Author : Chicago Academy of Sciences
Publisher : Forgotten Books
Page : 430 pages
File Size : 50,75 MB
Release : 2018-08-29
Category : Science
ISBN : 9781391700014
Excerpt from Bulletin of the Chicago Academy of Sciences, 1883, Vol. 1 True to the habits of the spiders to seek those places for their homes that flies frequent. There is one that makes its home at the top of the leaves spinning its web so that it nearly covers the whole Opening. In each case that I have observed it is the same species but whether it always seeks the pitchers, I cannot state. An insect lighting upon the leaf starts immediately to walk toward the inside. It seldom stops till the smooth place is reached where sooner or later it loses its foot-hold and falls. In some cases they try to fly upward from the bot tom of the pitchers. In but one case have I seen an insect escape in this man ner. This, a beetle, obtained its freedom by flying from one side of the tube to the other till the opening was reached. A slight secretion has been observed by many near the opening of the pitcher. This seemingly has but little power to attract insects, though at times it is quite copious. Mr. Joseph Jackson says, While collecting a few specimens of S. Pur purea. L I was surprised on drawing aside the petals to look at the stamens to see the whole cavity formed by the petals and the peltate expansion of the style filled with flies as large as the common house fly, all busy as could be eating the pollen, of which scarcely a grain could be seen. I counted fourteen flies in one flower. They were in no hurry to vacate the premises. There was a shower coming up at the time. But they were evidently there for food. Nearly every plant examined was filled in the same way. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.