Bulletin . vegetation. They are preyed upon by a host of predaceous enemies,as Phymata and Promachus; and parasites, including the flies Pron-tina, BracJiycoma, probably Coiiops, and the false bumblebee (Psithy-rus); their nests, moreover, form a habitation for a great variety ofinsects, mites, and other animals too numerous to be put in the dia-gram. These bees, then, on account of their large size, their large col-onies, and the large amount of concentrated food which they amass atthe nest, combine to make themselves attractive to a great number ofanimals, and become the hub of a busy microc
Bulletin . vegetation. They are preyed upon by a host of predaceous enemies,as Phymata and Promachus; and parasites, including the flies Pron-tina, BracJiycoma, probably Coiiops, and the false bumblebee (Psithy-rus); their nests, moreover, form a habitation for a great variety ofinsects, mites, and other animals too numerous to be put in the dia-gram. These bees, then, on account of their large size, their large col-onies, and the large amount of concentrated food which they amass atthe nest, combine to make themselves attractive to a great number ofanimals, and become the hub of a busy microcosm, an extensive com-munity of mutually interrelated kinds. The root-louse of grass, Schizoneura panicola Thos. (Forbes, 94,pp. 85-93), through the attention of several kinds of ants, Lasius nigeramericamts Emery, B. flaviis De G., B. interjectits Mayr, and Pormicaschaufussi Mayr, is cared for from the egg to the adult stage; theseants keep the plant-lice on fresh roots from which they suck their food. 121. 122 In return the ants secure honeydew and wax from the Hce. A closelyrelated aphid, Scln:;oneura corni Fabr. lives from September untilJune on the dogwood (Cornus), and from June until September on theroots of certain grasses (Forbes, 1. c, p. 89). This insect, upon theoriginal prairie, was probably an inhabitant of the forest margin, orlived near moist places where dogwoods abounded. (This point shouldbe determined at some favorable locality.) In such a complex, inter-woven community as that of the prairie it is immaterial where onetakes up the thread of relations, for if followed carefully withoutinterruption it will lead one about, from one animal to another suc-cessively, until the intimate life of every animal and plant in the com-munity has been reached, and influenced to some extent. Thus theanimals living in the soil, at the surface, and among the vegetation arebound together, not only by their changes of habitats, as when a sub-terranean maggot matures and becomes
Size: 1200px × 2082px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., booka, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectnaturalhistory
