2. In the past, Egyptians imagined that this sphere was a model of the earth, and the movement of dung beetles coincided with the movement of planets in the sky. They think that this kind of beetle has so much astronomical knowledge and is sacred, so it is called "sacred beetle". At the same time, they think that the ball that the beetle rolls on the ground contains eggs, from which the little beetle comes out. But in fact, this is just its food storage room. There are no eggs in it.
Cicada just filled a small hole with eggs and moved to a higher place. In addition, when digging a hole, gnats will go there immediately. Although the cicada's claws can reach it, it is calm and fearless. Just like at home, they add a hole in the cicada's egg and lay eggs. By the time the cicada flies back, most of its holes have been added by other people's eggs. These fake guys can destroy cicada eggs. This fast-maturing grub-one in each hole-feeds on cicada eggs instead of cicada families.
If we dig the surface of the dam slowly and slightly, we will be surprised to find more interesting things. At the beginning of August, we saw a small room with a floor on the top. Their appearance is very different from the hive below. The main reason for this difference is that it is built by two different bees. One of them is the aforementioned Digging Bee, and the other one has a nice name called Bamboo Bee.
5. The shape of the nest of the waist-dwelling bee is similar to a cylinder. Its mouth is a little big and its ass is a little small. The big one is over an inch long and half an inch wide. Honeycomb has a very unique surface, which is formed by very careful whitewashing. On this surface, there is a row of protrusions around it, just like the lines on the gold ribbon. Each line is a floor of the building. The shape of these lines is revealed by covering the nests built on each floor with mud. You can know how many times the wasp walked back and forth when it was built by counting. They are usually between fifteen and twenty floors. For each bird's nest, the diligent and tireless architect has to carry materials back and forth about 20 times during the construction. It can be seen how hard they work!
6. After a few shakes, the wasp's nest has just begun to take shape. At this time, in such a short time, its hive has actually become as big as an acorn, which is really unexpected. They are really some magical little animals.
7. Of these six kinds of spiders, only two usually rest in the center of the web, that is, the striped spider and the mercerized spider. Even in the scorching sun, they will never easily leave the net and rest in the shade for a while. As for other spiders, they don't appear during the day. Their own way is to combine work and rest. There is a hidden place not far from their net, which is made of leaves and thread. During the day, they hide in it, quietly, and let themselves be deeply lost in thought.
8. Cicada likes singing very much. There is a cymbal-like instrument in the cavity behind its wings. That's not enough. We need to put a castanet on the chest to increase the intensity of the sound. Indeed, there is a kind of cicada, which sacrificed a lot to satisfy its love for music. Because of this huge castanet, living organs have nowhere to be placed, so they have to be pressed into the smallest corner of the body. Of course, if you want to devote yourself to music, then you have to shrink your internal organs to place musical instruments.
9. In the process of sucking bee eggs, the sweet juice stored around bee eggs can't drive away greedy bee mite larvae at all. It ignores them and doesn't touch them. Therefore, it can be said that bee eggs are absolutely important for bee mite larvae and are indispensable food for larvae. Therefore, small bee eggs can not only be used as a boat for bee mite larvae to travel safely in the honey lake, but more importantly, they are also nutritious food for larvae, providing conditions for their vigorous growth.
10 However, the stone silkworm is not a very good swimmer. Its rotation or steering looks awkward. This is because it only relies on the part of the body extending out of the sheath as the rudder propeller, and there are no other auxiliary tools. When it enjoys enough sunshine, it retracts its predecessor, exhausts air and gradually sinks.
1 1. Insects, like cicadas, can arouse people's interest, but they are not very famous because they can't sing. If it also has cymbals, its fame should be much greater than that of famous musicians, because its shape and habits are very unusual. This will be an excellent musician.
