The record-union., 1894-03-09
NATURES TOOLS And WEAPONS.
Interesting Things Revealed by the
Microscope.
The Spider Uses Comb and the Hum
bic Caterpillar is a Dangerous
Enemy.

The wonders of the miniature world
that surrounds us are an unsealed book
to large proportion of the human race.
Only those who study with the micro
scope can have any conception of the
field there is for research and how fasci-
mating that field is. Thanks TO the more
modern methods of education, the young
now have some introduction to this field
IN their common school education, and
The increasing interest in the microscope
shows that this introduction is bearing
fruit. The insect world possesses great
attraction to the microscopic, as it is
here that he finds many curious things to
entertain him. Here he finds that nature
has provided many of the insects with
tools and weapons more delicate than
human skill can produce, and he also
sees how far behind man is in the manu-
tacture of some of the everyday imple-
lnents.
The saw, for instance, he finds was in
vented long before it was made of steel
and iron, and the common fly carries
one about with him, and has Tor ages,
more delicate than man can make even at
the present day. The saw is used by the
ny IN cutting place in a leaf to deposit
It's eggs. The female alights on a leaf
and alter cutting slit with this tiny saw
deposits her eggs in the slit and leaves
them to hatch out the maggots, which in
their turn become flies again.
Another saw which rivals the one of the
ny IN dellcacy is furnished, not by an in
sect, but by the little hermit crab that
scrambles about the rock pools on the
seashore. The crab is q scavenger, and
his food consists of decaying animal mat
ter that he picks up in the sea. Some
times this food is not just in condition for
him, and he must have something to pre-
pare 1t for his digestion. Probably the
reader has watched the crab at his meal
and noticed how he tears the food in
pieces with his claws. 1t will be noticed
that alter he has torn off a piece he often
rolls 1t over and over in his foot iaws,u
The curious part hand and part foot ar
rangements near his mouth. These ''foot
Jaws" have at their ends strong hairs, or
saws. While tossing the portion of food
III the Jaws these cutting hairs serve as
so many knives to cut the food into bits,
and after that they are greedily sucked
down by Mr.. Grab.
These two illustrations show that the
man who invented the saw could have
done so long before he did if he had pos
investigating turn of mind.
But nature as often provides weapon
as she does tool. Ali know about the
sharp pointed sting of the bee, and. while
the majority have perhaps felt it, very
few know how it looks. Connecting with
these stings in the bee is a tube which
runs to the reservoir of poison. sAnother
feature OF this sting is the fact that along
It's surface are minute barbs turning back
ward from the point. These points cause
the sting to work further into the flesh,
and are what causes the sting to be so
difficult to remove.
This feature is better illustrated by the
stinging hairs of the caterpillar, EN-
pretia stimul9. They are barbed arrows,
and the sensation of them crowding into
the flesh at every moment is not pleasant
The sting of the mosquito has none
of these barbs, but when magui1ied
it is a misunderstanding affair. No
wonder with such a sharp tool as
this that my lady mosquito the male
has no sting can so soon draw blood