Chapter 18 Insects

Thin waist, exquisite figure, the abdomen is divided into two sections, the bottom is big, the top is small, the middle seems to be connected by a thin line, and there is a red belt around the black belly: this is the red bee. The red wasp's nest is built in loose soil that is extremely easy to drill through.On both sides of the path, on the sunlit mudflats, where the grass grows sparsely, are ideal habitats for wasps.In spring, early April, we can always find them in such places. The red wasp usually builds a vertical hole in the soil, like a well, the diameter of which is only as thick as a quill, and about two inches deep. The bottom of the hole is an isolated small room, which is specially used for laying eggs.When the wasps build their nests, they work quietly and slowly, without any sign of enthusiasm or excitement.Like other bees, it uses its front feet as a rake and its mouth as a digging tool.Sometimes we can hear a sharp, ear-piercing friction sound from the bottom of the cave, which is because it encounters a grain of sand that is not easy to move, causing the wings and the whole body to vibrate violently.Every few short minutes, we can see the red wasp appearing at the entrance of the cave, holding some garbage or a grain of sand in its mouth.It always throws this kind of garbage a few inches away, so that it can keep its home and surrounding environment tidy and clean.

A few grains of sand are treated differently.The red wasps will give them special treatment to save them from being thrown far away.These grains of sand were piled up near the hole by the red wasps, and will have another important use in the future.When the red wasp has dug the hole completely, it checks on this small beach to see if there is any sand suitable for its needs.If not, it looks around until it finds one.What it needs is a flat grain of sand slightly larger than the opening of its hole. It can cover the opening of the hole with this grain of sand to make a door.The next day when it came back from hunting a caterpillar outside, it opened the door without haste and dragged the prey in.This door looked exactly like any other grain of sand, and no one would have guessed that there would be food hidden under it, and the home of a red wasp that could only be identified by itself.It opens the door, slowly deposits its prey at the bottom of the burrow, lays its eggs on it, and then blocks the burrow with the sand it previously hid nearby.This sounds a bit like the story of "Open Sesame" in "Alibaba and the Forty Thieves".

The food that the red wasp hunts is the larvae of a gray moth.Most of these worms live underground, how did the red wasp catch it?Let's look at Tron.Returning from a walk one day, I happened to see a red wasp busy under a thyme bush.I immediately lay down on the ground near it.My presence didn't scare it away.It first flew to my sleeve and stopped for a while. After deciding that I would not hurt it, it flew back to the thyme bush.I know what that means from past experience: it's too busy to think about me as an unexpected visitor. The red wasp dug the soil from the roots of the thyme, pulled up the surrounding grass, and then burrowed its head into the clod it had loosened.It flew from here to there in a hurry, peering into every crack.Instead of making a nest for himself, he hunted for food in the ground, like a hound looking for a hare in its hole.

The larvae of the gray moth sensed the movement above and decided to leave their nest and crawl to the ground to see what happened to Tron.This difference of thought determines its fate.The red wasp was already ready and waiting for its appearance.Sure enough, as soon as the gray moth's larva was exposed to the ground, the red wasp rushed out and grabbed it, and then fell on its back, like a skilled surgeon, calmly stabbing the caterpillar's larvae. Take a stab at each section.From front to back, stab down section by section, without missing anything.Its skilled movements are reminiscent of a skilled butcher.

The red wasp's skill puts scientists to shame.It can infer things from observation that humans never knew.It is very familiar with the nervous system of its captive, and it knows which nerve centers to prick, which can numb the captive's nerves and prevent death.Where did it learn this knowledge?We human beings have schools, teachers, and various books, through which we gradually accumulate knowledge to understand many mysteries of nature.But how did the red wasp know this complicated knowledge?Moreover, they have mastered such proficient skills without practice. Could it be that before they were born, there were gods who endowed them with this ability?How amazing nature is, when we are tirelessly exploring its secrets, it has already arranged everything in an orderly manner!

