Our Common Insects: A Popular Account of the Insects of Our Fields, Forests, Gardens and HousesPackard, A. S. (Alpheus Spring)
Science
Our Common Insects: A Popular Account of the Insects of Our Fields, Forests, Gardens and Houses
Packard, A. S. (Alpheus Spring)
Insects
Dr. C. C. Abbot gives us the following account of the swarming of a
species in New Jersey: "On the afternoon of Oct. 6th, at about 4 P. M.,
we were attracted to a part of the large yard surrounding our home, by a
multitude of large sized insects that filled the air, and appeared to
be of some unusual form of insect life, judging of them from a distance.
On closer inspection these creatures proved to be a brood of red ants
(Formica) that had just emerged from their underground home and were now
for the first time using their delicate wings. The sky, at the time, was
wholly overcast; the wind strong, southeast; thermometer 66º Fahr.
Taking a favorable position near the mass, as they slowly crawled from
the ground, up the blades of grass and stems of clover and small weeds,
we noted, first, that they seemed dazed, without any method in their
movements, save an ill-defined impression that they must go somewhere.
Again, they were pushed forward, usually by those coming after them,
which seemed to add to their confusion. As a brood or colony of insects,
their every movement indicated that they were wholly ill at ease.
"Once at the end of a blade of grass, they seemed even more puzzled as
to what to do. If not followed by a fellow ant, as was usually the case,
they would invariably fall down again to the earth, and sometimes repeat
this movement until a new comer joined in the ascent, when the
_uncertain_ individual would be forced to use his wings. This flight
would be inaugurated by a very rapid buzzing of the wings, as though to
dry them, or prove their owner's power over them, but which it is
difficult to say. After a short rest, the violent movement of the wings
would recommence, and finally losing fear, as it were, the ant would let
go his hold upon the blade of grass and rise slowly upwards. It could,
in fact, scarcely be called flight. The steady vibration of the wings
simply bore them upwards, ten, twenty or thirty feet, until they were
caught by a breeze, or by the steadier wind that was moving at an
elevation equal to the height of the surrounding pine and spruce trees.
So far as we were able to discover, their wings were of the same use to
them, in transporting them from their former home, that the 'wings' of
many seeds are, in scattering them; both are wholly at the mercy of the
winds.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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