Chapter 14 Insects: Two Rare Grasshoppers

1. The Enbusha Sea is the place where creatures first appeared. So far, there are still many kinds of strange animals, which make it impossible for people to count their specific numbers and distinguish their specific types.These primitive models of the animal kingdom are preserved in the depths of the ocean.This is what we often say, the ocean is a priceless treasure house for human beings, and it is one of the important conditions for human survival. However, on land, almost all the odd-shaped animals in the past have become extinct, and only a few remain, and most of the animals that can survive to the present are insects.One of these is the praying mantis, of whose peculiar shape and habits I have already told you before.The other is Embusa.

This insect, in its larvae, was probably the strangest animal in the Browins.It is a slender, wobbly, odd-shaped insect.Its shape is different from any insect, and those who are not used to it will never dare to touch it with their fingers.My neighbor's children, after seeing this strange insect, saw its strange appearance and left a deep impression on it. They called it "little ghost".They imagine that it has something to do with demons and so on.They can be encountered from spring to May, or into fall, and sometimes in sunny and warm winters, though never in large groups. The tough grass on the wasteland, the bushes that can be illuminated by the sun and have stones to shelter from the wind, are the favorite dwellings of Embusa who is afraid of the cold.

I'm going to do my best to tell you what it looks like.The tail of its body is often rolled up and curved toward the back, forming a hook shape. The lower part of the body, that is, the upper part of the hook, is covered with many leaf-like scales arranged in three rows. This hook rests on four long, slender, stilted legs; where the thigh meets the calf of each foot, there is a curved, protruding blade similar to the ones used by butchers for cutting meat. . In front of the hook on stilts or quadrupeds, there is a long and straight chest protrusion.The shape is round and very thin, like a piece of grass. At the end of the dry grass, there are hunting tools, which are completely similar to the hunting tools of praying mantises.

There were sharper harpoons, and a brutal vise with saw-like teeth.There is a groove in the middle of the jaw made of the upper arm, and there are five long nails on each side, and there are also small serrations in the middle.The jaws made of arms also have the same groove, but the serrations are finer, denser, and neat. When it is at rest, the serrations of the forearms fit into the grooves of the upper arms.Its whole is like a machine that can be processed, with saw teeth, vise, grooves, and channels. If this machine is a little bigger, it will become a formidable instrument of torture.

Its head also complements this machine.What a weird head it is!A pointed face, with a long, curly beard, large, protruding eyes, and between them the point of a short sword; and on the forehead, something that had never been seen before—a tall mitral-like thing. , an elaborate headdress protruding forward, parting left and right to form pointed wings. Why does this "little ghost" wear a strangely shaped pointed hat like an ancient fortune-teller?Its purpose will be known shortly. At this time, the color of the animal is ordinary, mostly gray, and as it develops, it becomes striped with gray-green, white, and pink.

If you come across this strange thing in the jungle, it is resting on four long legs, its head is constantly swaying towards you, turning its mitral, and peering into your brow. On its pointed face, you can seem to see the image of danger.However, if you try to catch it, this intimidating gesture will be gone in no time. Its raised chest would lower itself in strides to escape, and its arms would help it hold twigs.If you have a more skilled eye, it can be easily caught and locked in a wire cage. At first, I didn't know how to feed them.My "little ghost" is very small, only one or two months old at most.I caught locusts of the right size for them to eat, and I selected the smallest ones and fed them to it.

The "little devil" not only does not want them, but is also afraid of them. No matter how gently the thoughtless locust approaches it, he will be treated very badly. The pointed hat lowered and stabbed angrily, causing the locusts to roll away. Therefore, it can be seen that the magician's hat is actually a weapon of self-defense.Just as the male ram fights with his forehead to charge against his opponent, similarly the sibusa fights his opponent with his mitral. The second time, I fed it a live fly, and this Embusa immediately accepted it as a delicacy at a banquet.When the fly approached it, Embusa, who had been waiting for a long time, turned its head, bent its chest, gave the fly a fork, and pinched it between the two saws.Not even an old cat catches a mouse so quickly.