12, it is very important for it to be able to climb up and down easily in the cave, because when it climbs outside in the sun, it must know what the climate is like outside. So it will take weeks or even a month to make a solid wall suitable for it to climb up and down. At the top of the tunnel, a layer of finger-thick soil was left to protect and resist the changes of the outside air until the last moment. As long as there is some news of good weather, it will climb up and measure the climate with a thin cover at the top. But when the poor locust moved to the point where the mantis could just touch it, the mantis immediately used its weapon mercilessly, hit the poor worm hard with its powerful "palm" and pressed it hard with those two saws. Therefore, no matter how doggedly the little prisoner resisted, it was of no help. Next, the brutal demon ghost winner began to chew his booty. Of course it will feel very proud. In this way, treating the enemy like autumn leaves is mantis's unchanging creed.
13, in fact, it acts just like a miner or a railway engineer. Miners support tunnels with pillars, and railway engineers reinforce tunnels with brick walls.
14 of course, I have done this kind of experiment. I put the dry hard shell in the box and keep it dry. Sooner or later, I will hear a sharp rubbing sound in the box, where the prisoner scraped the wall with his rake. After two or three days, there seems to be no progress.
15, finally, its food was safely stored. Storage room is an earth hole dug in soft soil or sandy soil. It is made as big as a fist and has a short path to the ground, just wide enough to accommodate the ball. When the food was pushed in, it sat inside, and the entrance and exit were filled with some waste. The ball just filled the room and the food piled up from the ground to the ceiling. Leave a narrow path between the food and the wall. There are at most two places for banquet guests to sit, usually by themselves. This sacred beetle has been eating and drinking day and night for almost a week or two without stopping for a moment.
16. Deep in the pond, the water beetle is jumping briskly. There is a bubble at the tip of its front wing to help it breathe. It has a chest wing under its chest, shining in the sun, like a shining silver breastplate worn by a mighty general. On the surface of the water, we can see a group of glittering "mussel spiders" spinning and twisting happily. No, that's not a mussel spider. Actually, it was a black bean bug having a party! Not far from here, there is a team of pool rays swimming here, and their paddling style is as fast and powerful as the sewing needle in the tailor's hand.
17, mantis is a beautiful insect. It looks like a slim girl. In the hot grass, it is majestic, and its serious front paws extend into the sky like human arms, which is a very sincere prayer posture.
In the seasons of 18 and July, when our insects, suffering from thirst, run around in despair looking for drinks on withered flowers, cicadas are still very comfortable and do not feel pain. Pierce the inexhaustible bucket with its protruding mouth-a slender straw, sharp as an awl, stored in the chest. It sits on the branch and sings all the time. As long as it drills through the smooth bark and there is a lot of juice in it, insert the straw into the hole of the bucket and it will be full.
19, it will eat soon. Nobody teaches it, but it can do it. Like its predecessors, it will make food into a ball and dig a storage place to store food. It will be fully involved in the work, and there is no need to study at all.
20. There is an insect in the south, which, like cicada, can arouse people's interest, but it is not very famous because it can't sing. If it also has cymbals, its fame should be much greater than that of famous musicians, because its shape and habits are very unusual. This will be an excellent musician.
2 1, cicada was first discovered in the summer solstice. On the sunny road with many pedestrians, there are many round holes, which are flush with the ground and about the size of a person's finger. In these round holes, cicada larvae crawl out of the ground and become complete cicadas on the ground. They especially like dry and sunny places. Because grubs have a powerful tool that can penetrate baked soil and sand.
22. In my own studio, I filled a large glass bottle with earth, made an artificial crypt for the female beetle, and left a small hole to observe its movements, so that I could see all its working processes.
23. Ordinary cicadas like to lay eggs on dry branches. They choose the smallest branch, whose thickness is mostly between hay and pencil. These twigs, which hang down very little, tend to tilt up and almost die.
24. When the ground-digging bees pass by the door of the hive, whether they go out or just come back from a long journey, the long-awaited bee mite larvae will immediately climb up the hive. They climbed into the fluff of the excavator and held it tightly. No matter how far the diggers fly, they are not worried about the danger of falling to the ground. Because they are too tight. The only purpose of adopting this method is to bring bees to those nests rich in honey with strong bodies.
