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1. We have hitherto treated of the external and internal parts of all animals, of their senses, voice, and sleep, with the distinctions between the males and females; it remains to treat of their generation, speaking first of those which come first in order, for they are many, and have numerous varieties, partly dissimilar, and partly like each other. And we will pursue the same order in considering them as we did before in their division into classes; we commenced our consideration by treating of the parts in man, but now he must be treated of last, because he is much more intricate.
2. We shall begin with the testacea, and after these treat of the malacostraca, and the others in the order of their succession. These are the malacia and insects, next to these fishes, both viviparous and oviparous; next to them birds, and afterwards we must treat of animals with feet, whether viviparous or oviparous; some viviparous creatures have four feet, man alone has two feet. The nature of animals and vegetables is similar, for some are produced from the seed of other plants, and others are of spontaneous growth, being derived from some origin of a similar nature. Some of them acquire their nourishment from the soil, others from different plants, as it was observed when treating of plants.
3. So also some animals are produced from animals of a similar form, the origin of others is spontaneous, and not from similar forms; from these and from plants are divided those which spring from putrid matter, this is the case with many insects; others originate in the animals themselves, and from the excrementitious matter in their parts; those which originate from similar animals, and have both the sexes are produced from coition, but of the class of fishes there are some neither male nor female, these belong to the same class among fishes, but to different genera, and some are quite peculiar. In some there are females but no males, by these the species is continued as in the hypenemia among birds.
[Pg 102]4. All these among birds are barren, (for nature is able to complete them as far as the formation of an egg,) unless persons suppose that there is another method of communicating the male influence, concerning which we shall speak more plainly hereafter. In some fish, after the spontaneous production of the ovum, it happens that living creatures are produced, some by themselves, others by the aid of the male. The manner in which this is done will be made plain in a future place, for nearly the same things take place in the class of birds.
5. Whatever are produced spontaneously in living creatures, in the earth, or in plants, or in any part of them, have a distinction in the sexes, and by the union of the sexes something is produced, not the same in any respect, but an imperfect animal, as nits are produced from lice, and from flies and butterflies are produced egg-like worms, from which neither similar creatures are produced, nor any other creature, but such things only. First of all, then, we will treat of coition, and of the animals that copulate, and then of others, and successively of that which is peculiar to each, and that which is common to them all.
1. Those animals in which there is a distinction of the sexes use sexual intercourse, but the mode of this intercourse is not the same in all, for all the males of sanguineous animals with feet have an appropriate organ, but they do not all approach the female in the same manner, but those which are retromingent, as the lion, the hare, and the lynx, unite backwards, and the female hare often mounts upon the male; in almost all the rest the mode is the same, for most animals perform the act of intercourse in the same way, the male mounting upon the female; and birds perform it in this way only.
2. There are, however, some variations even among birds; for the male sometimes unites with the female as she sits upon the ground, as the bustard and domestic fowl: in others, the female does not sit upon the ground, as the crane; for in these birds the male unites with the female standing up; and the act is performed very quickly, as in sparrows. Bears lie down during the act of intercourse, [Pg 103] which is performed in the same manner as in those that stand on their feet, the abdomen of the male being placed upon the back of the female: in the hedgehogs, the abdomens of both sexes are in contact.
3. Among the large animals, the roe-deer seldom admits the stag, nor the cow the bull, on account of the hardness of the penis; but the female receives the male by submission. This has been observed to take place in tame deer. The male and female wolf copulate like dogs. Cats do not approach each other backwards, but the male stands erect, and the female places herself beneath him. The females are very lascivious, and invite the male, and make a noise during the intercourse.
4. Camels copulate as the female is lying down, and the male embraces and unites with her, not backwards, but like other animals. They remain in intercourse a whole day. They retire into a desert place, and suffer no one to approach them but their feeder. The penis of the camel is so strong, that bowstrings are made of it. Elephants also retire into desert places for intercourse, especially by the sides of rivers which they usually frequent. The female bends down and divides her legs, and the male mounts upon her. The seal copulates like retromingent animals, and is a long while about it, like dogs. The males have a large penis.
1. Oviparous quadrupeds with feet copulate in the same manner: in some, the male mounts upon the female, like viviparous animals, as in the marine and land turtle, for they have an intromittent organ by which they adhere together, as the trygon and frog, and all such animals.
2. But the apodous long animals, as serpents and murn, are folded together, with the abdomens opposite, and serpents roll themselves together so closely, that they seem to be but one serpent with two heads. The manner of the whole race of saurians is the same, for they unite together in the same kind of fold.
1. All fish, except the flat selache, perform the act of intercourse by approaching each other with their abdomens [Pg 104] opposite: but the flat fish, with tails, as the batos, trygon, and such like, not only approach each other, but the male applies his abdomen to the back of the female, in all those in which the thickness of the tail offers no impediment. But the rhin, and those which have a large tail, perform the act by the friction of their abdomens against each other, and some persons say that they have seen the male selache united to the back of the female, like dogs.
2. In all those that resemble the selache, the female is larger than the male; and in nearly all fish the female is larger than the male. The selache are those which have been mentioned; and the bos, lamia, etus, narce, batrachus, and all the galeode. All the selache have been frequently observed to conduct themselves in this way. In all viviparous creatures the act occupies a longer time than in the oviparous. The dolphin and the cetacea also perform the act in the same manner, for the male attaches himself to the female for neither a very long, nor a very short time.
3. The males of some of the fish which resemble the selache differ from the females, in having two appendages near the anus, which the females have not, as in the galeodea; for these appendages exist in them all. Neither fish nor any other apodal animal has testicles, but the males, both of serpents and of fish, have two passages, which become full of a seminal fluid at the season of coition; and all of them project a milky fluid. These passages unite in one, as they do in birds; for birds have two internal testes, and so have all oviparous animals with feet. In the act of coition this single passage passes to, and is extended upon the pudendum and receptacle of the female.
4. In viviparous animals with feet, the external passage for the semen and the fluid excrement is the same: internally these passages are distinct, as I said before in describing the distinctive parts of animals. In animals which have no bladder, the anus is externally united with the passage of the semen, internally the passages are close together; and this is the same in both sexes: for none of them have a bladder, except the tortoise. The female of this animal, though furnished with a bladder, has but one passage; but the tortoise is oviparous.
5. The sexual intercourse of the oviparous fish is less evident, [Pg 105] wherefore many persons suppose that the female is impregnated by swallowing the semen of the male; and they have been frequently observed to do this. This is seen at the season of coition, when the females follow the males, and are observed to strike them on the abdomen with their mouths, this causes the males to eject their semen more rapidly. The males do the same with the ova of the females, for they swallow them as they are extruded, and the fish are born from those ova which remain.
6. In Phnicia they use each sex for capturing the other; for having taken the male cestreus, they entice the females with it, and so enclose them in a net. They use the females in the same way for catching the males. The frequent observation of these circumstances appears to corroborate this manner of intercourse among them. Quadrupeds also do the same thing, for at the season of coition both sexes emit a fluid, and smell to each other's pudenda.
7. And if the wind blows from the cock partridge to the hen, these last are impregnated; and often, if they hear the voice of the cock when they are inclined for sexual intercourse, or if he flies over them, they become pregnant from the breath of the cock. During the act of intercourse, both sexes open their mouths, and protrude their tongues. The true intercourse of oviparous fish is rarely observed, from the rapidity with which the act is accomplished; for their intercourse has been observed to take place in the manner described.
1. All the malacia, as the polypus, sepia, and teuthis, approach each other in the same manner, for they are united mouth to mouth; the tentacula of one sex being adapted to those of the other; for when the polypus has fixed the part called the head upon the ground, it extends its tentacula, which the other adapts to the expansion of its tentacula, and they make their acetabula answer together. And some persons say that the male has an organ like a penis in that one of its tentacula which contains the two largest acetabula. This organ is sinewy, as far as the middle of the tentaculum, and they say that it is all inserted into the nostril of the female.
[Pg 106]2. The sepia and loligo swim about coiled together in this way, and with their mouths and tentacula united, they swim in contrary directions to each other. They adapt the organ called the nostril of the male to the similar organ in the female; and the one swims forwards, and the other backwards. The ova of the female are produced in the part called the physeter, by means of which some persons say that they copulate.
1. The malacostraca, as the carabi, astaci, carides, and such like perform the act of intercourse like the retromingent animals, the one lying upon its back, and the other placing its tail upon it. They copulate on the approach of spring, near the land; for their sexual intercourse has often been observed, and sometimes when the figs begin to ripen.
2. The astaci and the carides perform the act in the same manner; but the carcini approximate the fore part of their bodies to each other, and adapt also the folds of their tails to each other. First of all, the smaller carcinus mounts from behind, and when he has mounted, the greater one turns on its side. In no other respect does the female differ from the male, but that the tail, which is folded on the body, is larger and more distant, and more thick set with appendages: upon this the ova are deposited, and the excrement ejected. Neither sex is furnished with an intromittent organ.
1. Insects approach each other from behind, and the smaller one subsequently mounts upon the larger. The male is always the smaller. The female, which is below, inserts a member into the male, which is above, and not the male into the female, as in other animals. In some kinds this organ appears large in proportion to the size of the body, especially in those that are small, in others it is less. The organ may be plainly discerned if two flies are separated while in the act of coition. They are separated from each other with difficulty, for the act of intercourse in such animals occupies a long time. This may be plainly discerned by common observation, as in the fly and cantharis.
2. All adopt the same method, the fly, cantharis, spondyla[160], [Pg 107] phalangium, or any other insect that copulates. All the phalangia that spin a web unite in the following manner. The female draws a filament from the middle of the web, and then the male draws it back again, and this they do a great many times till they meet, and are united backwards, for this kind of copulation suits them on account of the size of their abdomen. The copulation of animals is accomplished in this manner.
1. All animals have their proper season and age for coition; the nature of most creatures requires them to have intercourse with each other when winter is turning into summer. This is the spring season, in which all animals with wings, feet, or fins, are incited to coition. Some copulate and produce their young in the autumn and winter, as some aquatic and winged creatures. Mankind are ready at all seasons, and so are many other animals which associate with man; this arises from greater warmth, and better food, and is usual among those which are pregnant only for a short time, as the hog, dog, and those birds which have frequent broods. Many animals appear to adapt the season of coition to that which they consider the best for the nurture of their young.
2. Among mankind the male is more disposed for sexual intercourse in the winter, and the female in the summer. Birds, as I have observed, generally pair in the spring and summer, except the halcyon. This bird hatches its young about the time of the winter solstice. Whereupon fine days occurring at this season are called halcyon days, seven before the solstice and seven after it. As Simonides also writes in his poems, "as when in the winter months Jupiter prepares fourteen days, which mortals call the windless season, the sacred nurse of the variegated halcyon."
3. These fine days take place wherever it happens that the solstice turns to the south, when the pleiades set in the north. The bird is said to occupy seven days in building its nest, and the other seven in bringing out and nursing its young. The halcyon days are not always met with in this [Pg 108] country at the time of the solstice, but they always occur in the Sicilian Sea. The halcyon produces five eggs.
4. The thuia and the larus hatch their young among the rocks on the sea-side, and produce two or three, the larus during the summer, and the thuia at the beginning of the spring, immediately after the equinox; it sets upon its eggs like other birds; neither of these kinds conceal themselves. The halcyon is the rarest of all, for it is only seen at the season of the setting of the pleiades, and at the solstice, and it first appears at seaports, flying as much as round a ship, and immediately vanishing away. Stesichorus also speaks of it in the same manner.
5. The nightingale produces her young at the beginning of summer. She produces five or six eggs. She conceals herself from the autumn to the beginning of spring. Insects copulate and produce their young during the winter whenever the days are fine, and the wind in the south, at least such of them as do not conceal themselves, as the fly and ant. Wild animals produce their young once a year, unless, like the hare, they breed while they are nursing their young.
1. Fish also generally breed once a year, as the chyti. All those which are caught in a net are called chyti; the thynnus, palamis, cestreus, chalais, colias, chromis, psetta, and such like, the labrax is an exception, for this alone of them all breeds twice a year, and the second fry of these are much weaker. The trichias[161] and rock fish breed twice, the trigla is the only one that breeds three times a year. This is shewn by the fry, which appear three times at certain places.
2. The scorpius breeds twice, and so does the sargus, in spring and autumn, the salpa once only in the spring. The thynnis breeds once, but as some of the fry are produced at first, and others afterwards, it appears to breed twice. The first fry makes its appearance in the month of December, after the solstice, the second in the spring. The male thynnis is different from the female, for the female has a fin under the abdomen, called aphareus, which the male has not.
3. Among the selachea, the rhine alone breeds twice in the year; at the beginning of the autumn, and at the period [Pg 109] of the setting of the Pleiades. The young are, however, better in the autumn. At each breeding season it produces seven or eight. Some of the galei, as the asterias, seem to produce their ova twice every month. This arises from all the ova not being perfected at once.
4. Some fish produce ova at all seasons of the year, as the murna: for this fish produces many ova, and the fry rapidly increase in size, as do those also of the hippurus,[162] for these, from being very small, rapidly increase to a great size; but the murna produces young at all seasons, the hippurus in the spring. The smyrus differs from the murna, for the murna is throughout variegated and weak. The smyrus is of one colour, and strong; its colour is that of the pine tree, and it has teeth both internally and externally. They say that these are the male and the female, as in others. These creatures go upon the land, and are often taken.
5. The growth of all fish is rapid, and not the least so in the coracinus among small fish. It breeds near the land, in thick places full of seaweed. The orphos also grows rapidly. The pelamis and thynnus breed in Pontus, and nowhere else. The cestreus, chrysophrys, and labrax, breed near the mouths of rivers. The orcynes and scorpides, and many other kinds, in the sea.
6. Most fish breed in March, April, and May; a few in the autumn, as the salpe, sargus, and all the others of this kind a little before the autumnal equinox; and the narce and rhine also. Some breed in the winter and summer, as I before observed, as the labrax, cestreus, and belona in the winter; the thynnis in June, about the summer solstice: it produces, as it were, a bag, containing many minute ova. The rhyas also breeds in the summer. The chelones among the cestri begin to breed in the month of December, and so does the sargus, the myxon, as it is called, and the cephalus. They go with young thirty days. Some of the cestrei do not originate in coition, but are produced from mud and sand.
7. The greater number of them contain ova in the spring, but some, as I observed, in the summer, autumn, and winter. But this does not take place in all alike, [Pg 110] nor singly, nor in every kind, as it does in most fish which produce their young in the spring: nor do they produce as many ova at other seasons. But it must not escape our notice, that as different countries make a great difference in plants and animals, not only in the habit of their body, but also in the frequency of their sexual intercourse and production of young; so different localities make a great difference in fish, not only in their size, and habit of their body, but in their young, and the frequency or rarity of their sexual intercourse, and of their offspring in this place or that.
