Chapter 10 Insect tube worm

1. The well-dressed caterpillar When spring comes, as long as he has a pair of eyes, he can see everything in the world clearly, on the dilapidated walls and dusty roads, or on those empty lands, You can find a rather strange little thing. It was a small bundle of firewood, and for some unknown reason it was able to move freely by itself, moving forward skip by skip.Inanimate things became living things, and inanimate things were able to jump.What exactly is this matter about? This is indeed very strange, and very strange.But if we take a closer look, we will soon be able to solve the mystery.

Among the moving fagots was a caterpillar that was particularly beautiful and beautiful.It is decorated with white and black stripes.Presumably it is looking for its own food.Maybe it's looking for a suitable spot where it can safely turn into a moth.For its actions that make people guess and feel uncomfortable, you can understand it clearly through what it does in the future. It walked forward cowardly and eagerly. It always wore strange clothes made of branches, which completely covered its body.Only the front part with the head removed and the six short legs is exposed. As long as it is slightly disturbed, it will instinctively hide in this shell and remain motionless.It is obviously a self-protection instinct for fear of being accidentally violated by other things.

This is the answer to the secret that a bunch of sticks can move. It is the stick caterpillar, which belongs to the category of tube insects. In order to defend against climate change, this tubeworm, which is very afraid of cold and naked, built its own very light and comfortable hiding place, a safe thatched hut that can move. Before it turned into a moth, it didn't dare to leave the thatched hut for a moment.This is indeed better than the thatched hut with the roulette, it is exactly like the protective coat worn by hermits made of a special material. Dunneby, the farmer in the valley, wears a kind of coat tied tightly with bluegrass straps, and it is made of sheepskin, with the leather panel facing inward and the sheepskin facing outward.Especially the farmers living in the deep mountains, especially the farmers on the high slopes of the loess, this kind of dress is more common, and they also have a white sheep belly towel tied on their heads.In comparison, the coats of the tube worms are more sloppy than this kind of dress, because they just use a simple firewood branch to make a plain coat, without any excessive decorations.It can be seen how informal they are!In April, there were a lot of insects on the workshop of our family, and many tube insects could be found on these walls. They all provided me with very detailed knowledge. If it is in a dormant state, it means They will soon turn into moths.This is the best opportunity for me to have a close and direct look at its fagot coat.

These coats were all of the same shape, really like a spindle, about an inch and a half long.The twigs at the front are fixed, and the ends are spread out, so they are arranged, and if there is no other better place for protection, then this is a refuge from the sun and rain. venue. Before you know it, at first glance, it really looks like an ordinary bundle of grass.However, just using the word "grass bundle" cannot describe its appearance correctly, because wheat stalks are really rare. The main material for its coat is the smooth, flexible, pith-rich twigs and leaflets, then the grass blades and the scaled branches of cypress, etc., and finally, if the material is not enough, the dry leaves. shards and twigs.

In short, the little caterpillar can use whatever it encounters, as long as it is light, flexible, smooth, dry, and the right size.Therefore, its requirements are not too harsh. The materials it uses are completely in accordance with their original shape, without any change.That is to say, it not only maintains the properties of the original material, but also maintains the shape of the original material. For some materials that are too long, it does not trim them and make them suitable and appropriate lengths.The slats of the house-building bag are also directly pulled by it for use.Its job is simply to fix the front and go.This is very simple and easy in it.

For if the traveling caterpillar is to be able to move freely, especially when it is loaded with new branches, and still allow its head and feet to move freely, the front of the box must be fitted in a special way. become.A box decorated with branches is not suitable for it. The reason is very simple, because its branches are very long and hard, which greatly hinders the work of this hard-working worker and makes it unable to work normally. conscientiously. All it needs is a soft front that allows it to turn freely in any direction so it can happily do its job. So the hard branches, at a considerable distance from the front of the caterpillar, are discontinued and replaced by a kind of collar, where the ribbon is only set off by a kind of chipped wood, which also increases the strength of the material. and toughness, so as not to interfere with the flexibility of the caterpillar.Such a collar that enables the caterpillar to move freely and flex is very important and absolutely indispensable.So that no matter how different its approach is, all tubeworms must use it.

