spring-tails. 



31: 



The second species we have named has been found chiefly in the nests of the 

 mason-bee and other sohtary bees. A third species ^ performs a useful service by 

 destroying the Moroccan locust. '■ • 



Spring-tails. 



The simplest group of the true Insects are the spring-tails,- minute creatures 

 with six legs but no wings. Having nothing to develop beyond what they begin 

 hfe with, they undergo no transformation or metamorphosis. Although some 

 of the species must be perfectly familiar to everybody who has done a little gardening, 

 turned over woodland debris, or hunted on a rocky shore for larger objects of natural 

 history, the actual nature and characters of the spring-tails and their nearest allies 

 appear to be known only to a few specialists. In a greenhouse or garden-frame 

 they often swarm, and if watched for a minute or two thev will be seen to indulge 

 in a considerable amount of leaping exercise, 

 though they have no special long legs with 

 thickened thighs as the grasshoppers have for 

 this purpose. The jumping apparatus is of a 

 kind that is special to this order of Insects, 

 and reminds one strongly of the little wooden 

 frogs that are such a delight in childhood. 

 The mechanism of the toy and of the spring- 

 tail Insect is essentially the same. 



The division of the body into three 

 portions, usually so pronounced in adult 

 Insects, is, as a rule, obscure in this group. 

 In most cases there appears to the eye only 

 one division into head and body. By analogy, 

 of course, we know that the three pairs of legs 



are attached to the three segments of the 



Bee-hive Beetle. 



[/;. step, F.L.S. 



The 



This pn-ttily iii.irked beetle, whose actual length is little 

 more than half an inch, is shown on a larger scale. 

 riu- hairy head and fore-body arc blue-black, and the 

 wiiiij-covers are banded with the same colour alternating 

 with baixls of rerl. 



fore-body or trunk, and in a few species this 



fact is made evident by tlie trunk bein 



somewhat broader than the hind-bodx 



insect is covered with scales or hairs — in most 



cases with scales — somewhat similar to those of butterflies' wings, exhibiting under 



the microscope ver}^ elaborate and beautiful markings, which have caused them to be 



used extensively for testing the powers of objective-glasses for that instrument. 



The head bears a pair of antennae or " feelers," and behind these arc the eyes, 

 if any. Some of the species are quite blind, and those tliat have 63/68 have simple 

 ones similar to those seen between the large compound eyes of bees and other 

 Insects. Tiie mouth is not made prominent as in most Insects by projecting jaws 

 or proboscis, in the spring-tails tht> mouth is formed more for sucking than for 

 biting, and owing to the masticatorv aj^paratus being entirely within the mouth, 

 the latter is not at all ob\'ious. 



Just behind the third pair of legs, or to he more exact on the under side of 

 the flrst segment of the hind-bodv, there is a little swelling which opens to permit 



^ Trichodcs amnios. - Collenibola. 



