Insect Architecture

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C. Knight, 1830 - 420 pages

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Page 8 - O ! would the Sons of Men once think their Eyes And Reason giv'n them but to study Flies! See Nature in some partial narrow shape, And let the Author of the Whole escape : Learn but to trifle; or, who most observe, To wonder at their Maker, not to serve!
Page 72 - Dog, whose excavations are so commodious as to render it unnecessary that our bird should dig for himself, as he is said to do in other parts of the world, where no burrowing animals exist.
Page 252 - This they perform breech foremost, by raising their hind parts, and forcing along the ball with their hind feet. Two or three of them are sometimes engaged in trundling one ball, which, from meeting with impediments on account of the unevenness of the ground, is sometimes deserted by them.
Page 62 - The interior surface of each cell consists of three pieces of leaf, of equal size, -narrow at one end, but gradually widening to the other, where the width equals half the length.
Page 55 - When she has in this manner hung the little chamber all round with this splendid scarlet tapestry, of which she is not sparing, but extends it even beyond the entrance, she then fills it with the pollen of flowers mixed with honey, to the height of about half an inch. In this magazine of provisions for her future progeny she lays an egg, and over it folds down the tapestry of poppy-petals from above.
Page 285 - ... nut. The animals themselves are very small, not more than half as big as the common red ant in England. They had stings, but scarcely force enough to make them felt : They had, however, a power of tormenting us in an equal, if not...
Page 285 - The sting was scarcely less painful than that of a bee ; but, except it was repeated, the pain did not last more than a minute. Another sort are quite black, and their operations and manner of life are not less extraordinary. Their habitations are the inside of the branches of a tree, which they contrive to excavate by working out the pith almost to the extremity of the slenderest twig ; the tree at the same time flourishing, .as if it had no such inmate.
Page 355 - ... aim; but if it chanced to want anything of being perfectly opposite, would, at first peep, immediately slide down again, — till taking better notice, it would come the next time exactly upon the fly's back : but if this happened not to be within a competent leap, then would this insect move so softly, as the very shadow of the gnomon seemed not to be more imperceptible, unless the fly moved ; and then would the spider move also in the same proportion, keeping that just time with her motion,...
Page 247 - To ascertain the cause, he placed a mole upon one of the beds in his garden. It had vanished by the third morning ; and, on digging where it had been laid, he found it buried to the depth of three inches, and under it four beetles, which seemed to have been the agents in this singular inhumation. Not perceiving...
Page 73 - They are composed of slightly-elevated mounds, having the form of a truncated cone, about two feet in width at base, and seldom rising as high as eighteen inches above the surface of the soil. The entrance is placed either at the top or on the side, and the whole mound is beaten down externally, especially at the summit, resembling a much-used footpath.

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