I was amazed to find that a single fly could feed it not only for one meal, but for a whole day, or even several days in a row.This vicious-looking insect is an extremely fasting animal. At first I thought they were devils, but then I found that they eat as little as sick people.After a period not even the small flies can entice them.During the winter months it is completely fasted.In spring, I am ready to eat some small amount of rice butterflies and locusts.They always attack their captives on the neck, like praying mantises. When the young Embusa was locked in a cage, he had a very special habit.

In the wire cage, his attitude was the same from the first to the last, and a strangest attitude at that.It uses its four hind paws to hold the iron wire tightly and hang upside down, motionless, just like a little golden monkey hanging upside down on a horizontal bar, with its back down and its whole body hanging on those four points .If it wanted to move, the front harpoon would open, stretch out, and then, gripping the other wire, pull it toward his bosom. Pulling the insect on the wire in this way, it was still on its back, and the harpoon closed, retracted, and rested on the chest. This kind of upside-down position will definitely be uncomfortable for us, and it is not easy to do. If people are likely to get sick, it is either high blood pressure or cerebral hemorrhage.However, Enbusa has maintained this posture for a long time. It can last for more than ten months in a wire cage without any change.

The fly is indeed in this position on the ceiling, but it has time to rest. When it is tired, it will rest for a while, and then do this kind of action after it has recovered its energy.It flies in the air, walks with its usual habits, and basks in the sun. Embusa is the complete opposite. It maintains this strange posture for more than ten months without resting.Hanging on its back from a barbed wire fence, it hunts, eats, digests, sleeps, goes through all the experiences of insect life, and finally dies.It was still very young when it climbed up, but it was already an old corpse when it fell.