At the front of the firewood beam, the head that can be moved freely is soft to the touch. The inside is a net made of pure silk, and the outside is wrapped with fluffy sawdust.This sawdust is what the caterpillars get when they cut the hay. I gently peeled off the outer layer of the grass box and tore it to shreds, and found that there were many very thin branches inside. I counted carefully, and there were more than eighty.In it, from one end close to the caterpillar to the other, I found again the same underclothes, of which only the middle and front were visible before opening its coat, and now the whole.This kind of underwear is all made of tough silk. The toughness of this kind of silk is very strong, and it cannot be broken by pulling it by hand.It is a smooth tissue, beautifully white on the inside, brown and wrinkled on the outside, and scattered with fine sawdust.

So, I want to see how the caterpillar makes this delicate coat.There are three layers inside and outside the coat, which are superimposed on each other in a certain order.The first layer is very fine silk, which can directly contact the skin of the caterpillar; the second layer is crushed sawdust, which is used to protect the silk on the clothes and make it tough; the last layer is the outer shell made of twigs. . Although all kinds of tube worms wear this kind of three-layer clothes, the shells of different races are different.One, for example, which I met at the end of June on the dusty road near the house, had a shell, both in form and in workmanship, of a more sublime shell than the one already mentioned.Its outer thick drape is made of many pieces of material, such as the fragments of hollow tree stems, small pieces of thin wheat stalks, and broken leaves of green grass.On the front part of the shell, there is hardly a trace of dead leaves.The kind I mentioned earlier is often there, but that is enough to hinder its beauty.There are no long protrusions on its back. After the outer skin grows, except for the neck collar, the whole body of the caterpillar is armed in the shell made of thin rods.The overall difference is not very big, but the most notable difference is that it has a relatively complete aesthetic.

There is also a kind of tube insect with a smaller body and simpler clothes. At the end of winter, on walls or trees, on old trees with wrinkled bark, such as olive trees, or elms , its traces can often be found.Of course you can see it in other places too.Its shell is very small, often less than two-fifths of an inch long.It picked up some hay at random, and glued them in parallel, except for the silky inner shell, which was the material of its whole clothes. It is more difficult to wear clothes that are more economical and cheaper, and look more beautiful and beautiful. 2. Good mother If we catch a few young tube worms in April and put them in a wire cage, we can see some facts about them and observe them more clearly .

At this time, most of them are still in the chrysalis stage, waiting to one day become moths.But they don't all stay so peacefully, some are more active and active, and they will proudly climb up the wire lattice slowly.There, they hold themselves in place on a little silky pad, and it takes a few weeks, both for them and for me, to wait patiently for something to happen. occur. By the end of June, the male's larva emerges from its shell, and it is no longer a caterpillar but a moth. This shell, which is a bundle of thin rods, has, you will remember, two outlets, one at the front and the other at the back.The front one, which the caterpillar makes with great care and care, is permanently closed, because at this end the caterpillar is nailed to the support to which the pupa is fastened.Therefore, the hatched moth must emerge from the rear mouth and turn around inside the shell before the caterpillar transforms into a moth.Then, it will come out slowly.

Although the male moth only wears a very simple yellow-gray dress and has only wings about the size of a fly, he is very beautiful.They have feathery tentacles with thin beard heads hanging from the wings. As for the female moths, they can rarely be caught in some more conspicuously exposed places, and most of them are difficult to see. A few days later than other insects, it will come out of the shell belatedly. Its shape is simply unsightly to the extreme. This monster is the female moth.You might even cry out in fright when you first see it.Maybe its appearance will scare you.No one can immediately get used to the miserable situation in front of them.It was no less ugly than those caterpillars.It has no wings, nothing, not even hair in the middle of its back, it's bald and round.It is rare for people to open their eyes to see it.On its round, ornamented end, it wears a small gray-white cap, and on the first segment, in the center of its back, grows a large, oblong black spot—the only ornament on its body. , the female tubeworm has given up all the beauty that moths have.This is the female moth, this monstrous figure of the female moth. When it leaves its chrysalis, it lays its eggs inside.Thus, the mother's hut (that is, her coat) is passed on to its descendants.She lays a lot of eggs, so the laying time is also very long, more than 30 hours. After laying its eggs, it closes the door to give it a sense of security from some outside intrusion.In order to achieve this, some kind of padding is necessary.So the doting mother, in her penniless and impoverished condition, had to make use of the few clothes she had.That is to say, use the velvet hat worn on its body to block the door, so as to ensure the safety of the mother and child, and live in a safe and sound manner. In the end, what it does is not limited to this, it also uses its own body as a barrier.After a violent shock, it died in front of the new house, and stayed there to die slowly. Even after death, it still stayed in the position, for the sake of the next generation, it was willing to die.Don't look at its ugly appearance, but in fact its heart and spirit are great. If the outer shell is broken, we can see that the outer coat of the pupa is stored inside, and it has not been damaged at all except for the hole left by the place where the moth drilled out in front. When the male moth wants to come out of this narrow tunnel, , you will feel that its wings and feathers are a very heavy burden, and form a certain resistance to it. Therefore, when the caterpillar is still in the chrysalis age, it runs desperately towards the door for nearly half the journey.Finally, it succeeded in knocking out the amber coat, and an open space appeared in front of it, allowing it to fly freely. However, the mother chrysalis does not have wings or feathers, so it does not need to go through this difficult step. Her cylindrical body is exposed, not much different from a caterpillar.So she could be allowed to crawl in and out of the narrow tunnel without any difficulty.So it casts its coat behind--inside the shell for a thatched roof. At the same time, there was a very deliberate gesture, enough to show that she cared deeply about the fate of her eggs. In fact, they seemed to be bucketed, and in the parchment-like bag she took off, the mother The moth has quite skillfully laid its eggs in it until it is full, but it cannot be satisfied merely by bequeathing its house and velvet hat to its offspring, and that, as a last act, it has to give its own The skin is also dedicated to future generations. On it, the phrase "poor parents in the world" is best reflected. I wanted to observe the process of this matter conveniently, so I once picked up a pupa bag full of eggs from the shell of firewood, and put it in a glass tube.In the first week of July, I suddenly discovered that I had a thriving family of tube bugs.They hatched so quickly that almost forty or more newborn caterpillars were all dressed before I saw it, before I noticed it. The clothes they wear are very similar to the turbans worn by the Persians, made of bright white velvet. To put it bluntly, it is like a white cotton top hat without a tassel. But it's strange to say that their hats are not worn on the top of their heads, but from the tail to the front. They run around very proudly in this glass tube, because it belongs to them O vast house!Therefore, I would like to see what kind of material this hat is made of, and what is the preliminary procedure of weaving. Fortunately, the chrysalis bag is unlikely to become empty.Inside, I found their second big family, which was about the same number as the ones that ran out before.There are probably five or six dozen eggs in there all the time. I took away the caterpillars that were already dressed, and left only these naked new rooms in glass tubes, they had bright red heads, and the rest of their bodies were all gray and white, and the whole body was less than an inch long. One-fifth long. I didn't wait long, and from the second day onwards the little animals, slowly and in groups, began to leave their pupal bags, without breaking the cradles, only from their mothers in them. Just come out