Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1917-06-14

light streamed through an opening in an
arbor Each creature perched, notion
less, on leaf or fern trond until some
gnat or fly sailed leisurely near then off
it would dart, catch IFS prey, and return
TO its perch. Fully dozen unfortunate
gnats met their death as we sat there in
the sunlight. The dragon flies never
seemed 10 interfere with one another's
prey.
Round a spiders web tragedies are
enacted rapidly, and anyone with lens in
hand can see them if he wishes. As
stood last summer looking at running
spiders web, a brilliant bee, as brilliant
as any Australian cockatoo. struck the
web and floundered there. The spider
a great, gaunt beast she was-ran out and
circIed dozen times round and round
the bee, although quite lar away from ii.
Under the lens could see her spinning
out her siken rope, and watch the sticky
threads bin1ing up the creature. Then
she waited out OF reach OF the bees sting,
which darted in and out, dripping with
its poison; when the bees wings stopped
for an instant, she rushed off so quickly
that | could hardly follow her with my
eyes, and with one vicious stab drove
both her poison fangS into the bees body.
The noisy buzzing of the bee grew fainter
and then stopped. The spider waited
for nearly half minute, until the poison
from her fangs had done its work; then
she lelsurely dragged her quarry back
into her cave of woven web.
There is an uncanny little bug, called
the assassin bug, that looks like a convict
with its striped legs and an ugly, striped
body covered with spines il stalks round
in the most unconcerned fashion, as il il
were afraid OF nothing in the world. For
long time | could not make out why il
looked so impertinent and vicious. One
day caught that bug in the act OF asSas-
sinatinga ladYbird-that most beneficial
OF little beetles, which hunts down and
devours the scale insects How that soft
bodied, ugly bug had succeeded in over
powering winged beetle with we'll
protected body was mystery 10 me until
| found that the bug had run IFS long,
sharp sucking beak down between the
neck plate and the shoulder plate OF the
beetles armor.
Then again there are the robber flies
those large, long bodied, swiftly moving
flies that you often see darling up from
the path or from some bare spot in the
pasture. never saw robber lily attack
its prey, but il must be thrilling sight.
They are so fearless that they dare to
pounce upon bees and wasps and the
hardest shelled beetles.
How IS it possible that the young mud
dauber wasp, whose parents never live TO
teach her anything, can build house just
like the one she was born in? And how
does she know that 10 provide food for
her young, every egg she lays must be
packed in little cell with plenty OF paral-
yzed spiders? The wonderful instinct
that enables her 10 do all that tells her
also just where to sting her spiders.
The most terrible OF all conflicts would
seem to be those between the ichneumon
fles-parasitic, wasp-like insectS-and
the slow-moving caterpillarS. The fly
attacks the caterpillar and then lays an
egg in some inaccessible portion OF its
body there the egg matches, grows more
rapidly than the caterpillar does, and
finally consumes it. Almost every little
round hole in cocoon or caterpillar case
is sign OF such tragedy.
But the work OF insects is not all a
struggle OF the strong against the weak.
Watch the honeYbee, or that clumsy
rover, the bumblebee, and you will see
that she is so intent upon gathering pollen
from the stamens OF the rose she is visit
ing, and so keen TO suck the last drop Of
nectar from it, that she pays no attention
10 your approach.
Many people see bees al work without
stopping 10 think what gigantic service
these gathering insects are render
ing TO mankind when they carry the pollen
from one plantto another and cross-fertile
the flowers. Should some catastrophe
suddenly sweep them out OF existence,
gigantic plant industries would disappear.
No one could afford to buy hand-polen-
ated clover seed. Most fruit trees would
have 10 be cut down because the fruit
would not begin TO grow. The price OF
vegetables depends good deal upon the
price OF seed, and there would be no
penny packages OF seed. The bills for
flower seeds would be prohlbitive, and
we should be forced into growing shrubs
that strike from cuttings. Take the fer
tilizing insects out OF the world, and we
should have readjustment OF values that
would disturb commerce more than any
war could disturb it.