I'll tell you another story about the fight between the red wasp and the caterpillar, which I also saw with my own eyes.It was May, and I watched the red wasp make the final removal of its nest by the side of a clean road.He had anesthetized a caterpillar a few yards away, and when he had cleared the street and made the hole big enough, he went out to fetch the caterpillar. It found the caterpillar easily, and the caterpillar was lying on the ground.But the bad thing is, the ants are also hunting the caterpillar.The red wasp is unwilling to share this caterpillar with the ants, but it is not an easy task to drive the ants away. After thinking about it, it thinks that its ability is really limited, so it is better not to make unnecessary sacrifices.So it decided to abandon the caterpillar and look for food elsewhere.

Within about ten feet from the nest, it walked slowly step by step, inspecting the soil, and waving its curved tentacles on the ground from time to time, like a persistent soldier searching for a mine with a mine probe. mines.Under the scorching sun, I watched it for three full hours!How difficult it is to find a caterpillar, especially in times of need. It's a difficult job, even with people.I want to help it, find a caterpillar for it, because I want to see how it paralyzes the caterpillar. Then I thought of my old friend Favi, who was my gardener, tending the garden, and I called him over.

"Come on! I want some gray caterpillars!" I quickly explained to him.He understood, and immediately went to find the bug.He dug up the roots of the lettuce, raked the mud in the strawberries, and inspected the fringes of the iris bushes.I had a lot of confidence in him, his eyesight and his intelligence, because he was considered an excellent gardener for so many years. After a long time, I didn't see the caterpillar Favina coming. "Hey, Favi, where's the caterpillar?" "Sir, I can't find any of them." "How?! Call all of you! Klanya, Egland, you all! Come to the lettuce field! Help me find the caterpillars!"

So the whole family was dispatched, and everyone worked hard, but to no avail.Three hours passed.None of us found a caterpillar. The red wasp didn't find the caterpillar either, it was very tired, and I saw it decisively looking for cracks in the ground.It did its best to find, even moving away clods the size of apricot pits.But it soon left these places again.So I began to suspect that the red wasp couldn't catch the prey, not because it couldn't find the caterpillars, but because it knew where the caterpillars were, but couldn't catch them, maybe because the caterpillars had taken precautions and dug the nest. It is very deep, and the red wasp has no ability to dig the worm out of the ground.How stupid I am, why didn't I think of this earlier?Would such an experienced hunter waste his energy blindly?of course not.

Now the red-striped wasp was digging another place, but she gave up before long, as she had tried so many places.I was determined to help him, so I went on with his work, digging down there with my pocketknife.But there was nothing, so I gave up that place too. But soon the red bee came back again, and continued to dig down where I had dug.I saw what it meant, and I created the conditions for it to rekindle its faith in the place. "Go away, you stupid bastard!" the red wasp seemed to say. "Let me tell you whether there are any caterpillars in here!" So I dug in the direction guided by the red bee, and I dug out a caterpillar.Great!Smart red bee!You have lived up to my trust in you!