of the broken mouth. Although they all have an onion-like, beautiful amber color, none of them use it as a material for clothing, and none of them use the plush of those soft shakers. Became a blanket for these Berham animals, but none of the critters actually took advantage of it. Together they rushed out to the rough exterior of the twig shell, which I had left for them on purpose, and directly approached the pupa bag containing the eggs, and the critters began to feel that something was wrong with their situation.Then there was a sense of urgency. When you have not entered the world to hunt, the first thing to do is to wear your own clothes, which is also applicable to these small animals.They are equally anxious, eager to break through this tiresome old shell immediately, and put on the prepared safety coat as soon as possible. Some of them noticed the twigs that had been gnawed open, tearing off the soft white inner layer, and some were very bold, going deep into the tunnel of the empty stem, trying to gather some materials in the dark, their bravery will certainly With rewards, they got extremely superior materials, and wove them into snow-white clothes, and some caterpillars added some things they chose to make variegated clothes, so the snow-white color changed to black. Particulate contamination. The tool used by small caterpillars to make clothes is their big head, which is shaped like a pair of scissors, and it also has five hard and sharp teeth. The blades of the scissors are very close together.Although it's actually small, it's sharp, fast, and can grip and cut fibers of all kinds. Putting it under the microscope, it can be clearly observed that the scissors of the small caterpillar are mechanical, correct, and powerful strange specimens. If sheep also have such tools, and if they are in a certain proportion to its body, then sheep can eat not only grass but also tree trunks.It can be seen that the head of the little caterpillar should not be taken lightly! It is very instructive to observe the larvae of these tubeworms, which make gray and white top hats like cotton.Whether it is the itinerary of their work, or the method they apply, there are many things worth noting.They're too tiny, and they're too delicate.When I observe it with a magnifying glass, I must be very careful, very careful, neither dare to breathe hard, gasp, nor speak loudly, even if I am a little careless, I will disturb them and maybe move them position, or possibly blow it away in one breath. Even though this little thing is so small, it is an expert in making blankets. This little orphan who has just been born for a while knows how to get rid of the old clothes left by his mother. Cut out your own clothes.I can now tell people about the methods it took, but before that I must say a little about its dead mother. I have already mentioned the plush quilt in the chrysalis bag. It is very soft and comfortable, like a duck’s down bed. After the caterpillars emerge from their eggs, they sleep on this bed and rest for a while. Thereby getting properly warmed up and ready for work in the outside world. Mallard ducks shed their down and use it to make a gorgeous and comfortable bed for posterity.The female rabbit will cut off the softest fur on her body to make a warm bedding for her newborn offspring.The female tubeworm does the same thing.It seems that mothers all over the world still have a certain commonality, and this commonality is also determined by their instincts, that is, to love their children selflessly. The mother would make a warm coat for the caterpillar out of a piece of soft stuffing, a very fine and beautiful material.Observe carefully under the microscope, you can see little by little scales on it, which is the best woolen material for making clothes for children.The small larvae will soon emerge in the shell, so prepare a warm room for them where they can play freely.Before they enter the vast world, they can cultivate and accumulate strength in it.So the female moth takes off the hair from her body like a female rabbit and a female duck, and works tirelessly to build a beautiful world for her children. This is presumably done in a very mechanical way, as if it were a continual rubbing against a wall and not a conscious act, but there is really no reason to prove to us that this is the case.Even the dumbest mother has a vision of her own.The seemingly troubled moth tossed and turned, and ran up and down the narrow passages, trying to pluck itself and make a comfortable bed for its family. Some books say that small tube worms will eat their mothers since they have life.In fact, I have never seen this happen.And I don't know how this saying came about.In fact, it has dedicated and sacrificed so much for its family, and in the end it only leaves a dry, thin strip, which is not enough for a bite of food for many children and grandchildren.In fact, my little tubeworms, they don't eat their mother.What I saw was that from the time they put on their clothes until they began to eat, none of them had bitten their dead mother. 3. The Clever Tailor Now I shall speak in detail of the clothes of these little larvae. The hatching of the eggs begins in early July. The head and upper part of the body of the larvae are bright black, the lower two segments are brownish, and the rest are grayish amber.They are some very elite little creatures, and their running steps are very short and fast. After they emerge from the pouch at the hatching site, they still need to stay in the pile of fluff from their mother for a while.It's a little more spacious and comfortable here than the bag they got out of.They stay in the pile of fluff, some are resting, some are very busy, and some are more impatient and have already started to practice walking.Before they leave the shell, all of them are cultivating their bodies and strengthening their physiques to meet the baptism of wind and rain in the unknown world. In this seemingly more luxurious place, they are not nostalgic.When their energy gradually increased, they crawled out one after another and spread on the shells.Then the active work begins, gradually getting dressed.The food problem will be solved later, but at present, only clothes are the most important thing. It seems that these little guys take face matters very seriously. Montan used to say, "I'm wearing my father's clothes," when he put on the clothes his father used to wear. Now, the young tubeworms likewise wear their mother's clothes (this must also be remembered, no not its skin, but its clothes).They strip some of the proper material out of the outer shell of the branches, what I sometimes call a house, and sometimes clothes, and begin to use these materials to make clothes for themselves.The material it uses is the pith in the twigs, especially the split branches, mainly because its pith is easier to get. The way they make their clothes is very remarkable.The method used by this little animal is really beyond our human imagination. It is so dexterous, so delicate, and so delicate. The stuffing is made into extremely small balls.So how are these small balls connected together?The little tailor needed a support, a foundation.And this support cannot be obtained from the caterpillar's own body.This difficulty did not trouble these clever little ones; they gathered the little balls into a heap, and then tied them one by one with silk.Thus, the difficulty was overcome in this way.You already know that caterpillars can spin silk out of themselves, just as spiders can spin webs.By this means, spheres or particles are attached to the same thread, and a very handsome garland is made, which, when sufficiently long, encircles the waist of the little animal, leaving six feet, In order to move freely, the ends are tied with silk, thus forming a loop around the body of the little larva. This circle is the starting point of all work and the support required by the larvae. After the first process is completed, the small larvae use their big gills to remove the heart of the tree from the shell, fix it, and make it grow larger, thus forming the tree core. A complete coat.These broken tree hearts or balls are sometimes placed on the top, sometimes placed below or beside them, but usually they are placed in the front.There is no other design better than this garland approach.When the coat was first made, it was flat, but after it was buckled, it was like a belt, looping around the body of the little caterpillar. The starting point of the initial work is done, and then it continues to be spun.And so the first hoop gradually became a shawl, a vest, a blouse, then a gown, and in a few hours a completely new coat of white. Thanks also to the care of its mother, the little larva is spared the danger of running around naked.If it doesn't give up the old shell, they will have great difficulty in getting new clothes, for grass bundles and sticks with pith are not everywhere to be found!However, unless they die from exposure, it seems that sooner or later they will find what they are wearing, since they can use any material they can find.I have several times performed this experiment with the newborn larvae in glass tubes. From the stalk of a dandelion, without hesitation, he dug out the snow-white pith, and fashioned it into a clean robe, much finer than the old clothes left to him by his mother.Sometimes even better clothes are woven from the pith of a particular plant.This time the clothes were decorated with fine dots, like crystal blocks, or granules of white sugar.This is truly a masterpiece from our tailor makers. The second material is what I provide them.It was a piece of blotting paper, and likewise my little larvae did not hesitate to cut up its surface and make a paper garment out of it, taking great delight and interest in this novel material.When I provided them with the original firewood shells as clothing materials, they ignored them, discarded them, and chose this kind of blotting paper to continue making their clothing. For the other little larvae I offered them nothing, yet they did not fail.They were very clever, and took another approach, hastily cutting the cork into little pieces, and cutting those little pieces into tiny particles, as if they and their ancestors had used The same material as before, because it seems that these small larvae are no strangers to these materials.Caterpillars may have never used this strange material, but they used it to make clothes, which were no different from those made of other materials.It's amazing what these little larvae can do! Now that I knew they could accept dry, light plant material, I decided to experiment with a different approach.Experimenting with animal and mineral materials, I cut off a piece of the wing of a large peacock moth and put two small naked caterpillars on it.The two of them hesitated for a long time.Then one of them resolved to make use of the strange rug, and in less than a day he was wearing a gray fleece which he himself had made from the scales of the great peacock moth. The second time, I brought some soft stones, which are so soft that they can be broken into powder particles on the wings of a butterfly with just a light touch.On this material I put four caterpillars that need clothes.One soon decided to dress herself up and started sewing clothes for herself.Its metallic clothes, which shone in every color of the rainbow, shone on the caterpillar's shell.It was of course expensive, and very ornate, but a little too bulky.Under the weight of such a metal object, the little caterpillar's walking became very hard and very slow.However, the emperor of Eastern Rome had to do the same when there were important ceremonies in the country! In order to satisfy the urgent need of instinct, the young caterpillars don't care about such clumsy actions.The need to wear clothes is too urgent, and it is better to spin some minerals than to be naked.There is also a beauty bug, and it is also willing to dress itself up beautifully.What to eat is not as important to it as what to wear. It is the commonality and nature of these little caterpillars to only care about dressing up and looking good.If you lock it up for two days, then change its clothes, and put it in front of the food it likes to eat, such as a leaf of willow chrysanthemum, it must first make a dress, because After a piece of clothing is worn on the body, it will safely meet its dietary needs. Their need for clothes is not because of a particularly cold feeling, but because of the foresight of this caterpillar.Other caterpillars hide themselves in the thick leaves in winter, some hide in underground dens to avoid the cold, and some hide in the cracks of branches. These are caterpillars that are afraid of the cold.However, what we call tubeworms are safely exposed to the air.It is not afraid of the cold, nor is it afraid of the cold. It has learned how to prevent the cold in winter since it was born. Threatened by the drizzle in autumn, it began to make the outer firewood husk again. At the beginning, it was very sloppy and careless. The uneven grass stems and pieces of dead leaves were mixed together and dotted in disorder. On the shirt behind the neck, the head must still be supple, allowing the caterpillar to turn freely in any direction.These irregular first batches of materials do not interfere with the subsequent orderliness of the building.As the robe grows in the front, the material is thrown to the back. After a period of time, the broken leaves gradually lengthen, and the small caterpillars also choose materials more carefully.All kinds of materials are laid down by it in a straight line.The agility and delicacy with which it lays the stalks is astonishing.People are not only amazed to find that the little caterpillars move so fast and lightly, but also do it very seriously and make the bedding so comfortable, which is unmatched by some big insects.Really can't underestimate it! It put these things between its cheeks and feet, rolled them continuously, then held them tightly with its lower cheeks, cut off a little at the end, and immediately stuck them to the end of the robe.Its method may be to make the silk thread stick stronger and stronger, which is the same as the meaning of plumbing craftsmen filing a little at the end of the lead pipe joint. So, before putting it on its back, the little caterpillar uses the strength of its gills to erect the straw tube and dances it in the air, and the silk-spinning mouth immediately starts to work, sticking it in place.Therefore, the caterpillar no longer fumbles or moves, and all the procedures have been completed.When the cold weather comes, the protective and warm shell has been prepared, so it can live its life with peace of mind. However, the silk felt inside the clothes is not very thick, but it can make it feel very comfortable and at ease.When spring comes, it can be improved in the spare time to make it thick, dense and soft.Even if we remove its outer shell, it won't recreate it anymore, it just adds new layers to the shirt, even until it can't be added.This robe is very soft, loose and wrinkled, comfortable and beautiful.It has neither protection nor shelter, yet it thinks it doesn't matter.Gone is the time of the carpenter, and the time of furnishing the interior, which is preoccupied only with furnishing its interior, and filling the house—that is, the robe that lines it—and the house is gone.It will die a miserable death, be smashed to pieces by the ants, and become a feast for the ants.This is the result of an overly stubborn instinct!