1. The malacia breed in the spring, and first of all the marine sepia, though this one breeds at all seasons. It produces its ova in fifteen days. When the ova are extruded, the male follows, and ejects his ink upon them, when they become hard. They go about in pairs. The male is more variegated than the female, and blacker on the back. The sexes of the polypus unite in the winter, the young are produced in the spring, when these creatures conceal themselves for two months. It produces an ovum like long hair, similar to the fruit of the white poplar. The fecundity of this animal is very great, for a great number of young are produced from its ova. The male differs from the female in having a longer head, and the part of the tentaculum which the fishermen call the penis is white. It incubates upon the ova it produces, so that it becomes out of condition, and is not sought after at this season.
2. The purpur produce their ova in the spring, the ceryx at the end of the winter; and, on the whole, the testacea appear to contain ova in the spring and autumn, except the eatable echini. These principally produce their young at the same seasons, but they always contain some ova, and especially at the full and new moon, and in fine weather, but those which live in the Euripus of the Pyrrhi are better in winter. They are a small kind but full of ova. All the cochle appear to contain ova at the same season.
1. The undomesticated birds, as it was observed, generally pair and breed once a-year. The swallows and cottyphus [Pg 111] breed twice, but the first brood of the cottyphus is killed by the cold, for it is the earliest breeder of all birds. It is able, however, to bring up the other brood. But the domestic birds, and those capable of domestication, breed frequently, as pigeons during the whole summer, and domestic fowls. For these birds have sexual intercourse, and produce eggs all the year round, except at the winter solstice.
2. There are many kinds of pigeons, for the peleias and peristera are different. The peleias is the smaller, but the peristera is more readily tamed. The peleias is black and small, and has red and rough feet, for which reason it is never domesticated. The phatta is the largest of the tribe, the next is the nas, which is a little larger than the peristera, the trygon is the least of all. If the peristera is supplied with a warm place and appropriate food, it will breed and bring up its young at any season of the year. If it is not properly supplied, it will only breed in the summer. Its young ones are best during the spring and autumn, those produced in the hot weather in summer are the worst.
1. Animals also differ in the age at which sexual intercourse commences. For in the first place the period at which the spermatic fluid begins to be secreted, and the age of puberty is not the same, but different; for the young of all animals are barren, or if they do possess the power of reproduction, their offspring are weak and small. This is very conspicuous in mankind, and in viviparous quadrupeds and birds, for in the one the offspring, in the other the eggs, are small. The age of puberty is nearly the same in the individuals of each kind, unless any alteration takes place, either as ominous, or from an injury done to their nature.
2. In men this period of life is shown by the change of voice, and not only by the size but by the form of the pudendum and of the breasts in women, but especially by the growth of hair on the pubes. The secretion of the spermatic fluid commences about the age of fourteen, the power of reproduction at twenty-one. Other animals have no hair on the pubes, for some have no hair at all, and [Pg 112] others have none upon their under side, or less than on their upper side, but the change of the voice is conspicuous in some of them. And in others different parts of the body signify the period of the formation of the semen, and of the power of reproduction.
3. In almost all animals the voice of the female and of the young is more acute than that of the male and the older animals, for even the stags have a deeper voice than their females. The males utter their cry at the season of copulation, the females when they are alarmed. The voice of the female is short, that of the male longer. And the barking of old dogs is also deeper than of young ones, and the voice of the horse also varies. The females utter a little small cry as soon as they are born, and the males do the same, but their voice is deeper than that of the female, and as they grow older, it still increases. When they are two years old, and reach puberty, the male utters a great deep voice, that of the female is greater and clearer than it was at first; this continues till they are twenty years old at the outside, and after that the voice, both of the male and female, becomes weaker.
4. For the most part, then, as we observed, the voice of the male differs from that of the female in depth, in those animals which utter a lengthened sound. There are, however, some exceptions, as oxen; for in these animals the voice of the female is deeper than that of the male, and the voice of the calf than that of the full-grown animal; wherefore also in the castrated animals, the voice changes the other way, for it becomes more like that of the female.
5. The following are the ages at which animals acquire the power of reproduction. The sheep and goat arrive at puberty within a year after they are born, and especially the goat, and the males as well as the females, but the offspring of these males and of the others is different. For the males are better the second year than when they become older. In hogs, the male and female unite at eight months old, and the female produces her young when she is a year old, for this agrees with the period of gestation. The male reaches puberty at eight months old, but his offspring are useless till he is a year old. But these periods, as we have said, are not always the same, for swine will [Pg 113] sometimes copulate when they are four months old, so as to have young and nurse them at six months old, and boars sometimes reach puberty at ten months old, and continue good to three years old.
6. The bitch reaches puberty within a year after birth, and so does the dog, and sometimes this takes place at the end of eight months, but more frequently in the male than in the female. The period of gestation is sixty days, or one or two, or perhaps three days more, but never less than sixty days, or if they produce young in a less time, it never comes to perfection. The bitch is ready for sexual intercourse again in six months, but never sooner. The horse reaches puberty in both sexes at two years old, and is capable of reproduction, but its offspring at that age are small and weakly. For the most part, sexual intercourse begins at three years of age, and the colts continue to improve from that period till they are twenty years old. The male is useful till he is thirty years old, so that he can beget during almost the whole of his life, for the horse generally lives five-and-thirty years, and the mare more than forty, and a horse has been known to live seventy-five years.
7. The ass reaches puberty in both sexes at the age of thirty months; they rarely, however, produce young till they are three years, or three years and six months old. But it has been known to be pregnant and bring up its young within the year. The cow also has been known to produce young and rear it within the year after birth, which grew to the ordinary size, and no more.[163]
8. These are the periods of puberty in these animals. The seventieth year in man, and the fiftieth in woman, is the latest period of reproduction, and this happens rarely, for only a few have had children at this time of life. Sixty-five is generally the boundary in one sex, and forty-five in the other. The sheep produces young till it is eight years old, and, if well treated, until it is eleven, though the act of copulation is continued in both sexes during the whole period of life.
9. Fat goats are rarely productive, wherefore they compare barren vines with barren goats, but they are productive [Pg 114] when they are lean. The rams copulate with the old sheep first, but they do not follow after the younger; and the younger, as I before observed, produce a smaller offspring than the older.
10. A wild boar will beget till he is three years old, but the progeny of older animals is inferior; for he has not the same power or strength. He generally goes to the female when full of food, and without having been to another female, or, if not, the act of coition is of shorter duration, and the progeny smaller. The sow produces the smallest number of pigs at her first litter, but at the second they are more flourishing. She also produces young when old, but the act of coition is longer. At fifteen years old, she no longer produces young, but becomes fierce.
11. If well-fed, she will be more ready for sexual intercourse, whether young or old; and, if rapidly fattened when pregnant, she has less milk after parturition. As regards the age of the parent, the young of those in the prime of their age are the best, and those that are born at the beginning of winter. The worst are those born in the summer, for they are small, and thin, and weak. If the male is well fed, he is ready for sexual intercourse at all seasons, by day as well as by night; but if not well fed, he is most ready in the morning, and as he grows old, he becomes less disposed for it, as was said before. And it frequently happens that those which are impotent, through age or weakness, and cannot copulate readily, will approach the female as she lies down tired with long standing. The sow generally becomes pregnant when she hangs down her ears in her heats; if she is not pregnant, she becomes heated again.
12. Bitches do not copulate during the whole of their life, but only to a certain period. Their coition and pregnancy generally takes place till they are twelve years old, but both males and females have been known to perform the act of coition at eighteen and even twenty years of age; but old age takes away from both sexes the power of reproduction, as in other animals.
