Allow that the great duty of the insect tribe is to
cleanse the earth and atmosphere from countless impurities
noxious to the human race, how great a plague would our
benefactors themselves become were it not for the various classes
of carnivorous insects who prey upon them, and are in their turn
the prey of others! It is a grand principle of continual strife,
which keeps all and each down to their required level.
What a feast for an observant mind is thus afforded in a tropical
country! The variety and the multitude of living things are so
great that a person of only ordinary observation cannot help
acquiring a tolerable knowledge of the habits of some of the most
interesting classes. In the common routine of daily life they
are continually in his view, and even should he have no taste for
the study of Nature and her productions, still one prevailing
characteristic of the insect tribe must impress itself upon his
mind. It is the natural instinct not simply of procreating their
species, but of laying by a provision for their expected
offspring. What a lesson to mankind! what an example to the
nurtured mind of mail from one of the lowest classes of living
things!
Here we see no rash matrimonial engagements; no penniless lovers
selfishly and indissolubly linked together to propagate large
families Of starving children. Ail the arrangements of the
insect tribe, though prompted by sheer instinct are conducted
with a degree of rationality that in some cases raises the mere
instinct of the creeping thing above the assumed "reason" of man.
The bird builds her nest and carefully provides for the comfort
of her young long ere she lays her fragile egg. Even look at
that vulgar-looking beetle, whose coarse form would banish the
idea of any rational feeling existing in its brain - the
Billingsgate fish-woman of its tribe in coarseness and rudeness
of exterior (Scarabaeus carnifex) - see with what quickness she
is running backward, raised almost upon her head, while with her
bind legs she trundles a large ball; herself no bigger than a
nutmeg, the ball is four times the size. There she goes along the
smooth road. The ball she has just manufactured from some
fresh-dropped horse-dung; it is as round as though turned by a
lathe, and, although the dung has not lain an hour upon the
ground, she and her confederates have portioned out the spoil,
and each has started off with her separate ball. Not a particle
of horsedung remains upon the road. Now she has rolled the ball
away from the hard road, and upon the soft, sandy border she has
stopped to rest. No great amount of rest; she plunges her head
into the ground, and with that shovel-like projection of stout
horn she mines her way below: she has disappeared even in these
few seconds.
Presently the apparently deserted ball begins to move, as though
acted on by some subterranean force; gradually it sinks to the
earth, and it vanishes altogether.
Some persons might imagine that she feeds upon the ordure, and
that she has buried her store as a dog hides a bone; but this is
not the case; she has formed a receptacle for her eggs, which she
deposits in the ball of dung, the warmth of which assists in
bringing the larvae into life, which then feed upon the manure.
It is wonderful to observe with what rapidity all kinds of dung
are removed by these beetles. This is effected by the active
process of rolling the loads instead of carrying, by which method
a large mass is transported at once.
The mason-fly is also a ball-maker, but she carries her load and
builds an elaborate nest. This insect belongs to the order
"Hymenoptera," and is of the Ichneumon tribe, being a variety of
upward of four hundred species of that interesting fly.
The whole tribe of Ichneumon are celebrated for their courage; a
small fly will not hesitate to attack the largest cockroach, who
evinces the greatest terror at sight of his well-known enemy; but
the greatest proof of valor in a fly is displayed in the war of
the ichneumon against the spider.
There is a great variety of this insect in Ceylon, from the large
black species, the size of the hornet down to the minute
tinsel-green fly, no bigger than a gnat; but every one of these
different species wages perpetual war against the arch enemy of
flies.
In very dry weather in some districts, when most pools and
water-holes are dried up, a pail of water thrown upon the ground
will as assuredly attract a host of mason-flies as carrion will
bring together "blow-flies." They will be then seen in excessive
activity upon the wet earth, forming balls of mud, by rolling the
earth between their fore feet until they have manufactured each a
pill. With this they fly away to build their nest, and
immediately return for a further supply.
The arrangement of the nest is a matter of much consideration, as
the shape depends entirely upon the locality in which it is
built: it may be in the corner of a room, or in a hole in a wall,
or in the hollow of a bamboo; but wherever it is, the principle
is the same, although the shape of the nest may vary. Everything
is to be hermetically sealed.
The mason-fly commences by flattening the first pill of clay upon
the intended site (say the corner of a room); she then spreads it
in a thin layer over a surface of about two inches, and retires
for another ball of clay. This she dabs upon the plastic
foundation, and continues the apparently rude operation until
some twenty or thirty pills of clay are adhering at equal
distances. She then forms these into a number of neat
oval-shaped cells, about the size of a wren's egg, and in each
cell she deposits one egg.
