Nature's Teachings: Human Invention Anticipated by NatureWood, J. G. (John George)
History
Nature's Teachings: Human Invention Anticipated by Nature
Wood, J. G. (John George)
Inventions; Natural history
THE female of the familiar Daddy Long-legs (_Tipula_) acts in a similar
manner. She is furnished with an ovipositor too short to be used like
that of the grasshopper, and so she attains her object in a rather
different manner. Making use of her long stilt-like legs, she sets
herself nearly upright, with the point of the ovipositor in the ground.
She then twists herself from side to side, just after the principle of
the bradawl, and so proceeds until she has made a hole large enough for
her purpose. The blades of the ovipositor are then separated, and the
egg placed in the hole, as has been described of the grasshopper.
* * * * *
THE upper figure represents one of the large Ichneumon-flies depositing
the egg in the grub of some wood-inhabiting larva. How she bores the
hole has already been described when treating of Boring Tools, and the
process need not again be discussed. The principal point at present is,
that after the hole is bored, an egg can pass between the blades of the
ovipositor, though they are but little thicker than human hairs.
One of the most extraordinary instances of this kind of ovipositor is
found in an Ichneumon-fly brought from Bogotá. The body, from the head
to the end of the tail, is not quite an inch long, while the ovipositor
is six inches and a half in length, and scarcely thicker than that of
the insect whose portrait is given in the illustration. Nothing is as
yet known of its habits, so that the object of this wonderfully long
ovipositor is a mystery. But that it should be used like other
ovipositors is evident enough, and the chief wonder is, what are the
mechanical means whereby an egg can be propelled between blades so long
and slender.
There is a genus of Ichneumon-flies called Pelecinus. They deposit their
eggs in wood-boring larvæ, and we might imagine that the ovipositor
would be a long one. It is, however, extremely short, and the requisite
length is obtained by the form of the abdomen, the joints of which are
so long and narrow that they almost look as if they had passed through a
wire-drawing machine, the length of the head and throat being
three-eighths of an inch, and that of the abdomen an inch and a half.
This long abdomen belongs only to the female, that of the male being
short and club-shaped.
USEFUL ARTS.
CHAPTER III.
CLOTH-DRESSING.--BRUSHES AND COMBS.--BUTTONS, HOOKS AND EYES, AND CLASP.
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