13. The camel is retroningent, and performs the act of intercourse in the manner already described; the period of its coition in Arabia is in the month of September; the [Pg 115] female goes with young twelve months, and produces one foal, for the animal is one of those which produce but one. Both the male and female arrive at puberty at the age of three years, and the female is ready for the male again at the end of a year after parturition.
14. The elephant arrives at puberty, the earliest at ten years of age, the latest at fifteen, and the male at five or six years old. The season for the intercourse of the sexes is in the spring: and the male is ready again at the end of three years, but he never touches again a female whom he has once impregnated. Her period of gestation is two years, and then she produces one calf, for the elephant belongs to the class of animals which have but one young one at a time. The young one is as large as a calf of two or three months old. This, then, is the nature of the sexual intercourse of those animals which perform this function.
1. We must now treat of the mode of reproduction, both of those animals which use sexual intercourse, and those which do not; and, first of all, we will speak of the testacea, for this is the only entire class which is not reproduced by sexual intercourse. The purpur collect together in the spring, and produce what is called their nidamental capsules (melicera), for it is like honey-comb, though not so deeply cut, but, as it were, made up of the white pods of vetches. These capsules have neither opening nor perforation, nor are the purpur produced from them; but both these and other testacea are produced from mud and putrefaction. But this substance is an excrementitious matter both in the purpura and the ceryx, for these last also produce similar capsules.
2. The testacea which produce these capsules are generated in the same way as the rest of their class, but more readily when there are homogeneous particles pre-existing among them; for, when they deposit their nidamental capsules, they emit a clammy mucus, from which the scales of the capsules are formed. When all these have been deposited, they emit upon the ground a sort of chyle, and small purpur spring up upon the same spot and adhere to the larger purpur, though some of these can hardly be distinguished [Pg 116] by their form. But if they are taken before the breeding season, they will sometimes breed in the baskets, not indeed anywhere, but they collect together like they do in the sea, and the narrow limits of their place of captivity make them hang together like bunches of fruit.
3. There are many kinds of purpur, some of which are large, as those which are found near Sigeum and Lectum; and others are small, as those in the Euripus and on the Carian coast. Those found in gulfs are large and rough. Most of them contain a black pigment; in others it is red, and the quantity of it small. Some of the largest weigh as much as a mina. Near the shore and on the coast they are small, and the pigment is red. Those which are natives of the north contain a black pigment; in those of the south it is red, generally speaking.
4. They are taken in the spring, about the time that they deposit their capsules, but they are never taken during the dog-days, for then they do not feed, but conceal themselves and get out of the way. The pigment is contained between the mecon and the neck. The union of these parts is thick, and the colour is like a white membrane; this is taken away. When this is bruised, the pigment wets and stains the hand. Something resembling a vein passes through it, and this appears to be the pigment; the nature of the rest resembles alum.[164] The pigment is the worst at the period of depositing their nidamental capsules.
5. The small ones are pounded up, shells and all, for it is not easy to separate them; but they separate the larger kinds from the shells, and then extract the pigment. For this purpose the mecon is divided from the neck, for the pigment lies above the part called the stomach, and when this is taken away, they are divided asunder. They are careful to bruise them while alive, for if they die before they are cut up, they vomit up the pigment; for this reason they keep them in the baskets till a sufficient number is collected, and there is time to procure the pigment.
6. The ancients did not let down or fasten any basket-net to their baits, so that it often happened that the purpura fell off as they were drawn up; but at the present time they [Pg 117] use basket-nets, in order that if the purpura should fall off, it may not be lost. They are most likely to fall off when full, but when empty it is difficult to draw them from the bait. These are the peculiarities of the purpura. The nature of the ceryx is the same as that of the purpura, and so are their seasons.
7. They both have opercula, and so have all turbinated shell-fish, from the period of their birth. They feed by forcing out their tongue, as it is called, beneath the operculum: the purpura has a tongue larger than a finger, with which it feeds upon and pierces the conchylia, and even the shells of its own species. Both the purpura and the ceryx are long-lived, for the purpura lives six years, and its annual increase is seen in the divisions on the helix of its shell.
8. The mya also deposits nidamental capsules; those which are called limnostrea are the first to originate in muddy places, but the conch, chem, solens, and pectens find their subsistence in sandy shores; the pinn grow up from their byssus both in sandy and muddy shores. The pinn always contain a pinnophylax, either like a small caris or cancer, and soon die when this is extracted. On the whole, all the testacea are produced spontaneously in mud different kinds originating in different sorts of mud: the ostrea is found in mud, the conch and others that have been mentioned in sand. The tethya, balanus, and others which live on the surface, as the patella and nerita, originate in holes in the rocks. All these reach maturity very soon, especially the purpur and pectens, for they are matured in one year.
9. Very small white cancri are produced in some of the testacea, especially in the my that inhabit muddy places, and next to this in the pinn those which are called pinnoter; they occur also in the pectens and limnostrea. These animals apparently never grow; and the fishermen say that they are produced at the same time as the creatures they inhabit. The pectens disappear for some time in the sand, and so do the purpur. The ostrea (bivalves) are produced in the manner described, for some of them originate in shallow water, others near the shore, or among rocks, or in rough hard places, or in sand; and some have the power of locomotion, others have not.
[Pg 118]10. Among those that are not locomotive, the pinn are fixed; the solens and conch remain on one spot, though not fixed, and do not survive separation from their home. The nature of the aster[165] is so hot, that if it is captured immediately after swallowing anything, its food is found digested; and they say that it is very troublesome in the Pyrrhan Euripus. Its form is like the paintings of a star. The creatures called pneumones are spontaneously produced. The shell which painters use is very thick, and the pigment is produced on the outside of the shell; they are principally found in the neighbourhood of Caria.
11. The carcinium also originates in earth and mud, and afterwards makes its way into an empty shell, and when it grows too large for that, it leaves it for a larger one, as the shell of the nerita, strombus, and such like; it frequently occurs in the small ceryx. When it has entered the shell, it carries it about and lives in it, except that as it grows it migrates into a larger shell.
1. The nature of the testacea is the same as that of creatures without shells, as the cnid[166] and sponges, which inhabit the holes in rocks. There are two kinds of cnid, some which live in holes in the rocks, and cannot be separated from them, and other migrating species which live upon the smooth flat surface of the rocks. (The patella also is free and locomotive.) In the interior of the sponges are found the creatures called pinnophylaces, and the interior is closed with a net like a spider's web, and small fish are captured by opening and closing this web, for it opens as they approach, and closes upon them when they have entered.
2. There are three kinds of sponges; one of them is thin, the other is thick, and the third, which is called the Achillean sponge, is slender, compact, and very strong; it is placed beneath helmets and thigh-pieces, for the sake of deadening the sound of blows; this kind is very rare. Among the compact kinds, those which are very hard and rough are called tragi. They all grow upon the rock or near the shore, and obtain their food from the mud. This is evident, for they are full of mud when they are captured. This is [Pg 119] the case with all other fixed things, that they derive their food from the spot to which they are attached.
3. The compact species are weaker than those which are thin, because their point of attachment is smaller. It is affirmed that the sponge possesses sensation; this is a proof of it, that it contracts if it perceives any purpose of tearing it up, and renders the task more difficult. The sponge does the same thing when the winds and waves are violent, that it may not lose its point of attachment. There are some persons who dispute this, as the natives of Torona. The sponge is inhabited by worms and other living creatures, which the rock-fish eat when the sponge is torn up, as well as the remainder of its roots. But if the sponge is broken off, it grows again, and is completed from the portion that is left.