Its habitual behavior, it should be noted that it will only be like this when it is in captivity, it is not a natural and inherent habit of this insect.Because outdoors, except for rare occasions, when it stands on the grass, its back is up, not upside down. Similar to this behavior, I know of another rare case, a little more special than this one.Such is the attitude of a wasp and a bee when they rest at night.There is a particular species of wasp - the red-fronted "mud wasp" that abounds in my garden at the end of August and loves to sleep on mint grass.In the twilight of the evening, especially in the suffocating days, when a storm is brewing and a heavy wind and rain are approaching, we can see a strange sleeper--still sleeping peacefully there. Probably when it is resting at night, its sleeping posture is no more strange than this.When you see it, you will feel very strange.It bites into the stem of the mint grass with its jaws. The square stem is more firm than the round stem. It only bites it with its mouth, but its body is straight in the air, its legs are folded, and it is at right angles to the tree trunk. , the insect put its whole body weight on its big gills. The wasp sleeps like this with its powerful jaws, stretched out in the air.If we extrapolate from this situation of animals, our previous fixed concept of rest will be overthrown. As the storm raged and the branches swayed, the sleeper was not bothered by the swaying hammock, at least by resting his front feet against the swaying branches at some point.Perhaps the jaws of the wasp, like the toes of the bird, possess a great grip, much stronger than the force of the wind. Nevertheless, several species of wasps and bees sleep in this strange position—with their large gills on a twig, their bodies straight and their legs tucked in. Around mid-May, when Embusa is fully developed.Its body and costume are more striking than the praying mantis.It still retains a bit of the grotesqueness of its infancy—the vertical chest, the arms on its knees, and the three rows of scales beneath its body.But it can no longer curl into a hook, and it looks much more refined now: large gray-green wings, pink shoulders, nimble flight, and white and green stripes adorning the lower body. The male Embusa is a playboy, similar to some moths, and exaggeratedly adorns himself with feathery tentacles. In the spring, when the farmers met Embusa, they always thought they saw a praying mantis, the daughter of autumn. They are so much alike in appearance that one suspects that their habits are also the same.Because the appearance is the same, and they are all insect-like animals, people have not carefully observed them, nor have they examined their actions, sitting and lying, so they guess that their living habits are the same. But, in fact, because of its unusual armor, one would think that the Embusa's way of life is even more ferocious than the mantis.However, this kind of thinking is wrong. This misunderstanding is unfair to Embusa, and the conclusion without investigation and research is unreliable. Although they all have a fighting posture, Embusa is a relatively peaceful and friendly animal!It's not a badass murderer who is aggressive and belligerent. Shut them up in wire cages, whether they were half a dozen (a dozen is twelve, half a dozen is six) or just a couple, and they never for a moment forgot their gentle manners.They are all peaceful, friendly and mutually beneficial. Even when the development is complete, they are considerate of each other, humble and non-aggressive to each other.They eat relatively little, and only two or three flies per day are enough. Small animals with a large appetite are of course aggressive.Well-fed animals use fighting as a means of digesting food as well as a form of fitness.Striving to be strong, not letting others do anything, never suffering a loss, this is the characteristic of a typical predator of the jungle, it has always been to take advantage of the advantage, fight for the benefit, and grab the good thing.The mantis immediately became excited at the sight of the locust, and the war inevitably began.The praying mantis immediately pounced on the locust, but the locust did not show weakness. The two fought each other. The locust tried to pounce on the mantis with its sharp teeth, but the mantis counterattacked the locust powerfully with its sharp pincers.The scene where you fight against me is very exciting. However, Embusa, who is on a diet, is a messenger of peace. It never fights with its neighbors, and it never uses the shape of a ghost to intimidate outsiders.It also never competes with its neighbors for territory like a praying mantis.It never spreads its wings suddenly, nor does it exhale or stick out its tongue like a poisonous snake.It never eats its own siblings.Not like a praying mantis devouring her husband.It never does such inhumane things. The organs of these two insects are exactly the same.So this difference in character has nothing to do with the shape of the body, nor with its appearance.Perhaps it can be said that it is caused by the difference in food. Whether it is a person or an animal, a simple life can always make the character milder and more easy-going.All of these can create a good environment for peaceful coexistence.However, if you are too self-confident, you will start to be cruel.The glutton, who eats meat and drinks wine—a common cause of feral blooms—never is as gentle and serene as the self-made hermit.It is a simple life of eating bread and dipping in milk.It is an ordinary insect, it is peaceful, gentle and kind.Mantises, on the other hand, are utter gluttons. While my explanation is clear enough, someone might ask a deeper question. These two insects have exactly the same shape, and presumably must have the same needs of life, and why is the one so gluttonous and the other so restrained?In their attitudes, as other insects have already told us, their tastes and habits do not depend entirely on their own shape and body structure, but in terms of determining the laws of matter, there are also laws determining instinct. 