Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 26, 2025
Soon on the sleeper's body lies a nascent grub which feasts in all security on the luscious fare. The traitors who attack the larvae in their lethargy are three in number: an Anthrax, a Leucopsis and a microscopic dagger-wearer. For this and the Anthrax, cf. "The Life of the Fly": chapters 2 and 3.
Finally, it may not be a logical deduction, but to my imagination it is far more satisfactory to look at such instincts as the young cuckoo ejecting its foster-brothers, ants making slaves, the larvae of ichneumonidæ feeding within the live bodies of caterpillars, not as specially endowed or created instincts, but as small consequences of one general law, leading to the advancement of all organic beings, namely, multiply, vary, let the strongest live and the weakest die.
When the Ascidia-larva has attained this stage of development it begins to move about in the ovolemma. This causes the membrane to burst. The larva emerges from it, and swims about in the sea by means of its oar-like tail. These free-swimming larvae of the Ascidia have been known for a long time. They were first observed by Darwin during his voyage round the world in 1833.
This ant is absolutely dependent on its slaves; without their aid, the species would certainly become extinct in a single year. The males and fertile females do no work. The workers or sterile females, though most energetic and courageous in capturing slaves, do no other work. They are incapable of making their own nests, or of feeding their own larvae.
They are all open but still fresh: they date from the present generation; the Scoliae whom I unearth have quitted them not long since. I learnt later, in fact, that the hatching took place in the course of July. In the same heap of mould is a swarming colony of Scarabaeidae in the form of larvae, nymphs and adult insects.
And the numbers of eggs, and larvae, and of the lurking tenants of crevices in tree-bark and dead wood, may be guessed by the incessant and assuredly not aimless activity of the chickadees and gold-crests and their associates. This winter activity of the birds ought to be taken into account by those who accuse them of mischief-doing in summer.
They abound on the outer surface of the wasps' nest. Moreover, as with the larvae of the wasp, it is some time before they are suffocated by the petroleum fumes; and so most of them are sure to hatch. I take my scissors, cut the most densely populated bits from the paper wall of the nest and fill a jar with them.
The young sovereign then had to endure a long and grave discourse from a fat drone bee who did not understand himself. Ere long the little queen learned that her empire was in danger. Dreadful enemies menaced the frontiers. "They are spiders," said the flies. "They are the larvae of the rose bushes," said the grubs. "They are the ichneumons," cried a crowd of winged insects.
If you know the lily, you may name as a Crioceris the tiny scarlet Scarabaeid that inhabits it and peoples its leaves with larvae which keep themselves cool beneath an overcoat of ordure. "The Glow-worm and Other Beetles," by J. Henri Fabre, translated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos: chapters 16 and 17.
Before I finish with C. imperialis, I must mention a peculiar fact. During the first stage, and, I think, also during the second, several larvae disappeared without leaving any traces. I also saw two smaller larvae held tight by the hind claspers of two larger ones. The larvae thus held and pressed were perfectly dead when I observed them, and I removed them.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking