Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-07-09
INSECTS IN WINTER.
Where They Go When They Don't Die
and What They Do.
From the Chicago Post


The housetiy and blue bottle fly, the bane
of the housekeepcr, are short lived at best.
Many flies live but a day. The excitement
of escaping determination and rearing their
young rounds out an existence of twenty
four hours. Nature, in appreciation of THEN.
short career, has provided them with com
pound eyes, which see about Oh all sides,
"a marvelousy acute scent and a facility of
fight which is the aggrayation of him who
dozes at MONDAY and who tries to catch
that one fly. When autumn comes the
death knell of millions of flies has sounded
Ihey make no preparation for winter. The
majority dle, and their insignificant bodies
are blown away by the passing breeze A
lew hardy survivors lingcr in cracks in the
walls, creep under the door frames or in
creVlceS in the woodwork. 1t is proba HE
mat eggs are laid, larvae katched and other
mes creep from the mctamorphoscd mag
gots during the winter. But some natural
lists assert that the few lingering flies are
the parents of the multitude that appear in
inc warm days OF June. The eggs they
lay are numberlcSS
katydids, grasshoppers, locusts walking
sticks, crickets and beetles are killed by
the frost. The eggs hidden in the ground
or concealed in the bark of trees furnish
the supply for the next year The cold re-
tards the development of the egg which
matches in the warm days of spring Some
times an unusually cold winter PLAYS havoc
with the dormant insect life, but the cum
Ming OF nature strengthens the frail egg
shell against the power of heat and cold
alike, until the secret alchemy of the sun
stirs the budding life and bids it come
forth.
Beetles exhibit q wonderful instinct in car
ing for their helpless young Among a GER
tain species the eggs are rolled in balls of
material suitable for food. The balls are
packed away in nest to await the vora-
clous appettes of the infant beetle that
sexton beetles deposit their eggs in the bod
les OF dead birds or field mice. They then
set to work and perform the proper rites
OF burial, heaping the earth over the body
OF the dead. The young beetle Matched
from the egg finds 4 store of food awaiting
him on his arrival in the world.
Butterflies and moths arc victims of cold
weather, though in some instances it has
been proved that they have great powers of
endurance. Both butterflies and moths live
in the region of glaciers il the high Alps
ana certain species is found futtering
about on the summit of Mount Washington
and amid eternal snow. These butterflies
ard moths are Intimately associated with
the gentians and other flowers belonging TO
these lofty attitudes, and act as aids in
cross fertilization.
Our temperate zone boasts of one or two
winter butterflies warmly clothed in micro
SCOPE feathers. And on cherries February
and March days these blithesome hcralds of
spring sport about like animated sunbeams
and living prophecies of springtide. But
what has become Of the butterflies and
moths of the vanished summertide? They
are gay yet thrifty folk in looking out
for the future of their race. Search the
garden and coc9ons and crysalids are found
in all sorts of shapes and conditions An
gular and ovoid, short and thick, long and
thin, suspended by the head, or by the tall
head downward; hung horizontally in a
curled leaf, like the darling baby in the
tree top; tucked away under a soft web
coverlet on the sheltered side of the gate
post, or under the edge of the sidewalk;
within the warm corner OF knothole or
crack in the boards. under the bark of
the trees, in a cosy crotch of the twigs
and even buried in the ground. The deli
cate yet firm silken threads bind them 10
the topmost branches. where. exposed to
seet, snow and rain, whirled about by
every bowling blast. they defy the winter.
The butterfly and moth lay eggs in a
suitable feeding ground during the early
summer. The Matched larva or caterpillar
eats voraciously. gorging itself until it can
eat no more. Or. if too fat for further ex-
ertion, 1t spins a cocoon and makes ready
for winter. During the winter 1t apparent
ly slumbers in its snug quarters, nourished
by the plentiful supply of fat 1t accumu-
lated during the caterpillar stage, and at
the proper time emergcs full-gTown moth
or butterfly. gorgeously attired and bent on
holiday making.
The spiders, SO far as I can learn, store
away no food supply In winter quarters.
Quantities of eggs are laid, and carefully