4. The thin sponges are the largest, and they are most abundant on the Lycian coast; the compact sponges are softer, and the Achillean are more harsh than the others. On the whole, those that inhabit deep places with a mild temperature are the softest, for wind and cold weather harden them, as they do other growing things, and stop their increase. For this reason the sponges of the Hellespont are rough and compact; and, altogether, those beyond Malea, and those on this side, differ in softness and hardness.
5. Neither should the heat be very great, for the sponge becomes rotten, like plants, wherefore those near the shore are the best, especially if the water is deep near the land, for the temperature is moderated by the depth. When alive, before they are washed, they are black. Their point of attachment is neither single nor dispersed over the whole surface, for there are empty passages between the points of attachment. Something like a membrane is extended over their lower part, and the attachment is by several points; on the upper part are other closed passages, and four or five which are apparent. Wherefore some persons say that these are the organs by which they take their food.
6. There is also another species called aplysia, because it cannot be washed. This has very large passages; but the other parts of the substance are quite compact. When cut open it is more compact and smooth than the sponge, and [Pg 120] the whole is like a lung; of all the sponges this one is confessed to have the most sensation, and to be the most enduring. They are plainly seen in the sea near the sponges, for the other sponges are white as the mud settles down upon them, but these are always black. This is the mode of production in sponges and testacea.
1. Among the malacostraca the carabi are impregnated by sexual intercourse, and contain their ova during three months, May, June, and July. They afterwards deposit them upon the hollow part of their folded tail, and their ova grow like worms. The same thing takes place in the malacia and oviparous fish, for their ova always grow.
2. The ova of the carabi are sandy, and divided into eight parts; for a cartilaginous appendage, round which the ova are attached, is united to each of the opercula at their junction with the side; and the whole resembles a bunch of grapes, for every one of the cartilaginous appendages is frequently subdivided, and the divisions are apparent to any one who will separate them, but when first seen they appear to be united. Those ova which are in the centre are larger than those which are contiguous to the perforation, and the last are the least.
3. The smallest ova are as large as millet; the ova are not continuous with the perforation, but in the middle. For two divisions extend on each side, from the tail and from the thorax, and this is also the line of junction for the opercula. The ova, which are placed at the side, cannot be enclosed, unless the extremity of the tail is drawn over them; this, however, covers them like a lid.
4. The female, in depositing her ova, appears to collect them on the cartilaginous appendages by means of the broad part of the folded tail. She produces them by pressing with her tail and bending her body. These cartilaginous processes at the season of oviposition increase in size, in order to become appropriate receptacles for the ova. The ova are deposited on these processes, as those of the sepia are deposited upon broken pieces of wood or anything floating in the sea. This is the [Pg 121] manner of depositing them; but after they have been ripened twenty days, they are cast off altogether in a mass, as they appear when separated from the parent; in fifteen days, at the outside, the carabi are produced from these ova, and they are often taken off less than a finger's length. The ova are produced before Arcturus, and after Arcturus they are cast off.
5. The cyph among the carides contain their ova about four months. The carabi are found in rough and rocky places, the astaci in those that are smooth; but neither of them inhabit mud. For this cause the astaci are found in the Hellespont and near Thasus; the carabi in the neighbourhood of Sigeum and Athos. Fishermen, when they pursue their calling in the open sea, distinguish the rough and muddy places by the nature of the shore, and other signs. In the spring and winter they come near the shore; in summer time they go into deep water, sometimes for the sake of warmth, and sometimes for the cold.
6. Those called arcti[167] breed nearly at the same time as the carabi, wherefore they are most excellent in winter and in spring before the breeding season, and they are worst after they have deposited their ova. They change their shell in the spring, like the serpent, which puts off its old age, as it is called. Both the carabi and the carcini do this when they are young, as well as afterwards. All the carabi are long-lived.
1. The malacia produce a white ovum after sexual intercourse; in the course of time this becomes sandy, like that of the testacea. The polypus deposits its ova in holes or pots, or any other hollow place; the ovum is like bunches of the wild vine and of the white poplar, as was observed before; when the ova are produced they remain suspended from the hole in which they were deposited; and the ova are so numerous, that when taken out they will fill a vessel much larger than the head of the polypus in which they were contained.
2. About fifty days afterwards the young polypi burst the eggs and escape, like phalangia, in great numbers. The particular shape of each limb is not distinct, though the general [Pg 122] form is plain. Many of them perish from their small size and debility. Some have been observed so small that they could not be distinguished, unless they were touched, when they were seen to move.
3. The sepia also deposits eggs, which resemble large, black, myrtle seeds. They are united together like a bunch of fruit, and are enclosed in a substance which prevents them from separating readily. The male emits his ink upon them, a mucous fluid, which causes their slippery appearance. The ova increase in this way; and when first produced they are white, but when they have touched the ink they become large and black. When the young sepia, which is entirely formed of the internal white of the ovum, is produced, it makes its way out by the rupture of the membrane of the ovum.
4. The ovum which the female first produces is like hail, and to this the young sepia is attached by the head, as birds are attached to the abdomen. The nature of the umbilical attachment has never been observed, except that as the sepia increases the white always becomes less, and at last entirely disappears, like the yolk of the eggs of birds.
5. The eyes are at first very large in these as in other animals, as in the diagram. The ovum is seen at A, the eyes at B and C, and the embryo sepia itself at D. The female contains ova during the spring. The ova are produced in fifteen days; and when the ova are produced they remain for fifteen days longer like the small seeds of grapes, and when these are ruptured the young sepias escape from the inside. If a person divides them before they have reached maturity, the young sepias emit their fces and vary in colour, and turn from white to red from alarm.
6. The crustaceans incubate upon their ova, which are placed beneath them; but the polypus and sepia and such like incubate upon their ova wherever they may be deposited, and especially the sepia, for the female has often been observed with her abdomen upon the ground, but the female polypus has been observed sometimes placed upon her ova, and sometimes upon her mouth, holding with her tentacula over the hole in which the ova were deposited. The sepia deposits her ova upon the ground among fuci and reeds, or upon any thing thrown in the water, as wood, branches, [Pg 123] or stones; and the fishermen are careful to place branches of trees in the water. Upon these they deposit their long and united ova like branches of fruit.
7. The ova are deposited and produced by repeated exertion, as if the parturition were accompanied with pain. The teuthis oviposits in the sea. The ova, like those of the sepia, are united together. Both the teuthus and sepia are short-lived, for very few of them survive a year. The same is the case with the polypus. Each egg produces one small sepia, and so also in the teuthis. The male teuthus differs from the female; for if the hair (branchia) are drawn aside, the female will be seen to have two red substances like mamm, which the male does not possess. The sepia also has the same sexual distinction, and is more variegated than the female, as I observed before.
1. It has already been observed that the male insects are less than the female, and that the male mounts upon the female; and the manner of their sexual intercourse has been described, and the difficulty of separating them. Most of them produce their young very soon after sexual intercourse. All the kinds except some psych (butterflies and moths) produce worms. These produce a hard substance, like the seed of the cnecus,[168] which is fluid within. From the worm an animal is produced, but not from a portion of it, as if it were an ovum, but the whole grows and becomes an articulated animal.
2. Some of them are produced from similar animals, as phalangia and spiders from phalangia and spiders, and attelabi,[169] locusts, and grasshoppers. Others do not originate in animals of the same species, but their production is spontaneous, for some of them spring from the dew which falls upon plants. The origin of these is naturally in the spring, though they often appear in the winter, if fine weather and south winds occur for any length of time. Some originate in rotten mud and dung; and others in the fresh wood of plants or in dry wood; others among the hair of animals, or in their flesh, or excrements, whether ejected, or still existing in the body, as those which are called helminthes.
