. The book of bugs. . THE MEMBRANE-WINGED, WASPS AND SUCH. OTHER kinds of insects than the hymenopters, or mem- brane-winged, possess a certain melancholy interest be- cause of their intimate relations to us and what we eat and wear. They may partake of our blood and our food and live in our houses, but they do not partake of our nature. When, ho\vever, we come to the consideration of wasps, bees, ants, and such, we feel a sense of kinship, for these are the men of the six-legged world. They are all nice, clean, intelligent people, and though we may feel fear of them and the way they can bite
. The book of bugs. . THE MEMBRANE-WINGED, WASPS AND SUCH. OTHER kinds of insects than the hymenopters, or mem- brane-winged, possess a certain melancholy interest be- cause of their intimate relations to us and what we eat and wear. They may partake of our blood and our food and live in our houses, but they do not partake of our nature. When, ho\vever, we come to the consideration of wasps, bees, ants, and such, we feel a sense of kinship, for these are the men of the six-legged world. They are all nice, clean, intelligent people, and though we may feel fear of them and the way they can bite and sting, we do not loathe them. They have so much sense, particularly the social kinds; and even if the ant does seem a rattle- brained, fussy creature, invariably going the wrong way and climbing over things that it could far more easily go around, it probably isn't because it doesn't know better, but because it cannot see better. In no other way can 1 account for the fact that when Sir John Lubbock laid a paper-strip path from an ants' nest to a place where he had put their pupae, so that they could either walk nine feet to get home or drop down half an inch, they preferred the walk. They went to the edge and looked over, but they feared the jump, and it never occurred to them to heap earth up so as to make an embankment on which to climb and so save a long trudge. Bees, though quite as intelligent as they need to be, were shown by the same 154. Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original Sutherland, Harvey. New York ; London : Street & Smith
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Keywords: ., bookcollectionamerican, bookcollectionbiodiversity, bookyear1902
