Blackfoot news. (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1891-1902, 1892-04-30
ABOUT INSECTS.
SOMETHING OF THEIR CURIOUS
LIFE AND HABITS.
Witty sidney Smith Could Have S II To His
Bones IL He Had Been a Grass
hoppsr-Inseets' Breatb-
ing Apparatus.

oiu'ley oiultu' sWelJeflnR, once eS-
claimed. oh that / could take of
my flesh and cit in my bonesi" A
writer In the Post Dispatch thinks il
was DIR. Riley who said Smith should
have been a grasshopper. Unlike the
y~ertebrates. most insects present q
skin and bone aspect and wear
their skeletons on the outside and
their muscles incased within. Their
brains are numerous. lying like a
chain of.nerye lakes from head 10 tail.
the cephalic ganglion being no larger
than some OF the others, and with the
exception Of being the origin OF the
nerves OF sight and directive power il
Is OF no more importance. Even the
Will does not reside here. and any of
the other senses may be originated BY
any other OF the ganglia- A katy-did.
whose ears are in his fore legs, with
their nerves springing from the sec
ond ganglion, could hear with his
head of and a coockroach smell in
The same condition because his nose
Is neat the end Of his tail Bees and
files are said 10 be the only insec.s
that have distinct tongues. but with
their nerves OF taste springing from
the second brain they could still taste
their food with the top of their head
SLICED away. You may have frequent
ly decapitated a horseay and noticed
that he did not die as soon as a
chicken does You had taken away
only about one-fifth OF his nervous
/ centers.
There is no gray matter in any of
these brains (the substance we are
possessed OF and said 20 be consumed
when wo r thinking strongly. but
some one has believed that in the
cephalic ganglia OF the bees and ants
he has discovered certain convolutions
similar to those in the human brain,
that imply a degree OF reasoning
power.
Insects have no lungs. They breathe
by trachg, but they do not u down
the throat but into the body anywhere
needed and every distinct organ has
its own set of these little tubes that
aerate the blood within and around
them. II he should catch cold what
an amount OF sore throats an insect
could have. But he cannot plead "a
cold when asked 10 sing. but he can
truthfully say he has no voice > for
he has neither lungs nor larynx. He
Is strictly instrumental. the various
noises made by him being all purely
mechanical as the friction OF rough
surfaces, the buckling OF strained
disks or plates-as the bottom OF a
tin bucket-or the rapid buzz OF wings
in the air.
A curious thing about the trachaa
Is that in the leaping and flying in
sects (only) many OF them terminate
in air sacks capable. by muscular ef-
fort OF great distention during and
just before flight adding very largely
10 the buoyancy OF the creatures.
Perhaps you have noticed the pre-
paraiory swelling OF tumble bugs
and other awkward beetles Just be-
fore contemplated flight 1t may
just be possible, too. that intense oxid-
alton and therefore greater muscular
stimulation and heat is thereby OBJ.
tanned just previous TO this extraor-
binary exertion.
Insects have no true heart There
is a cavity from which his blood is
squeezed very sluggishly out into all
the interstices Of the boay-for there
are no true arterial vessels, but the
life fluid. which is nearly always
white simply lies in the spaces be.
tween the various organs. There is
no need for rapid circulation when
the blood is aerated at all points.
Rapid breathing with great distribu-
tion is substituted. You may note
this in an angry wasp Rapid respira-
ton means greater misunderstanding
the fire-and that means create,
heat and power. Hence the great
comparative strength of insects.
When we are angry we say we are
''hot Anger stimulates both the
respiratory centers and the circula.
ton, and that augments heat. How
hot even in winter will the hive o
a colony OF bees get when they are in
ritatedl