[Pg 124]3. There are three kinds of these, the flat worms, the round worms, and those which are called ascarides. From these creatures nothing is produced; but the broad worm is attached to the intestine, and produces something like the seed of the colocynth, and this is used by physicians as a proof of the presence of the worm.
4. Butterflies are produced from caterpillars; and these originate in the leaves of green plants, especially the rhaphahus, which some persons call crambe. At first they are smaller than millet, afterwards they grow into little worms, in three days they become small caterpillars, afterwards they grow and become motionless, and change their form. In this state the creature is called chrysalis. It has a hard covering, but moves when it is touched. They are united to something by weblike processes, and have no mouth nor any other visible organ. After a short time the covering is burst, and a winged animal escapes, which is called a butterfly.
5. At first, while in the caterpillar state, they take food and evacuate fces, but in the chrysalis state they do neither. The same is the case with all other creatures which originate in worms, and those which produce worms after sexual intercourse, or even without this process; for the offspring of bees, anthren, and wasps, while they are young worms, consume food and evacuate excrement, but when from worms they receive their conformation they are called nymph, and neither feed nor evacuate, but remain quiet in their covering until they are grown. They then make their escape by cutting through a place where the cell is fastened on.
6. The penia[170] and hypera[171] also are produced from a kind of campe (caterpillar) which make a wave as they walk, and as they advance bend the hinder extremity up to that which has preceded. The creature produced always derives its colour from the campe in which it originates. A certain great worm, which has as it were horns, and differs from others, at its first metamorphosis produces a campe, afterwards a bombylius, and lastly a necydalus. It passes through all these forms in six months. From this animal some women unroll and separate the bombycina (cocoons), and afterwards weave them. It is [Pg 125] said that this was first woven in the island of Cos by Pamphila, the daughter of Plateos.
7. From the worms in dry wood the insects called carabi are produced in the same manner; for at first they are immoveable worms, and afterwards the carabi are produced by the rupture of their case. The crambides originate in the plant called crambe, and these also have wings, and the prasocurides from the plant called prasum (onion). The stri are produced from the little flat creatures that are found on the surface of rivers. Wherefore also they congregate in the greatest numbers around the waters where such animals are found. The kind of pygolampis which has no wings originates in a small, black, hairy caterpillar. These undergo another change, and turn into the winged creatures called bostrychi.
8. The empides originate in ascarides, and the ascarides originate in the mud of wells and running waters which flow over an earthy bottom. At first the decaying mud acquires a white colour, which afterwards becomes black, and finally red. When this takes place, very small red creatures are seen growing in it like fuci. At first these move about in a mass, afterwards their connection is ruptured, the creatures called ascarides are borne about in the water, after a few days they stand erect in the water without motion and of a hard texture, and subsequently the case is broken and the empis sits upon it until either the sun or the wind enables it to move, then it flies away.
9. The commencement of life in all other worms, and in all creatures produced from worms, originates in the influence of the sun and wind. The ascarides are produced in greater numbers, and more quickly, where the various matters are mixed together, as in the works conducted in the Megarian territory, for putrefaction thus takes place more readily. The autumnal season also is favourable to their increase, for there is less moisture at that time of the year. The crotones[172] originate in the agrostis, the melolonth from the worms which originate in the dung of oxen and asses.
10. The canthari which roll up dung, hide themselves in it during the winter, and produce worms, which afterwards [Pg 126] become canthari; and from the worms which inhabit the osprea,[173] winged creatures, like those already mentioned, derive their existence. Flies originate in dung which has been set apart, and those who are employed in this work strive to separate the remainder which is mixed together, for they say that the dung is thus brought to putrefaction.
11. The origin of these worms is very small; for first of all a redness is perceived, and motion commences, as if they were united together. The worm then again becomes still, afterwards it moves, and then again is immoveable. From this the worm is completed, and motion recommences under the action of the sun and wind. The myops is produced in wood. The orsodacn[174] from the metamorphosis of worms, which originate on the stalks of the crambe. The cantharis from worms which dwell on the fig tree, apium (pear tree), and pitch tree, for there are worms on all these, and on the cynacantha.[175] They assemble round strong smelling things because they originate from them.
12. The conops springs from a worm which originates in the thick part of vinegar; for there seem also to be worms in things which are the farthest from putrefaction, as in snow which has laid for some time: for after having laid, it becomes red, wherefore, also, the worms are such and hairy. Those in the snow in Media are large and white, and furnished with but little power of motion. In Cyprus, when the manufacturers of the stone called chalcitis burn it for many days in the fire, a winged creature, something larger than a great fly, is seen walking and leaping in the fire.
13. The worms perish when they are taken out of the snow, and so do these creatures when taken from the fire. And the salamander shews that it is possible for some animal substances to exist in the fire, for they say that fire is extinguished when this animal walks over it.
14. In the river Hypanis in the Cimmerian Bosphorus, about the summer solstice, capsules larger than grape-seed are floated down the river: when these are ruptured, a four-footed, winged creature makes its escape, which lives and flies about till the evening. As the sun descends, it [Pg 127] becomes emaciated, and is dead by sunset, having lived but one day; for which cause it is called ephemerum. Most animals which spring from caterpillars or worms, are first of all enclosed in a web, and this is their nature.
15. The wasps which are called ichneumons, which are smaller than the others, kill the phalangia, and carry them to a wall, or some other place with a hole in it; and when they have covered them over with mud, they oviposit there, and the ichneumon wasps are produced from them. Many of the coleoptera, and other small and anonymous creatures make little holes in tombs or walls, and there deposit their worms.
16. The period of reproduction, from its commencement to its conclusion, is generally completed in three or four weeks. In the worms and worm-like creatures, three weeks are usually sufficient, and four weeks are usually enough for those which are oviparous. In one week from their sexual intercourse, the growth of the ovum is completed. In the remaining three weeks, those that produce by generation, hatch and bring forth their ova, as in the spiders, and such like creatures. The metamorphoses generally occupy three or four days, like the crisis of diseases. This is the mode of generation in insects.
17. They die from the shrivelling of their limbs, as large animals do of old age. Those which are furnished with wings have these organs drawn together in autumn. The myopes die from an effusion of water in their eyes.
1. All persons are not agreed as to the generation of bees, for some say that they neither produce young, nor have sexual intercourse; but that they bring their young from other sources; and some say that they collect them from the flowers of the calyntrus,[176] and others from the flower of the calamus.[177] Others again, say that they are found in the flowers of the olive, and produce this proof, that the swarms are most abundant when the olives are fertile. Other persons affirm that they collect the young of the drones from any of the substances we have named, but that the rulers (queens) produce the young of the bees.
[Pg 128]2. There are two kinds of rulers, the best of these is red, the other black and variegated: their size is double that of the working bees; the part of the body beneath the cincture is more than half of the whole length: by some they are called the mother bees, as if they were the parents of the rest; and they argue, that unless the ruler is present, drones only are produced, and no bees. Others affirm that they have sexual intercourse, and that the drones are males, and the bees females.
3. The other bees originate in the cells of the comb, but the rulers are produced in the lower part of the comb, six or seven of them separated, opposite to the rest of the progeny. The bees have a sting, which the drones have not: the kings and rulers have a sting which they do not make use of, and some persons suppose that they have none.