In this way, I dug up the second caterpillar, and soon I dug up the third and fourth caterpillars.I found that the places where the red bees were digging were all bare soil that had been loosened a few months ago.Other than that, there were no other marks to show where the caterpillars were.Well, Favi, Klanya, Egland and all the rest of you, what do you have to say?You searched for three hours and failed to find a single caterpillar, but this clever red wasp provided me with enough caterpillars. At the same time, I am also proud of my trust and understanding of the red wasp.Yes, I can understand its mind, cooperate closely with it, and complement each other's strengths and weaknesses. The pile of rich "results" is the best proof of our seamless and perfect cooperation. Attacking the Caterpillar I left the fifth caterpillar to the Red Bee, and I was lying on the ground so close to the butcher that no slight movement escaped my attention.Now I want to record the scene that happened before my eyes, paragraph by paragraph. 1. The red wasp clamps the neck of the caterpillar with its mouth, and the caterpillar struggles violently and twists its body.The red bee was not in a hurry, and stepped aside to avoid a violent collision.Its spines are stuck at the joint between the caterpillar's head and the first segment, where the caterpillar's hide is most tender.This is the most fatal blow, the one that puts the caterpillar under complete control of the wasp. 2. The red wasp suddenly left the caterpillar and lay down on the ground, writhing violently, rolling continuously, shaking its feet, and flapping its wings, as if it was dying.I thought it too was mortally wounded by a caterpillar.Watching its life end in this way, I am filled with infinite sympathy for it.But it suddenly returned to normal, flapped its wings, trimmed its beard and hair, and returned to its prey alive and well.The scene I saw just now was actually its performance celebrating victory, not being injured as I thought. 3. The red wasp grabs the back of the caterpillar slightly lower than the first time, and then starts to pierce the second segment of its body with the stinger, which is still at the bottom.It stabs down section by section.There were feet in the first three segments, then no feet in the next two, and feet in the next four, but they were not real feet, but sinking protrusions at best.There are nine sections in total.But as early as the first sting of the red wasp, the caterpillar has little resistance. 4. Finally, the red wasp opened its pincer-like mouth to the maximum width, clamped the caterpillar's head, and gently squeezed it rhythmically, but tried not to hurt it.Every time it is pressed, the red wasp will stop to see how the caterpillar reacts.In this way, one stop, one wait, one press, go on in a cycle.This operation to control the brain cannot be done too violently, otherwise the caterpillar is likely to die.Strange to say, why doesn't the red wasp want it to die? Now the surgeon's operation is over, and the caterpillar is lying on the ground.It won't move, it's barely alive, it's just breathing.Even though it was dragged into the hole by the red wasp, it did not and could not make the slightest resistance.Nor is it capable of harming the wasp larvae that grow on it after the wasp has laid its eggs on it.That's what the red wasp's anesthesia is for: it's preparing food for its future babies.After dragging the caterpillar into the hole, it lays an egg on it.Once the larvae hatch from the eggs, they can feed on the caterpillars.Think about it, what would happen if the caterpillar could still move?As long as it turns around slightly, it can easily crush the eggs of the red wasp!Of course, the caterpillar will not move.But it can't die completely, because if it dies, the body will rot soon, and it will not be suitable for food for the wasp larvae.Therefore, the red wasp stabs into every nerve center of the caterpillar with its venomous stinger, making it lose the ability to move, living half-dead, and automatically "preserving" the future food of the larvae.How thoughtful the red bee is!However, when you watch the process of bringing its prey home, you will find that it is far more thoughtful about things than that.It thought that the caterpillar's head was not injured and its mouth could still move.When it is dragged by the red wasp, it can bite the grass on the ground, which prevents the red wasp from continuing to drag it forward, so the red wasp has to find a way to paralyze the head of the caterpillar.This time it didn't use its stinger because that would kill the caterpillar.It squeezed and rubbed the caterpillar's head continuously, and this method was so perfect that the caterpillar soon lost consciousness, and it was tossed faintly. Although we admire the skills of the red wasp, we can't help but feel sorry for the caterpillars.After all, being cornered by a red wasp is cruel, but if we were farmers we wouldn't have much sympathy for caterpillars.It is the worst enemy of crops and flowers!During the day, they curl up and sleep in the hole, and at night they crawl out to do evil, biting the roots and stems of plants.Whether it is ornamental flowers or edible vegetables, it is a delicious meal for them.Sometimes a seedling wilts for no apparent reason, and if you gently pull it up, you'll find its roots are injured.It turned out that at night, a vicious caterpillar came here, and its scissors-like mouth bit the seedling.It's just as bad as another white caterpillar (the larva of the gold bug).As long as it gets into the beet garden, the garden will suffer a great loss.It is indeed a vermin.The red-striped bee killed it, eliminating harm for the people.There is no need for us to feel sympathy for caterpillars at all.