25. There is a water beetle lurking in the glass pool, and their swimming posture aroused my great interest. One day, I accidentally dropped two stone bugs and happened to be seen by a water beetle next to a potential stone. They swam to the surface at once and soon caught the small sheath of the stone worm. The stone worm inside felt that the attack was fierce and hard to resist, so he came up with a clever plan, slipped out of the scabbard unhurriedly and escaped without a trace in the blink of an eye.
26. Silkworm first grew in reeds in swamps. Many times it is attached to the broken branches of reeds and drifts in the water with reeds. That small sheath is its mobile house, which can also be said to be simple houses that it carries with it when traveling.
27. Anyone who has seen mantis will clearly find that its slender waist is very long. Not only is it very long, but it is also very powerful. Compared with its long waist, mantis's thighs are longer. Moreover, there are two rows of very sharp serrated things under its thighs. Behind these two rows of sharp serrated teeth, there are some big teeth, three of them. In a word, mantis's thighs are just two rows of serrated blades. When mantis wants to fold its legs, it can put them between two rows of sawtooth, which is very safe and won't hurt itself.
28. The next morning, I saw that the warm and dazzling sunshine had fallen on the glass cover. These worker ants climbed up from the ground in droves, eager to go out and look for food. However, they hit the transparent "wall" again and again, fell down and got up again. In this way, groups of people keep trying and never want to give up. Some of them got tired of dancing, walked around with bad temper for a while, and then went back to the house. Some, when the sun is hotter, replace the former. In this way, the shifts are rotated. However, in the end, no wasp bravely reached out and scratched and dug the soil around the glass cover, opening up a new way to make a living. That means they can't have tried to escape. How limited their wisdom is.
29. Cicada and I live next to each other. It's been fifteen years now, almost two months every summer. "They are always in my sight, and their songs are not far from my ears." Express the author's love for cicadas.
30. This is really a spectacular and beautiful building! It is as big as a pumpkin. Except for some high-rise buildings, everything is suspended. There are many roots on it, most of which are thatched roots, which go deep into the "wall" and are connected with the hive, which is very strong. If the land in that place is soft, then its shape will be round and all parts will be equally strong. If the land in that place is sand, wasps will encounter some obstacles when digging, and the shape of the hive will change accordingly, at least it will be less tidy.
3 1, the teacher tried to observe with a magnifying glass, but she had never seen a scene in which the young Calliphora tore at the meat with its jaws, but the larvae became obese day by day.
32. Then, it will perform a strange gymnastics, with its body soaring in the air, only slightly fixed on the old leather, turning its body upside down, its wings covered with patterns, straightening outward and trying to open.
33. Mantis was born with a beautiful and elegant figure. Not only that, it also has another unique feature, that is, the pair of extremely lethal and offensive weapons that grow on its front feet. And the difference between its figure and its pair of weapons is simply too big and obvious. It is hard to believe that it is a gentle and cruel animal.
34. Their bodies are bulging, like half a pea, and their sheath wings are smooth or fluffy. Usually there are red or yellow stripes on the black coleoptera, or black stripes on the red and yellow coleoptera, but some ladybugs have yellow, red or brown coleoptera without spots. These bright colors are used as warnings to scare away natural enemies.
35. The part of the pear stuck to the floor has been covered with fine sand. The rest, too, were polished like glass, which showed that it didn't roll up the pear carefully, but shaped it.
If the thief escapes safely, the only effort the owner can make is to admit that he is unlucky. It wiped its cheek, took some air, flew away and started over.
37. The mantis's nest is about one or two inches long and less than one inch wide. The color of the bird's nest is golden yellow, and it looks like a wheat. This kind of nest is made of foam. However, before long, this foamy substance gradually turned into a solid and gradually hardened.
38. Then, it will perform a strange gymnastics, in which the body leaps in the air, only slightly fixed on the old leather, turns over the body, makes the head face down, straightens the patterned wings outward, and "tries its best" to open. This is very suitable for trying to understand.