1. There are several kinds of bees, the best are small, round, and variegated: another kind is large, like the anthrene: a third kind is called phor; this is black, and has a broad abdomen: the drone is the fourth, and is the largest of all; it has no sting, and is incapable of work, for which reason people often wrap something round their hives, so that the bees can enter, but the drones, being larger, cannot.
2. There are two kinds of rulers among bees, as I observed before. In every hive there are several rulers, and not a single one, for the hive perishes if there are not rulers enough (not that they thus become anarchical, but, as they say, because they are required for breeding the bees); if there are too many rulers they perish, for thus they become distracted.
3. If the spring is late, and drought and rusts are about, the progeny is small. When the weather is dry, they make honey. When it is damp, their progeny multiplies; for which reason, the olives and the swarms of bees multiply at the same time. They begin by making comb, in which they place the progeny, which is deposited with their mouths, as those say who affirm that they collect it from external sources. Afterwards they gather the honey which is to be their food, during the summer and the autumn; that which is gathered in the autumn is the best.
[Pg 129]4. Wax is made from flowers. They bring the material of wax from the droppings of trees, but the honey falls from the air, principally about the rising of the stars, and when the rainbow rests upon the earth. Generally no honey is produced before the rising of the Pleiades. We argue that wax is made, as I said, from flowers, but that the bees do not make honey, but simply collect that which falls; for those who keep bees find the cells filled with honey in the course of one or two days. In the autumn there are flowers enough, but the bees make no honey, if that which they have produced is taken away. But if one supply was taken away, and they were in want of food, they would make more if they procured it from flowers.
5. The honey becomes thick by ripening, for at first it is like water, and continues liquid for some days, wherefore it never becomes thick if it is taken away during that time. It requires twenty days to make it consistent; this is very plain from the taste of it, for it differs both in sweetness and solidity. The bee carries honey from every plant which has cup-shaped flowers, and from all those which contain a sweet principle, but does not injure the fruit; it takes up and carries away the sweet taste of plants with its tongue-like organ.
6. The honey-comb is pressed when the wild figs begin to appear; and they produce the best grubs when they can produce honey. The bees carry the wax and bee-bread upon their legs, but the honey is disgorged into the cells. After the progeny is deposited in the cells, they incubate like birds. In the wax cells the little worm is placed at the side; afterwards it rises of itself to be fed. It is united to the comb in such a manner as to be held by it. The progeny both of the bees and drones from which the little worms are produced, is white. As they grow they become bees and drones. The progeny of the king-bees is rather red, and about the consistency of thick honey. In bulk it is as large as the creature which is produced from it. The progeny of the king-bee is not a worm, but comes forth a perfect bee, as they say; and, when the progeny is produced in the comb, honey is found in that which is opposite.
[Pg 130]7. After the grub is covered up, it has wings and feet; and when it has acquired wings, it bursts through the membrane, and flies away. It evacuates an excrementitious matter while it is a worm, but not afterwards, until it is perfected, as I observed before. If a person cuts off the head of the grub before its wings are acquired, the other bees devour it; if a person having cut off the wings of a drone lets it go, the bees will eat off the wings of the other drones.
8. The bee will live for six years, some have lived for seven, and if a swarm lasts nine or ten years, it is considered to have done well. In Pontus there are very white bees, which make honey twice every month. In Therniscyra, near the river Thermodon, are found bees which make cells in the earth, and in hives with a very small quantity of wax, but their honey is thick. The cells are smooth and homogeneous. They only do this in the winter, and not all the year round; for there is a great deal of ivy in the place, which flowers at this season of the year, and from this they carry away the honey. From the higher regions of Amisus a kind of white honey is procured, which the bees form upon the trees without wax. The same is also found in another place in Pontus. There are also bees which form triple cells in the earth; these form honey, but never have grubs. All such as these, however, are not cells, neither are they formed by every kind of bee.
1. The anthren[178] and wasps form cells for their progeny when they have no rulers, but are wandering about in search of them, the anthren upon some high place, the wasps in holes. But when they have the rulers they form their cells underground. All their cells are hexagonal, like those of bees; they are not formed of wax, but of a web-like membrane, made of the bark of trees. The cells of the anthren are far more elegant than those of wasps. Upon the side of their cells they place their progeny, in the manner of the bees, like a drop of liquid united to the wall of the cell. The progeny in all the cells is not alike, but in some they are so large as to be almost ready for flight, in others are nymph, in others grubs.
[Pg 131]2. The only excrementitious matter is found in the cells of the grubs, as in the case of bees. As long as they are nymph they remain motionless, and the cell is sealed over, and on the other side of the cell which contains their progeny, there is a drop of honey in the combs of the anthren. The grubs of these creatures are produced in the autumn, not in the spring, but they evidently grow most rapidly at the full moon. The progeny and the grubs are not united to the bottom, but to the side of the cell.
1. Some of the bombycia[179] form an angular cell of mud, which they attach to a stone or something else, and smear with a kind of transparent substance; this is so very thick and hard, that it can scarcely be broken with the blow of a spear. In this they deposit their ova, and the white maggots are contained in a black membrane; and wax is formed in the mud without any membrane, this wax is much more yellow than that of bees.
2. The ants also have sexual intercourse, and produce maggots which they do not attach to anything. As these grow, they change from small round things to long articulated beings. The season for their production is in the spring.
3. The land-scorpions also bring forth many egg-like maggots, upon which they incubate. When the young ones are perfect, they drive out and destroy their parents like spiders, for they are frequently eleven in number.
1. The arachnia copulate in the manner already described, and produce maggots which at first are small. After their metamorphosis they become spiders, not from a part but from the whole of the maggot, for they are round from the first. When the female has produced her ova, she incubates upon them, in three days they acquire limbs. All of them produce their young in a web, which is thin and small in some species, but compact in others. Some are enclosed entirely in a round receptacle, and others are only partially covered by the web. All the young spiders are [Pg 132] not produced at once, but as soon as they are hatched they leap out and shoot forth a web. If they are bruised they are found to contain a thick white fluid like that of maggots.
2. The field-spiders first of all deposit their ova in a web, of which one half is attached to themselves, and the other external, they incubate upon this, and produce their young alive. The phalangia deposit their ova in a thick basket which they weave, upon this they incubate. The smooth kinds produce a small number, the phalangia a great many. When they are grown, they surround their parent in a circle, kill and throw her out. They often seize the male in the same way if they can catch him, for he assists the female in incubation. Sometimes there are as many as three hundred round a single phalangium. The little spiders become full-grown in about four weeks.
1. Locusts copulate in the same manner as all other insects, the smaller mounting upon the larger, for the male is the smaller. They oviposit by fixing the organ which is attached to their tail (the ovipositor) in the ground. The males do not possess this organ. Many of them deposit their ova in one spot, so as to make it appear like a honey-comb. As soon as they have deposited their ova, egg-like maggots are formed, which are covered with a thin coating of earth like a membrane, and in this they are matured.
2. The young are so soft as to collapse if they are only touched. They are not produced on the surface, but a little below the surface of the soil; and as soon as they are matured, they escape from the coat of soil in which they are enclosed as small black locusts. Their skin is subsequently ruptured, and they then attain their full size. They produce their young at the end of summer, and then die.
3. For as soon as they have deposited their ova, small worms make their appearance on their necks, the males also perish at the same time: they come out of the earth in the spring. Locusts never shew themselves in mountainous countries, nor in poor land, but in plains, and broken soil, for they deposit their ova in fissures. The ova remain in [Pg 133] the soil during the winter, and in the summer the locusts are produced from the germs of the preceding year.
