THE INSECT WORLD

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 29 September 1928, Page 7

THE INSECT WORLD

| A PIONEER’S OBSERVATIONS. I HABITS AND APPEARANCES OF. NATIVE SPECIMENS. (By “Old Timer.’') Having no book on the .subject or access to any collection of insects, the writer is dependent entirely on liis own observation and memory for the following notes, which to those in a similar position may prove interesting, especially as since his .observations many or the insects noted' have been exterminated and others nearly so by the depredations of introduced birds. In a moderate climate such as ours it is not surprising that few poisonous insects are found, and the bites or stings of these are probably negligible if the victim’s blood is in good order. Deaths have occurred from the bite of the katipo, a small, dullish black spider with a red spot on its back. This spider is mostly found under stones on our beaches. ’I he mosquito, which makes life almost unbearable to some in then* season, the bites causing swelling which causes temporary blindness, to others have no after effects. These little pests are becoming increasingly scarce along the coast, the reason* being the clearing of dark forests, draining of swamps, etc. The larva of the mosquito cannot live except in stagnant water. These tadpoles require to come to the surface at short intervals to breathe, and it was by roason of this necessity that a. method of oonti*olling mosquitos in tropical climates, notably at Panama, was discovered. Owing to the insects carrying the germs of malaria fever at was* impossible for Europeans to live in that region until the lakes and swamps were sprayed with oil and the tadpoles were destroyed. But for this discovery it is probable the Panama Canal could never have been i built. The sand fly (nainu) tormented the early settlers exceedingly. They were in myriads, and made work near the ground almost impossible. These greedy little pests punctured the skin and sucked blood to such an extent as to be quite unable to fly- and. unlike the mosquito, after the withdrawal of the proboscis the blood continued to flow from the wound in considerable quantities. Happily, these tormentors arc now rarely seen in these parts. There are many other insects which will bite or sting in defence of their lives or property. One of these is the ichneumon fly, which is about threequarters of an inch long and of a bright red colour, with a glittering splash of gold on the wings. This fly is exceedingly hard and wiry. If you grind it into hard ground with your heel it will rise like a spring and sting you in half a dozen places in as many seconds, and their sting is the most painful of all our insects. There are several varieties of wasps, one of the most interesting being the mason wasp, so called from its habit of building cells of clay in many strange places, such as the folds of •oats and umbrellas, and even gun barrels. As the cells are completed three .spiders are placed in each and the eggs laid. While this is being done the wasp keeps up a loud I buzzing, and the vibration, in the j writer’s opinion.' paralysing: but not killing the spiders, they' provide fresh food for the grub* when hatched. Bruce was not the only man to receive insniration from a humble insect, and it may he that the mason wasp has a lesson to teach valuable to the commercial or surgical world. BEETLES. A '.small grey beetle once was common on garden paths. It- was carnivorous." and could jump some distance to seize its prey. The said paths at that time were mostly of clay, and on walking on them you would observe as you advanced that what looked like* a plain surface suddenly became studded with small holes. On closer and very cautions inspection farther on the heads of the larva of the grey beetle are seen filling other holes. These larva are of a bright metallic hue. no doubt designed to attract small insects, which are seized ‘by its sharp jaws. Children used to aimise them selves anjd at the same time' indulge their cruel instincts by lowering stems of grass or clover into the holes, which on sudden . .withdrawal would frequently land the poor grub on the path, it having stuck its nippers into the stem. The writer has no knowledge of the insect of which the so-called glow worm is the larva, but as the two grubs are identical 'ill appearance and use similar methods in attracting mey it is probably a beetle resembling that described above. Both grubs are quite helpless when removed from their holes, hut ca.n more up and down in them with lightning celerity. A curious beetle, said to belong to the mite family, is found in numbers on dead wood, mostly town trees. The male, whr-h is about two inches long. ha« a long, jet black, highly* polished uer-k He bores in the wood, in which flic female deposits her eggs. They do no harm to living or timber trees. THE LARGEST BEETLE. Our largest beetle is probably the hnhu, which is some times nearly three inches long and three-quarters of an inch wide. It flies about in the evening with a loud booming noise which frightens nervous folk, hut is otherwise harmless. Jt is oi a light brown colour. Its larva, which grows lo the size of a. man’s little finger, is found in decaying wood. These grubs, which are of a nice creamy colour, look very tempting, and are counted a delicacy by our Maori friends, but have rarely he-oi sampled as an article of food by Europeans. Britishers, at all events, have an unconquerable prejudice against any food* their forbears did not eat. and although they will eat ©voters. periwinkles, and such like, alive or dead, they pretend to be horrified at the thought of snails or grubs as food, and the writer may say lie is with them every time. Of the two beetles which are responsible lor the grass grub pest, one is the size, shape and colour of a roasted coffee berry. It is of nocturnal habits. The other and far more numerous variety is much smaller. Thev* are of a bright - green colour, varied with occasional specimens of rod. yellow, or brown. “Old Timer” has elsewhere ventured to poke fun at the Department of Agriculture and others for their suggestions to farmers that they pursue the lively grul> with steam rollers and other engines of destruction. when he could do far more good in his garden by destroying a fen* beetles before they lav their eggs. A much larger variety found in the bush, about ope inch long and of stotit build, and ease wings of shining green, closely resembles tlie sacred Egyptian Scarab, but is not so ugly. All these beetles am winged, but do

