Essays on the Microscope: Containing a Practical Description of the Most Improved Microscopes, a General History of Insects, etc., etc.Adams, George
Science
Essays on the Microscope: Containing a Practical Description of the Most Improved Microscopes, a General History of Insects, etc., etc.
Adams, George
Insects -- Early works to 1800; Microscopy -- Early works to 1800
In the winged state, their size as well as form is altered. Their bodies
in this state measure between six and seven-tenths of an inch in length,
their wings above two inches and an half from tip to tip, and they are
equal in bulk to about thirty labourers, or two soldiers. They are
furnished with two large eyes placed on each side of the head; if they
had any before, they are not easily to be distinguished. In this form
the animal comes abroad during or soon after the first tornado, which at
the latter end of the dry season proclaims the approach of the ensuing
rains, and seldom waits for a second or third shower; if the first, as
is generally the case, happen in the night, and bring much wet after it,
the quantities that are to be found the next morning all over the
surface of the earth, but particularly on the waters, is astonishing;
for their wings are only calculated to carry them a few hours; and after
the rising of the sun, not one in a thousand is to be found with four
wings, unless the morning continues rainy, when here and there a
solitary being is seen winging its way from one place to another, as if
solicitous to avoid its numerous enemies, particularly various species
of ants, which are hunting on every spray, on every leaf, and in every
possible place for this unhappy race, of which probably not one pair in
many millions are preserved to fulfil the first law of nature, and lay
the foundation of a new community. Not only all kinds of ants, and other
insects, but birds, and carnivorous reptiles, are upon the hunt for
them, and the inhabitants of many countries eat them.
From one of the most active, industrious, and rapacious; from one of the
most fierce and implacable little animals in the world, they are in this
state changed into an innocent helpless insect, incapable of making the
least resistance to the smallest ant. The ants are to be seen on every
side in infinite numbers, of various species and sizes, dragging these
annual victims to their different nests. Some are however so fortunate
as to escape, and be discovered by the labouring insects that are
continually running about the surface of the ground under their covered
galleries, the little industrious creatures immediately inclose them in
a small chamber of clay, suitable to their size, into which at first
they leave but one small entrance, only large enough for themselves and
the soldiers to go in and out, but necessity obliges them to make more
entrances. The voluntary subjects charge themselves with the task of
providing for the offspring of their sovereigns, as well as to work and
to fight for them, until they shall have raised a progeny capable at
least of dividing the task with them.
The business of propagation soon commences; and the labourers having
constructed a small wooden nursery, hereafter to be described, carry the
eggs and lodge them there as fast as they can obtain them from the
queen.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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