39. The savage water beetle continued to tear at its sheath fiercely until it knew that it had lost the food it wanted and was cheated away by the stone silkworm. Only then did he show a look of chagrin and frustration, and left the empty sheath with infinite nostalgia and helplessness to forage elsewhere.
40. As I said, the ancient Egyptians believed that the eggs of sacred beetles were in the sphere I just described. I have proved that this is not the case. One day, I stumbled upon the truth of beetle laying eggs.
4 1. At present, although the female beetle is indifferent to her family, we can't forget her hard care for four months and get rid of the interference and infringement from the outside world such as bees, wasps and ants.
42. I know a shepherd boy who often helps me in his spare time. Once, on a Sunday in June, he came to me with a strange thing in his hand. It looks like a small pear, but due to decay, it loses its fresh color and turns brown. But it feels strong and beautiful, although the raw materials don't seem to have been carefully screened. He told me that there must be an egg in it, because there is an identical pear that was accidentally broken when digging, and there is a white egg as big as wheat in it.
43. The egg is placed at the narrow end of the pear. Every living seed, whether it is a plant or an animal, needs air. Even the eggshell of a bird's egg is full of countless holes. If the dung beetle's egg is in the last part of the pear, it will suffocate, because the material here is very dense and covered with a hard shell. Therefore, the female beetle has prepared a delicate and breathable thin-walled space for its grubs to live in. At the beginning of its life, even in the middle of the pear, there was a little air. When these tender grubs are not consumed, they will go to the center to eat, and they are strong enough to control some air by themselves.
44. The mantis's nest is about one or two inches long and less than one inch wide. The color of the bird's nest is golden yellow, and it looks like a wheat. This kind of nest is made of foam. However, before long, this foamy substance gradually turned into a solid and gradually hardened. If you burn this substance, it will produce a smell similar to burning silk. The shapes of mantis nests are different. This is mainly because nests are attached to different places, so nests will change with the change of terrain, and nests of different shapes will appear. However, no matter how dry the nest is, its surface is always convex. This is the same.
45. The pool water slowly flowed into the nearby fields through a small passage, where there were some alders, and I found a beautiful creature there. It's a beetle, as big as a walnut, with some blue on it. That kind of blue is very pleasing to the eye and reminds me of the beautiful angels in heaven. Her dress must be the same beautiful blue. I piously picked it up gently, put it in an empty snail shell and stuffed it with leaves. I will take it home and enjoy it carefully.
46. When it was peeled for the first time, the little insect had not yet grown into a complete beetle, although the shapes of all beetles could be distinguished. Few insects are more beautiful than this small animal, with wings in the middle, like a wide folded tie and forearms under the head. Translucent yellow is like the color of honey, and it really looks like amber carving. This state was maintained for almost four weeks, and then a layer of skin was peeled off. At this time, its color is red and white. It has to change clothes several times before it becomes ebony black. The color is getting darker and harder. Until it is covered with horny nails, it is a fully grown beetle. Then, it will perform a strange gymnastics, the body soaring in the air, only a little fixed on the old skin, turn the body upside down, make its wings full of patterns, straighten out and "try" to open. This is very suitable for trying to understand.
47. The little people wanted to reach the well, so they sneaked under the cicada's body, but the owner generously lifted his body to let them pass. The big insect took a bite, ran away and walked to the nearby branches. When it turned around again, it became bolder than before. Suddenly it became a robber, trying to drive cicada away from the well.
48. The eggs of Dendrolimus punctatus hatch in September. At this time, if you lift the scales of the tubule a little, you can see that there are many small blackheads inside. They bit, pushed their eyelids and slowly climbed up the tubule. Their bodies are light yellow, and their black heads are twice as big as their bodies. When they climb out, the first thing they do is eat the needles that support their nests. After eating the needles, they landed on the nearby needles. There may often be three or four bugs accidentally falling together, which will naturally form a team. This is the embryonic form of the future army of Dendrolimus punctatus. If you play with them, they will shake their heads and greet you happily with their forelimbs.
