The Insect World: Being a Popular Account of the Orders of Insects

'.74 * "L'Insecte.".

America to Paris, probably in some old piece of wood which happened to be on the vessel, caused great terror to the inhabitants of the Faubourg St. Antoine, when they saw it flying in the evening, glittering in the air. In 1864 a number of Cucuyos were brought from Mexico to Paris by M. Laurent, captain of the frigate La Floride. An experiment, made in the laboratory of the Ecole Normale, showed that the spectrum of their light is continuous, without any black rays; it differs, besides, from the spectrum of the solar light by a greater intensity of the yellow colour. The light is produced probably, as it is in the case of the Lampyris, by the slow combustion

Fig. 554. The Cucuyo (Pyrophorus noctilucus).

Fig. 555. Buprestis (Cyria) imperialis.

of a substance secreted by the animal. The Cucuyo can, nevertheless, at will, increase or diminish the splendour of this light by means of membranes which it superposes, like screens, in front of the phosphorescent bumps which it has on its thorax.

In the Indies, and in China, the women use for dressing their hair with, or as ear-rings, another Coleopteron of the same tribe, which begins even to be employed for this purpose by the women of the south of France. It is a Buprestis, of splendid colours, and of metallic brightness. Linnæus gave to it, wrongly, the name of Buprestis, which among the ancients served to designate a very different insect, the Meloë, of the family of the Cantharidæ; but modern naturalists have allowed this illegitimate title.

The Buprestidæ walk heavily, but fly with the greatest ease during the heat of the sun, and settle on the trunks of trees exposed to its

fays. In Europe, and especially in the North, they are very rare, and of very small size. They must be looked for on birch-trees, whose white colour seems to attract them. In the hottest parts of the world they are very abundant, of large dimensions, and adorned with sparkling colours. They do not jump, and are not endowed with the phosphorescent property. Their larvae have no legs, are elongate, whitish, of a fleshy consistency, with the first ring of their bodies very much broadened. They live in the trunks of trees, between the bark and the wood, hollowing out for themselves irregular galleries, and remaining sometimes in this state for ten years before metamorphosing. Laporte de Castelnau and Gory have described and made drawings of about 1,300 species of Buprestidce. Fig. 555 represents the Buprestis imperialis. The Buprestis albosparsa^ the genera Julodis, the Chrysochroas, and the Trachys belong also to the great family of BnprestidcB. The C/eridcB are connected with the preceding. They have the thorax narrower than the elytra, and rather long; their integuments are less solid than those of the Elateridce and the Buprestidce. The latter are phytophagous, the former carnivorous. The principal type of this family is the Clerus formicarius^ russet, with the head and legs black, whose larva lives at the expense of the larvae of the weevil. Another genus, the Necrobia, which lives on dried animal matter, has become celebrated, as it was the cause of the salvation of the greatest entomologist of France. The name of Necrobia (from viKp6s and fiios) does not mean " which lives on dead bodies/' but it means " life in death." Here is the story of which this name is destined to preserve the remembrance, and which Latreille himself has related in his

"Histoire des Insectes." Before 1792, Latreille was known only from some memoirs which he had published on insects. He was then priest at Brives-la-Gaillarde, and was arrested with the cures of Limousin, who had not taken the oath. These unfortunates were then taken to Bordeaux in carts, to be transported to Guiana. Arrived at Bordeaux in the month of June, they were incarcerated in the prison of the Grand Seminaire till a ship should be ready to take them on board. In the meanwhile, the 9th Thermidor arrived, and caused to be suspended for a while the execution of the sentence which condemned to transportation the priests who had not taken the oath. However, the prisons emptied themselves but slowly, and those who had been condemned had none the less to go into exile, only their transportation had been put off till the spring.

Latreille remained detained at the prison of the Grand Se'mi-' naire. In the same chamber which he occupied there was at the

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time an old sick bishop, whose wounds a surgeon came each morning anto dress.insect cameOne dayout asofthea surgeoncrack inwasthedressingboards.theLatreillebishop's seizedwounds,it immediately, examined it, stuck it on a cork with a pin, and seemed enchanted at what he had found.

" Is it a rare insect, then?'* said the surgeon. " Yes," replied the ecclesiastic. " In that case you should give it to me." " Why?" " Because I have a friend who has a fine collection of insects, who would be pleased with it." " Very well, take him this insect; tell him how you came by it, and beg him to tell me its name."

