A Familiar Introduction to the History of Insects;: Being a New and Greatly Improved Edition of The Grammar of Entomology

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John Van Voorst, 1841 - Entomology - 288 pages

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Page 197 - Were we to press, inferior might on ours; Or in the full creation leave a void, Where, one step broken, the great scale's destroy'd: From Nature's chain whatever link you strike, Tenth, or ten thousandth, breaks the chain alike. And if each system in gradation roll, Alike essential to th' amazing whole, The least confusion but in one, not all "That system only, but the whole must fall.
Page xv - Learn of the mole to plough, the worm to weave; Learn of the little nautilus to sail, Spread the thin oar, and catch the driving gale. Here too all forms of social union find, And hence let Reason, late, instruct mankind: Here subterranean works and cities see ; There towns aerial on the waving tree. Learn each small people's genius, policies, The ants...
Page 28 - For this purpose they sheath or draw back the hooks almost entirely within the skin, until the two points come close to each other. They then present them to the membrane, and, keeping them parallel till it is pierced through, they expand them in a lateral direction, and...
Page 62 - These apartments compose an intricate labyrinth, which extends a foot or more in diameter from the royal chamber on every side. Here the nurseries and magazines of provisions begin ; and, being separated by small empty chambers and galleries, which surround them, and communicate with each other...
Page 65 - The third order, or the insect in its perfect state, varies its form still more than ever. The head, thorax, and abdomen, differ almost entirely from the same parts in the labourers and soldiers; and, besides this, the animal is now furnished with four fine large brownish transparent wings, with which it is at the time of emigration to wing its way in search of a new settlement.
Page 27 - ... ripe, after which time the slightest application of warmth and moisture is sufficient to bring forth, in an instant, the latent larva. At this time, if the tongue of the horse touches the egg, its operculum is thrown open, and a small active worm is produced, which readily adheres to the moist surface of the tongue, and is from thence conveyed with the food to the stomach.
Page 58 - Africa, that it is scarcely possible to stand upon any open place, such as a rice- plantation or other clear spot, where one or more of these buildings is not to be seen within fifty paces. In some parts near Senegal, as mentioned by Adanson, their number, magnitude, and closeness of situation, make them appear like the villages of the natives.
Page 54 - The burying-beetles hunt in couples, male and female ; and when six or eight are found in a large animal, they are almost sure to be males and females, in equal numbers : they hunt by scent only, the chase being mostly performed when no other sense would be very available, viz., in the night. When they have found a bird, great comfort is expressed by the male, who wheels round and round above it, like an eagle, — the female settles on it at once, without this testimonial of satisfaction ; the male...
Page 131 - Contrivance intricate, express'd with ease, Where unassisted sight no beauty sees, The shapely limb and lubricated joint, Within the small dimensions of a point, Muscle and nerve miraculously spun, His mighty work, who speaks and it is done, The invisible in things scarce seen reveal'd, To whom an atom is an ample field...
Page 64 - ... is flat on the upper surface, and half an inch wide, and ascends gradually like a staircase, or like those roads which are cut on the sides of hills and mountains, that would otherwise be inaccessible: by which, and similar contrivances, they travel with great facility to every interior part. ' " This too is probably the cause of their building a kind of bridge of one vast arch, which answers the purpose of a flight of stairs from the floor of the area to some opening on the side of one of the...

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