Studies in Entomology; A Practical Work on Insects, Containing Suggestions and Outlines for Nature-Study in School Work (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1899. Excerpt: ... X. THE MEMBRANE WINGS. Ants, Bees, and Wasps. Hymenoptera have four membranous wings, with few crossveins, the hind pair being the smaller. The females have on the tip of the abdomen a sting or piercer, or a saw. The mouth isfurnished both with mandibles and with a sucking or lapping apparatus. The insect passes through the typical four stages of development; viz., the egg, the larva, the pupa, and the imago. The following pages deal with bees, ants, and wasps. The literal meaning of the word hymenoptera is membrane-wing. A colony of ants may be kept in captivity in a nest made as follows: Take two panes of thin window-glass, each about ten inches square, place one on the other, separating the two such a distance as will just allow the ant which you wish to capture to walk between. Do not get the distance too great. Put strips of wood around the edges between the two to hold the panes in place. Leave the strip of wood on one side loose. Fill the space between the panes with fine damp mold, and place the whole in a shallow, tight box. Cover the box with glass, putting a strip of baize between the glass and the wood. The baize will not allow the ants to escape, yet it will allow sufficient air to passthrough to keep them alive and healthy. Dig up a nest of ants, taking the earth with it, so as to disturb as little as possible the nest and its contents. Place the lump of earth containing the nest in the box upon the glass nest which you have prepared, and put on the glass cover. Asthelump of earth dries remove it little by little. Soon the ants will leave it and tunnel out a new nest between the panes of glass. They will carry into the new nest all their stores and their young--the eggs, the larvae, and the pupae. Soon the old nest may be all removed, leavin...