49. When a person decides to conquer the hornet's nest, if he doesn't make this move carefully, it is simply an adventure. Half a pint of oil, nine inches of empty spring tube, and a fairly solid piece of clay constitute all my weapons and equipment. Another thing I have to mention is that the previous small observation and research have accumulated a little successful experience. All these things and experiences are the simplest and the best for me.
50. Honeycomb in Mei Sen is made of anhydrite. Usually its nest is around the branches. Because it is made of gypsum, it can be attached to it very firmly. However, the masons' beehive is only made of mud, without cement or anything else that can make it stronger. So how does it solve these problems?
5 1. Sometimes, dung beetles seems to be a cooperative animal, which often happens. When a beetle's ball is made, it leaves its own kind and pushes back the harvest. A neighbor who is about to start work will suddenly leave his job and run to the edge of the ball to help the owner. Its help is certainly welcome. But not a real partner, but a robber. It takes effort and endurance to make a ball! It's much easier to steal a cooked one or go to a neighbor's house for dinner. Some thieves and beetles use cunning means, and some simply use force!
52. On the third day, everything was the same as the next day. It was very cold that night, and the poor caterpillar survived the night. I found them lined up in two piles along the edge of the flowerpot, and no one wanted to line up any more. They are close to each other for warmth. Since it is divided into two teams, it is reasonable to say that each team should have its own team leader, and it is not necessary to follow others to open up their own lives. I'm so happy for them. Seeing their big black heads groping around in confusion, I think they can get rid of this terrible circle soon. But soon I found myself wrong again. As soon as the two separate teams met, they merged into a closed circle, so they began to beat around the bush all day without realizing that they had missed an excellent opportunity to escape.
53. The bee's eggs are always placed in a certain part of the spider. The end of the bee egg containing the head is placed near the fattest part of the spider. This is good for the larvae. Because once the larvae hatch, they can directly eat the softest, most delicious and most nutritious food. Therefore, this is a very clever idea. It should be said that nature endows wasps with quite ingenious nature. This economically minded animal won't waste a bite of food. By the time it ate all the spiders, there was nothing in the spider pile. It takes eight to ten days to live a hearty life.
54. People first talked about dung beetles six or seven thousand years ago. Farmers in ancient Egypt, when irrigating their farmland in spring, often see a fat black insect passing by them, busy pushing a ball back. Of course, they were surprised to notice this grotesque rotating object, just like the farmers in Brovin today.
55. When the poor locust moved to the point where the mantis could just touch it, the mantis immediately used its weapon mercilessly, hit the poor bug hard with its powerful "palm", and then pressed it hard with those two saws. Therefore, no matter how doggedly the little prisoner resisted, it was of no help. Next, the cruel devil winner began to chew his booty. Of course it will feel very proud. In this way, treating the enemy like autumn leaves is mantis's unchanging creed.
56. Cicada and I have lived next to each other for 15 years now, and every summer is almost two months long. "They are always in my sight, and the songs are always in my ears."
57. Animal instinct cannot be changed. Experience cannot guide them; Time can't make their unconscious have the slightest awakening. If they only have simple instincts, then they will not be able to cope with the changes in the world and the natural environment. The environment is constantly changing, and there are many unexpected things that often happen. Because of this, insects need to have a special ability to teach them and let them know clearly what should be accepted and what should be rejected. It needs some kind of guidance. Of course, there is such guidance. However, the word wisdom seems a little too subtle and doesn't apply here. So I'm going to call it discrimination.
58. The beetle made a complete ball first, and then made a circle around the pear, adding pressure until the circle became a deep ditch, making it look like a bottleneck. In this way, one end of the ball bulges. Add pressure to the center of the bulge to make a pit, that is, a depression with thick edge, deep depression and thin edge, and finally form a bag. It grinds the inside of the bag smooth, lays the eggs in it, and plugs the mouth of the bag with a bunch of fibers, which is the tail end of the pear.
59. On the water, we can see a group of shiny "mussel spiders" twirling happily. No, that's not a mussel spider. Actually, it was a black bean bug having a party! Not far from here, there is a team of pool rays swimming here, and their paddling style is as fast and powerful as the sewing needle in the tailor's hand.
