but every one can note the peculiarities that are heretofore mentioned, can even readily preserve a specimen and mark the times and manner of their appearance and the length of their duration, and though he may fail to obtain the scientific name, can determine the species and ascertain the habits of a few members of the most wonderful, intricate, and interesting portion of the creation.