2. White-faced katydids The katydids in the area where I live are white-faced.In its song, and in its majestic richness, it is the chief of the grasshoppers.It has a gray body, a pair of powerful gills, and a broad ivory face. If you want to capture it, it's not too difficult to do, and it's not annoying.In the hottest time of summer, we can often see it jumping back and forth on the long grass.Especially under the rocks, where pine trees grow. The Greek word Dectikog (the etymology of white-faced katydid, Decticns) means to bite, to like to bite.The white-faced katydid thus took its name. It is indeed a good biting insect.If a strong grasshopper grabs your finger, you have to be careful, it will bite your finger and bleed, and the bite will hurt you, and sometimes the pain will be unbearable.Its powerful jaws seem to be fierce weapons.When I try to catch it, I must be very careful to watch out for it, otherwise there is always the danger of being bitten by it and the possibility of being bitten by it.The large muscles protruding from its cheeks are evidently used for chopping up the crusty prey it catches. Keeping white-faced katydids in my cage, I have found that any fresh meat, such as locusts and grasshoppers, will meet their needs.Especially the kind of locust with blue wings, which is especially suitable for its hobby. There is often a commotion when food is put in the cage.Especially when they are very hungry, they rush forward step by step.Because it is hindered by the long neck, it cannot move very quickly.Some locusts were caught immediately, some flew, hopped, and hopped around, and some jumped to the top of the cage in a hurry, escaping from the range that the katydids could catch.Because of its bulky body, it cannot climb that high.However, locusts can only prolong their own lives, and in the end they cannot escape the bad luck of being eaten by white-faced katydids.They ran down one after another from the top either because they were tired or attracted by the green food below, and they were immediately captured by the katydids and became their delicacies. Although this kind of katydid has very low intelligence, it will use a scientific method of killing.As we have seen elsewhere, it often stabs its prey in the neck first, and then bites the nerve that governs its movement, rendering it immediately incapable of resistance.Like other carnivorous animals such as mammals such as tigers and cheetahs, they first bite the larynx of the captured prey to stop breathing, and after losing their resistance, they eat its flesh bit by bit. This is a smart approach, as locusts are very difficult to kill.Sometimes although the head of the locust has fallen off, its body can still beating.I have seen a few locusts, half-eaten and jumping around, escaped. Because of its taste for locusts, and some races injurious to immature corn, a greater number of these katydids may be of considerable advantage to agriculture. But now its help to preserve the fruit on the land is very weak.The chief interest it brings us is, in fact, the relics left over from antiquity.It left us with habits that are no longer used. I should thank the white-faced katydid for teaching me a thing or two about young katydids again. It does not lay eggs in buckets made of hard foam like locusts and praying mantises, nor does it lay them in holes in branches like cicadas. The katydid plants its eggs in the soil like plant seeds.The tail of the female white-faced katydid has an organ that helps it dig a small hole in the soil.In this cave, several eggs are laid, and the soil around the cave is loosened, and with this device, the soil is pushed into the cave, just as we fill the cave with a walking stick.In such a way, it will cover the small soil well, and then level the soil above it. Then he goes for a short walk in the neighborhood for recreation and relaxation.It doesn't take long before it returns to the place where it spawned earlier, near the original spot - which it remembers well - and starts working again. If we watch it attentively for an hour, we shall see this whole movement, no less than five times, including the neighborhood walks.The places where it lays eggs are often very close together. After all the work has been done, I inspect the little hole.Only the eggs are placed there, with no chamber or shell to protect them.There are usually about sixty of them, mostly purple-gray in color, and shaped like ribs. I began to observe the work of the katydid, in order to see how its eggs were hatching, so at the end of August I took a large number of eggs and put them in a glass jar covered with a layer of sand.They spend eight months inside without feeling the pain of climate change: no storms, heavy rain, no snow, and no unduly hot sun and sun that they must endure outdoors. When June came, the eggs in the bottle had not yet shown signs of hatching.They are the same as when I first picked them up nine months ago, neither wrinkled nor discoloured, but exuding an extremely healthy appearance.In June, you can often meet small katydids in the wilderness, and some of them have even grown to a large size.I therefore doubt very much what was the reason for the delay. The opinion