l oot take to flight readily, dropping to the ground when disturbed. j A curious beetle is the jumping jack, -which is furnished with a hinge I in its middle, and when by some J mischance it finds itself on its hack and unable to regain its feet it | doubles back and then lets go with j an audible snap, and thus is thrown some inches into the air, and comes down sooner or later right side up. Another plump little beetle has, no doubt for some perfectly good reason, stout hut sharp spikes projecting from its body. We have a family of beetles which, humanly speaking, we could have very well done without. The largest of the group is the “black beetle,” or ‘Maori hug.” It is very numerous, particularly in North Taranaki. Un- j like most insects it has no intermediate existence, the tiny beetle emerging directly from the egg. The latter resembles a brown carpet bag in miniature, but without the handles. The beetle grows to about one inch long, being broad, flat and wingless. This bug has the power, when annoyed. of ejecting to some distance a fluid with the most appalling stench. In the old days of thatched or shingled and unceiled houses a black beetle would occasionally drop from the roof among the family circle, and .had to be hunted for and carried by one of ..its long antenna and dropped into the fire. o,ncc, when a hoy. “Old Timer” was performing this duty, and got some of the “juice” in the eve. causing him considerable pain. The intolerable smell made some women violently sick. These, bugs are otherwise harmless, and live on decaying wood, such as the surfaces of boards or shingles, the beetles finding* the latter a convenient hiding: place. Once, when baching in a. shingled wliare, we obtained a bullock’s'heart, which we hung at the eaves of the wliare. In the evening we stuffed and roasted it for next day’s dinner. It was quite nice. When the carver came to the end of the cavity he found nearly a cupful of these interesting beetles, which had been imprisoned there. There was no objectionable smell or taste, and we suffered no upheavals or ill-effects. The next in size of this smelly group is shaped curiously like a shield. Tt is rare and unobtrusive. The last member is again much smaller, being less than -one Quarter of an inch, long and narrow. Tt is often found* in lettuces and in soft fruits, and so* sometimes fiudis its way into the human mouth, where, to put it mildly, it makes itself very unpleasant. The last two beetles are winged and brown in colour. The cicada was once very numerous, and 1 on a summer’s ( day would fill the air with an almost deafening noise sounding something like “cieekettv, creeketty. crick,” followed by a sharp tap, this last being caused by the insect striking the wood, on which it stands with the > edge of its stout wings. Tlie larva of the cicada is often unearthed by t spade or plough, and is furnished . with legs but no wings. It crawls up . the nearest tree, and presently its j outer ease splits down the back, and i the perfect insect emerges, leaving its , shell to hang on for an indefinite , perod. looking much like a live , cicada. They make chevron shaped j notches in the young bark of trees, in . which they lay* their eggs. but these notches soon grow up without harm- ] ins the tree. Just 'before the Waimate Plains were opened for settle- < ineut. and after introduced birds had lieconie established, the writer, when j walking through the numerous little glades, once Maori gardens, which, being surrounded; by ngaio and other trees growing in the scrub belt, formed ideal spots for, the cicada, noticed that the short grass was al- j most cntirelv covered by tlie glistening wings of these insects, which bad 1 been destroyed by one or other of . these pestilent birds. It was a pretty ‘ hut melancholy sight for one who , had loved 1 his adopted country and all < that had been therein. SPIDERS. ‘ Oi' the many varieties of spiders so f hated by our womenfolk few are of a i harmful nature. The large house i spider is admittedly an ugly customer, but, being the shyest of the i < tribe, uses its long legs to their ut- < most capacity in bolting for safety on I the slightest alarm. A pretty spider ; used to be plentiful among the fern. 1 but probably it has disappeared. It 1 had a long pointed body, gaily striped 1 with yellow and green. 1 “Old Timer’s” favourite is the fat 1 garden variety which spins delicate webs of such geometrical accuracy. * On completion of the web the spider i retreats to her home in some crevice . or under a leaf., first, fixing a lipe to the centre of the web. which she carvies with her' as a . communicating i coid. and the slightest commotion in i the weh brings her instantly on the scene. If the catch is for any reason undesirable, it is cut loose; if otherwise. and the spider is hungry, its juices are sucked dry and the shell drooped. 11 not wanted at the moment, the victim is made into a* neat parcel with silken thread and carried bv the useful hind leg and hung up m the larder for fut>i»ro use. The male * of this sneeies is skinny and ugly; he sniiis no’ web, but lives by robbery. The writer once witnessed a love scene between a nail- of these spiders.. The female was apparently dozing in tlie centre of her web when a male approached and touched the outskirts of the weh. The female instantly sprang to life and rushed- furiously towards the intruder, who nearly lost his hold in his haste to; reach safety. This roniedv was repeated several times, wlkmi suddenly the female dropped a foot or two Oil a”line: this being appaientlv an understood signal. she was joined in a flash by her scraggy lover.' and' all was peace. Another variety which , may be called the hunting spider also spine no web. Tt has the power of lifting the front half of its body up at a right angle the better io survey its surroundings in search of game, on I which it can spring from some distance, a good sport. . . On a sunny morning the air is sometimes seen to be full of almost impalpable films. This is the gossamer of millions of minute spiders, each floating on its own bit of gossamer, their object being no doubt to discover and populate new countries. The whole outfit being almost as light as air. thev fear no crash; hut not having perhaps the power to land at will and no means of steering, they are at the mercy of every air. Darwin is said to have seen them 60 miles from land on the rigging of a ship. Perhaps our largest insect is the weta (pronounced watar). which lives in holes which it bores in live wood; • for this purpose it is furnished with shnrri and powerful jaws about onethird of an inch long. Being supposedly a member of the grasshopper familv. it has one pair of legs of great length, and these* are armed with sharp spikes to help it up or down its holes. When in the open and danger threatens these .legs are thrown forward. spikes upward. the creature presenting a very menacing appearance and an ugly proposition to handle. Tt is very tenacious of life'. The writer once accidentally *ut off the head nf one. and jt hurjed its

