. Popular science monthly. ?TJ3EFCrL TO THE SPORTSMAN. his horse after him as if he were clambering through a in an African forest not a fallen branch is seen. One is struck atfirst by a certain clean look about the great forests of the interior, anovel and unaccountable cleanness, as if the forest-bed was carefullyswept and dusted daily by unseen elves. And so, indeed, it is. Scav-engers of a hundred kinds remove decaying animal matter—from thecarcass of the fallen elephant to the broken wing of a gnat—eating it,or carrying it out of sight, and burying it in the deodorizing eart
. Popular science monthly. ?TJ3EFCrL TO THE SPORTSMAN. his horse after him as if he were clambering through a in an African forest not a fallen branch is seen. One is struck atfirst by a certain clean look about the great forests of the interior, anovel and unaccountable cleanness, as if the forest-bed was carefullyswept and dusted daily by unseen elves. And so, indeed, it is. Scav-engers of a hundred kinds remove decaying animal matter—from thecarcass of the fallen elephant to the broken wing of a gnat—eating it,or carrying it out of sight, and burying it in the deodorizing these countless millions of termites perform a similar function forthe vegetable world, making away with all plants and trees, all stems, THE WHITE ANT: A THEORY. 745. Pig. 3.—«, tunnel; ft, earth; c, shreds of outer bark;d, remains of branch. twigs, and tissues, the moment the finger of decay strikes the in these woods one comes across what appear to be sticksand branches and bundles of fagots, but when closely examined theyare seen to be mere casts in mud. From these hollow tubes, whichpreserve the original form of the branch down to the minutest knot orfork, the ligneous tissue is often entirely removed, while others are metwith in all stages of is the section (Fig, 3) ofan actual specimen which is notyet completely destroyed, andfrom which the mode of attackmay be easily seen. The insectsstart apparently from two cen-ters. One company attacks theinner bark, which is the favoritemorsel, leaving the coarse outerbark untouched, or more usu-ally replacing it with grains ofearth atom by atom as theyeat it away. The inner bark isgnawed off likewise as they goalong, but the woody tissue beneath is allowed to remain
Size: 1681px × 1487px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, booksubjectscience, bookyear1872