arose, then, that the eggs of this katydid, like plants, were planted in the ground, unprotected and exposed to rain and snow. The eggs in my bottle spend two-thirds of the year in relatively dry conditions.Because they are originally scattered like plant seeds.It probably needs dampness for its hatching, and all conditions suitable for its hatching, just as a seed needs moisture for germination.At this time, I decided to give it a try. I separated a part of the eggs I had taken before, put them in my glass tube, and added a thin layer of moist sand on top of them.Then plug the glass tube with wet cotton to keep the humidity inside.Anyone who saw my experiments thought I was one of those botanists who experiment with seeds. My wish can come true.Under the warm and humid environment, the eggs soon showed signs of hatching. They gradually swelled up little by little, and the shells were obviously about to split.For two weeks I spent every hour watching it carefully and tirelessly, trying to see how the katydids came out of their eggs, and to solve the doubts that had been in my mind for a long time. The question is this.These katydids, as usual, are buried about an inch deep in the soil. Now this newborn little katydid, which jumped on the grass in early summer, is exactly the same, with a pair of very long tentacles as thin as The hair is normal; and there are two very abnormal legs behind it-like two support poles for jumping, which are very inconvenient obstacles for walking. I would like to know how all the work is carried out when this weak little animal comes to the ground with such a heavy luggage.What does it use to carve a path out of the earth?It has tentacles that will break off when it encounters a small grain of sand, and long legs that will break off with a little force. It is obviously impossible for this small animal to be freed from the pit. I have told you that the cicada and the praying mantis, the one coming out of its branch and the other from its nest, wear a kind of protection, like a coat. I thought, when this little katydid crawled out of the sand, it must have had simpler, tighter and narrower clothes than the ones it wore when jumping in the grass after birth, as a kind of protection. My estimate was not wrong.At this time, the white-faced katydid, like other insects, does wear a protective coat.This tiny, white-fleshed, little animal had grown into a sheath, with six feet flat on its chest and straight back. To make it easier to come out, its thighs are tied around its side; the other inconvenient half of the organ—the tentacles—is pressed motionless inside the pouch. Its neck bends toward its chest.The big black spots--the eyes, and the lifeless face so swollen that one might think it was a helmet.The neck is very open due to the bending of the head.Its tendons pulsate slightly at the same time, sometimes opening and closing, because of this protruding, pulsating tendons, the head of the newborn katydid can turn freely.Relying on the neck to push the wet sand, it digs a small burrow.The veins then open up, become balls, and fit tightly in the holes, giving the larva enough strength to move its back and push the earth. In this way, the further steps have been successful, and every swelling of the bulb is very helpful to the crawling of the katydid in the hole. It was pitiful to see this soft little creature, still colorless, moving its swollen neck and digging up walls of dirt. When its muscles have not yet reached their strength, this is really not conducive to the struggle against hard rocks!However, after unremitting struggle, it actually achieved the ultimate success. One morning, a small tunnel was made in this area, not straight, about an inch deep, and as wide as a piece of firewood.Generally in this way the weary insect finally reaches the ground. Before he is quite out of the soil, the striver will also rest for a while to recover his energy after this journey.Make one more final effort, trying to expand the protruding tendons at the back of the head to break through the sheath that has protected it for so long.The animal thus casts off its coat. So, this is a young katydid, it is still gray, but it gradually turns black the next day, and compared with the full-grown katydid, it has become a black slave.But his mature ivory face was natural, with a narrow white stripe running under his thighs. O katydids growing before me!The life that unfolds before you is too dangerous. Many of your relatives died of weariness before they were free.In my glass tube I have seen many katydids, hindered by grains of sand, give up their unsuccessful endeavors. There is a kind of fluff growing on its body, trying to wrap its corpse.If I don't help it, the trip to the surface will be more dangerous, because the earth outside the house is rougher and hardened by the sun. This white-striped nigger, nibbling on the lettuce leaves I gave him, and jumping about in the cage I gave him, I could easily keep him. But it can no longer provide me with more knowledge, so I regained its freedom, and in return for the knowledge it taught me, I gave it this house-glass tubes, and garden plants. Those locusts. Because it taught me that a grasshopper, when leaving its spawning place, wears a makeshift protective suit, enclosing the bulkiest and heaviest parts, such as its long legs and its antennae, etc., in a sheath .It also told me that this slightly stretched, mummified animal had, for the convenience of its travels, a kind of wart, or quivering blister, on its head and neck—a kind of machine that was born in the first place. While observing the katydid, I did not see it using it as an aid to walking.