Small grasshoppers were once exceedingly numerous, and beside eating a good deal of grass were a great annoyance to picnickers. They didn’t bite, but penetrated everywhere. The locust, identical with those found in other countries, was never numerous enough to be a menace to vegetation, and is now never seen on this coast. Of the many varieties of moths and butterflies “Old Timer” does' not feel competent to treat, but they were very beautiful, especially some of the moths found only in the dense bush. The blue-bottle fly is known to all, and seems to come from nowhere on the slightest excuse. It has been fsecn on the highest peak of Taranaki (Mt. Egmont). Campers in teiits, if they do not tie their’ blankets up in a sack, are liable to find them when they make down their beds all stuck together by masses of blow flies’ eggs. The experienced camper does not worry, but goes to lied knowing the eggs will not. hatch in the night. In the morning lie will get a fight stick and strike- the blanket sharply, as nearly as i»os-sible to but not on the eggs. If the eggs are scraped off with a knife or struck with the stick many of the eggs are broken, and the shell remains in the blanket until it is worn out, giving it what is known as a “fly blown” appearance. There are two other flies that may be described as “blow.” one of me-J dium size and yellow in. colour and the other so minute that it penetrates the , perforated zinc of safes. Neither of the two latter lay eggs, hut deposit their maggots in a live state. The New Zealand mantis is not nearlv such an ugly insect as those of other countries, and. unlike them, has no wings. Its colour varies to suit its environment, from different shades of browns and greens, and they for this reason are difficult to detect among the twigs and leaves, but specimens are still found- occasionally. Years ago the writer saw thousands , of them dead, under a rata tree under which a fire had passed. They were all the same size, about one inch long, and all of the same colour. This insect. when in a preying attitude, i.e.. with forelegs extended, sometimes measures six inches over all. Of the many Lspecies of dragon flv, once so plentiful, not one- is seen todav. These varied from the elegant little creatures in bright red and blue, whose slim bodies would be in the height of fashion had they survived to the present day. to the great bold variety in black and gold. wbicb would’ sometimes aliglit on your hat with a great clatter of wings. “Old Timer” has no knowledge of entomology, but in this article bas lotted down incidents in the life history of a few of our fast- disappearing inserts in the hope of arousing in- | terest in some of our young people in the subject—and they will he amply r*»oa : d by doing so. It is not always the larger objects that hold the greatest interest as we stalk unobservantly through life. Dr. Watts wrote: “These emmets (ants) how little they are in our eyes. We tread them to dust, and a troop of them dies.” Yet these tiny creatures excel in intelligence some of those who tramp on them.