Insects abroad : being a popular account of foreign insects, their structure, habits, and transformations . tom of these interesting insects) to last the young grub, whenhatched, until its maturity, • hand ignara ac non incauta her tail towards the hole, she scraped back a little heap ofdust; then turned, and with her head moved it about, that it INSECT INDUSTRY. 465 might fall to the bottom. Then she turned again and did thelike, repeating this procedure several times in succession. Atlength no more earth would go down, for the hole was full; shethen rammed it two or three times w
Insects abroad : being a popular account of foreign insects, their structure, habits, and transformations . tom of these interesting insects) to last the young grub, whenhatched, until its maturity, • hand ignara ac non incauta her tail towards the hole, she scraped back a little heap ofdust; then turned, and with her head moved it about, that it INSECT INDUSTRY. 465 might fall to the bottom. Then she turned again and did thelike, repeating this procedure several times in succession. Atlength no more earth would go down, for the hole was full; shethen rammed it two or three times with her head, and flewaway, leaving still, however, the situation of the orifice obviousenough. These insects work very fast in the soft dusty earth, for theyare indefatigable in their exertions. The bee is the recognisedsymbol of industry, but the labour of the bee is play comparedwith the efforts of the grave-digging Sphex. The rare and very remarkable insect which is here shown isa native of South America, and Avas captured by Mr. T. P. G-Smith at Pernambuco. Two specimens, male and female, are in. Fig. 244.—Stethorectus ingens.(Shining black.) the British Museum, and I believe that they are unique. Theillustration represents the male. There is a full and detaileddescription of the insect by Mr. F. Smith, in the Annals andMagazine of Natural History, vol. xx. p. 394. The chief characteristic of this species is the enormous lengthof the thorax, which is rounded in front and cut off abruptly II H 46<3 INSECTS ABKAD behind. It is covered with a moderately thick coating of long hairs. The abdomen is quite small, and is joined to the thoraxby a rather short and very slender footstalk. The head is large,and carries a pair of very powerful jaws, jetty black andshining. The legs are long and spiny, and in the male the endof the thigh is thickened into a knob, which is curiously benlinwards, and armed with several strong but blunt teeth. Thename Stethoredus, winch signifies le
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectinsects, bookyear1883