I'he surgeon went quickly to his friend's house. This friend was Bory de Saint Vincent, a naturalist who became celebrated afterwards, but who was very young at that time. He already occupied himself much with the natural sciences, and in particular I with the classing of insects. The surgeon delivered to him the one found by the priest, but in spite of all his researches, he was unable to class it. Next day the surgeon having seen Latreille again in his prison, was obliged to confess to him that in his friend's opinion this Coleopteron had never been described. Latreille knew by this answer that Bory de Saint Vincent was an adept. As they gave the prisoner neither pen nor paper, he said to his messenger, "I see plainly that M. Bory de Saint Vincent must know my name. You tell him that I am the Abbe Latreille, and that I am going to die at Guiana, before having published my 'Exaraen des Genres de Fabridus.'" Bory, on receiving this piece of news, took active steps, and obtained leave for Latreille to come out of his prison, as a convalescent, his uncle Dayclas and his father being bail for him, and pledging themselves formally to deliver up the prisoner the moment they were summoned to do so by the authorities. The vessel which was to have conducted Latreille to exile, or rather to death, was getting ready whilst these steps were being taken, and while Bory and Dayclas were obtaining leave for him to come out of prison. This was quite providential, for it foundered in sight of Cordova, and the sailors alone were able to save themselves. A little time afterwards his friends managed to have his name scratched out from the list of exiles. It is thus that the Nccrobia rujicollis was the saving of Latreille,,, „

COLEOPTERA. %\J

The tribe of weevils is even much more numerous than that of the ElateridcB and the Buprestidce. One may know them by their head prolonged into a snout or trunk, by their rudimentary mouth, and by their elbowed antennae. About twenty thousand species are said to exist. They feed on vegetables. Their larvae are soft, whitish worms, without legs, with very small heads, and live in the

interior of the stalks or seeds of plants, often occasioning ' enormous damage. They are one of the plagues of agriculture. Each of our dry vegetables, each variety of our cereals, has in this immense family its particular enemy. First are the Bruchi. The Pea Weevil (Bruchns pisi, Fig. 556), which is brown with white spots, comes out of the pea at the end of the summer. The female lays her eggs on peas which are ripe, and still standing, in which the larva scoops out a habitation, and then

V\g. 556.— Pea Weevil {Bruckns pisi), magnified. Fig. 557.— Pea pierced by the larva.

makes its exit by a circular hole (Fig. 557). It remains at rest all the winter, and is not hatched till towards the following spring. The Bean Weevil {Bruchiis rHfi7nanus) marks each bean with many black spots. The vetch has also its special Briichus. The Wheat Weevil {Calandra granarid)^ of a darkish brown, lays its eggs on the grains, of which the larvae then eat the interior. A host of ways of getting rid of the weevil have been proposed. The best means is to store corn properly, and to keep the heap well aired. Let us mention further, the Clover Weevil, belonging to the genus Apion^ the Weevil of the Rape [Ceutoi'hynchus h'assicce), the Turnip Weevil, &c., &c.

All vegetables, the vine, fruit trees, the ash, pines, &c., are eaten by some weevil or other. As an example we give a figure of the spotted Fissodes pint, which, as the figure shows, takes the precaution of cutting half through the young stems and the stalks of the buds of the pine, " so that," says Maurice Girard,* " the sap shall flow

• “Métamorphoses des Insectes,” p. 116.

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only with difficulty into the withered organ, and cannot suffocate the young larvae." Scolytus^ Hylesi7ius^ and Bostrichus^ which are connected with the

Fig. 558.— Pissodes pini.

Fig' 559.— Hylesinus piniperda. Fig. 560.— Larva of Scolytus.

weevils, hollow out galleries between the wood and the bark of different trees, when in the larva state, and devour the leaves in the adult state. Fig. 559 represents the Hylesinus piniperda. The Scolyti^ are sometimes so numerous in the forests, that the trees are tattooed all over by the larvae. In 1837, they were obliged to cut down, in the Bois:de Yincennes, 20,000 feet of oak trees, aged

from thirty to forty years, completely ruined by the ravages of the Scolytus, whose larva is here represented (Fig. 560). The genus Tomicus, hairy, and of a tawny colour, is a terrible plague to pine forests. In 1783, in the Forest of Hartz, 1,500,000 trees were destroyed by these insects. Often have the priests implored, in the churches, the Divine clemency, to put an end to the devastations made by them. We arrive at the tribe of the Longkorns, which contains beautiful

Fig. 561.— Imago and pupa of Cerambyx hercs.

insects, of elegant shape and varied colours, sometimes also of rathei large dimensions. The genus Cerambyx has the antennae very long; they exceed in some of the species two or three times the length of the body. The larvae are large whitish worms, which live in the wood of trees, the Sbdult insects frequenting flowers, rotten trees, &c. In the month of June, on the Continent, one meets on the oaks with the Great C2i^ncom {Cerambyx heros, Fig. 561), of a dark brown, whose larva (Fig. 562) scoops out its galleries in the interior of the tree, and Qfteti occasions much damage.