4. The young of the attelabi are produced in the same manner, and the parents die after having deposited their ova. Their ova are destroyed by the rains of the autumn, if the weather is wet; but if that season is dry, many attelabi are produced, because they are not equally destroyed; for their destruction appears to be irregular, and to take place by accident.
1. There are two kinds of grasshoppers: some are small. These are the first to appear, the last to perish. Others, which chirp, are large: these appear last, and disappear first. There is another difference between the small and large kind. Those which chirp have a division in the middle of the body: those which do not chirp have none. The large ones, which chirp, are called achet; the small are called tettigonia. Such of these as are divided, sing a little.
2. Grasshoppers do not appear where there are no trees, for which reason they are unknown in the open country of Cyrene, but are abundant near the city, and especially among olive trees, for these do not give much shade, and grasshoppers are not produced in the cold, nor in very shady groves. Both the large and small ones have sexual intercourse with their own kind, copulating with each other on their backs. The male inserts his organ into the female, in the same manner as other insects. The female has a divided pudendum. The female individual is the one which receives the male.
3. They deposit their ova in fields, piercing the soil with the organ at the extremity of their body, like the attelabi; for the attelabi also oviposit in the fields, for which reason they are common in Cyrene. They oviposit also in the reeds which are used to support the vines; these they pierce: and so they do in the stems of the scilla. The young ones are washed into the earth, and are common in rainy weather. The maggot, when it is grown in the earth, becomes a tettigometra: these are sweetest before they have ruptured their covering.
4. And when the season arrives for their appearance, [Pg 134] about the solstice, they come forth by night, and immediately burst their envelope, and the tettigometra becomes a grasshopper. They immediately become black and hard, acquire their full size, and begin to chirp. In both kinds the males chirp; the others, which do not chirp, are females. When first produced the males are the sweetest: after the sexual intercourse, the females are sweetest, for they contain white ova.
5. If a noise is made as they fly along, they emit a fluid like water, which the agriculturists describe as if they emitted both a liquid and solid excrement, and that they feed on dew; and if any one approaches them with a bent finger, which is gradually straightened, they will remain more quiet than if it is put out straight at once, and will climb up upon the finger; for, from the dimness of their sight, they climb upon it as if it were a moving leaf.
1. Those insects which are not carnivorous, but live upon the juices of living flesh, as lice, fleas, and bugs, produce nits from sexual intercourse; from these nits nothing else is formed. Of these insects the fleas originate in very small portions of corrupted matter, for they are always collected together where there is any dry dung. Bugs[180] proceed from the moisture which collects on the bodies of animals: lice from the flesh of other creatures; for before they appear, they exist in little pimples which do not contain matter: and if these are pricked, the lice[181] escape from them. Some persons have been afflicted with a disease arising from excessive moisture in the body, of which people have died, as they say that Alcmon the poet, and Pherecydes of Syria did.
2. And in some diseases lice are very common. There is a kind of lice, which they call wild, and are harder than the common sort, which are difficult to eradicate from the body. The heads of children are most subject to be infested with lice, and men the least so, for women are more liable to them than men. Those that have lice in the head are less subject to headache. Many other animals are infested with lice: for both birds have them, and those which are called phasiani, unless they dust themselves, are destroyed by [Pg 135] them. And so are all those creatures which have feathers with a hollow stem, and those which have hair, except the ass, which has neither lice nor ticks. Oxen have both; sheep and goats have ticks, but no lice; hogs are infested with large, hard lice, and dogs with those which are called cynorast. All lice originate in the animals that are infested with them. All creatures that have lice, and wash themselves, are more liable to them when they change the water in which they bathe.
3. In the sea is a kind of lice[182] growing on fish; but these do not originate in the fish, but in the mud. Their appearance is that of wood-lice with many feet, except that they have a wide tail. There is one species of marine lice which occur everywhere, and especially infest the trigla. All these creatures are furnished with many legs, are exsanguineous, and insects. The strus[183] of the thynnus occurs near the fins: in shape it is like a scorpion, and as large as a spider. In the sea between Cyrene and Egypt, there is a fish called the phtheira, which accompanies the dolphin; it is the fattest of all fish, because it enjoys an abundance of the food which the dolphin hunts for.
1. There are also other minute animals, as I observed before, some of which occur in wool,[184] and in woollen goods; as the moths, which are produced in the greatest abundance when the wool is dusty, and especially if a spider is enclosed with them, for this creature is thirsty, and dries up any fluid which may be present. This worm also occurs in garments. There is one which occurs in old honeycombs, like the creature which inhabits dry wood: this appears to be the least of all creatures, it is called acari, it is white and small. Others also are found in books,[185] some of which are like those which occur in garments: others are like scorpions;[186] they have no tails, and are very small. And on the whole, they occur in everything, so to say, which from being dry, becomes moist, or being moist, becomes dry, if it has any life in it.
[Pg 136]2. There is a little worm which is called xylophthorus,[187] which is no less extraordinary than these animals; for its variegated head is projected beyond its case, and its feet are at the extremity, as in other worms. The rest of the body is contained in a case made of a substance like spider's web, and a dry material on the outside of this; so that it appears to walk about with this attached to it. These creatures are attached to their case, and as a snail to its shell, so the whole of the case is joined to the worm, and it does not fall out of it, but is drawn out of it, as if they were joined together. If a person pulls off the case, the creature dies, and becomes as helpless as a snail without its shell. As time advances, this grub becomes a chrysalis, like a caterpillar, and lies without motion: but the nature of the winged creature that is produced has never been ascertained.
3. The wild figs upon the fig-trees contain a creature called psen;[188] this is at first a little worm, and afterwards having ruptured the case, the psen flies out, and leaves it behind. It then pierces the unripe figs, and causes them not to fall off, wherefore gardeners place wild fruit near the cultivated kinds, and plant the wild and cultivated plants near each other.
1. The sexual intercourse of sanguineous and oviparous quadrupeds takes place in the spring. They do not, however, all copulate at the same season; but some in the spring, others in the summer or autumn, as the season is appropriate for bringing up the young of each species. The tortoise produces hard, two-coloured eggs, like those of birds. Having deposited her eggs, she buries them, and makes a beaten place above them. When this is done, she sits upon them. The eggs are hatched the following year. The emys goes out of the water to deposit her eggs, and digs a hole like a cask, in which she places her eggs and leaves them. Having left them alone for less than thirty days, she digs them up again and hatches them and leads them at once to the water. [Pg 137] The marine turtles deposit their eggs in the earth like domestic birds, and cover them up with earth and sit upon them during the night. They produce a great many eggs, as many as an hundred.
2. The saurians and both the land and river crocodiles produce their eggs upon the land. Those of the lizards are hatched spontaneously in the earth; for the lizard does not live a whole year, for it is said to live only six months. The river crocodile produces as many as sixty eggs, which are white. She sits upon them for sixty days, for they live a long while. A very large animal is produced from these small eggs; for the egg is not larger than that of a goose, and the young is in proportion, but when full grown the creature measures seventeen cubits. Some persons say that it grows as long as it lives.
Among serpents the viper is externally viviparous, but first of all internally oviparous. The ovum, like that of fish, is of one colour and soft skinned. The young are produced in the upper part. They are not enclosed in a shelly covering, neither are the ova of fish. The little vipers are produced in a membrane, which they rupture on the third day, and sometimes they make their escape by eating their way through the mother. They are produced one by one in the course of a day, and their number often exceeds twenty. Other serpents are externally oviparous, but their ova are joined together like women's necklaces. When the female deposits her eggs in the soil, she incubates upon them. These also are hatched in the second year. This is the manner of the production of serpents, insects, and of oviparous quadrupeds.