60. 1 1 month, they began to build winter tents at the top of pine branches. They mesh all the pine leaves nearby. Building materials made of leaves and silk can increase the firmness of buildings. When finished, the tent is half a gallon in size and shaped like an egg. In the center of the Bird's Nest is a milky white ribbon with green pine leaves in the middle. There are many round holes on it, which are the door of the nest, and caterpillars climb in and out from here. Standing at the top of pine leaves outside the tent, there is a net made of silk thread, and the balcony is below. Dendrolimus punctatus often gathers here to bask in the sun. When they bask in the sun, they pile up like pyramids, and the silk thread on them is used to weaken the intensity of the sun, so that they will not be overheated by the sun.
6 1, soon found a sacred beetle's crypt, or you know, there will always be a pile of fresh soil on it. My companion took my knife and shoveled it into the ground desperately. I fell to the ground because it was easy to see something being dug out. I dug a cave and found a refined pear in the wet soil. I really won't forget, this is the first time I've seen a female beetle working strangely! When excavating ancient Egyptian relics, if I find that this sacred beetle is carved with jade, my excitement may not be even greater.
62. Cicada and I have lived next door for fifteen years. Every summer is almost as long as two months. They never leave my sight, and their songs never leave my ears. I usually see them lined up on the soft branches of the hanging trees in Shinohara, and the singer and his partner sit side by side. The straw is stuck in the bark and you can drink it without moving. As the sun sets, they walk slowly and steadily, along the branches, looking for a warm place. Whether drinking or acting, they never stop singing.
When I face the pond and stare at it, I will never get bored. In this small green world, I don't know how many busy little lives will be endless. In the muddy pool, piles of little black tadpoles can be seen everywhere playing and chasing in the warm pool water; The red-bellied salamander also swings its wide tail like a rudder and moves slowly forward; In the reed grass, we can also find groups of silkworm larvae, who hide their bodies in a small sheath made of dead branches-this small sheath is used to defend against natural enemies and all kinds of unexpected disasters.
64. Most of us are not familiar with cicada's song, because it lives in a place with olive trees, but those who read Lafontaine's fables probably remember that cicada was laughed at by ants. Although Lafontaine is not the first person to tell this story.
65. If I remove the bamboo bee's small room, I can observe the digging bee's home. Growing insects live in some small rooms. There are also some small rooms full of diggers' larvae. There are also some small rooms, most of which hide an egg-shaped shell. The shell is divided into several parts with protruding breathing holes. This kind of shell is thin, brittle and fragile. Its color is amber and very transparent. So it is obvious from the appearance that there is a fully developed bee mite struggling inside. It seems to be extremely eager for freedom and hopes to be liberated from it as soon as possible.
You greedy little caterpillar, it's not that I'm rude, it's that you are too presumptuous. If I don't get rid of you, you will steal the show. No more pines full of needles can be heard whispering in the wind. But I suddenly became interested in you, so I want to sign a contract with you. I want you to tell me the legendary stories of your life for a year, two years or more, until I know all your stories. As for me, in the meantime, I won't bother you and let you occupy my pine tree.
67. When it is near the ditch, it will certainly notice this delightful thing, so it will rush to the water to get this precious little bit of soil. In the season without moisture, they will not easily let go of this extremely rare discovery.
68. At this time, its color is red and white. It has to change clothes several times before it becomes ebony black. The color is getting darker and harder until it is covered with horny nails. It is a fully grown beetle.
69. At the bottom of the pond, there are many quiet and stable shellfish. Sometimes, the little snail will climb to the shore gently and slowly along the bottom of the pool, carefully and slowly open his heavy eyelids, blink his eyes, curiously look forward to this beautiful underwater paradise, and enjoy breathing some land air; Leeches crouched on their trophies, constantly twisting their bodies, looking smug; Thousands of dragonflies wriggle rhythmically in the water. In the near future, they will become mosquitoes and bad people shouted by everyone.