CHAPTER X SOME QUEER LITTLE PEOPLE

 That nothing walks with aimless feet.

—Tennyson.

In a corner of the garden, where the lilacs grew tall and broad, Ruth was waiting for something to happen. She had a feeling, as she told Belinda, that the most interesting things were coming, for the wind had been kissing her cheeks and ruffling¹ her hair, just as though it was saying to her, “Watch now. Watch closely and listen.” Then, too, the garden seemed to be alive. Bees droning over the flowers; wasps² collecting their tiny balls of wood pulp³ or marketing⁴ 149for their families; ants running here, there, and everywhere; not to mention many other winged creatures, some of whom were made after a fashion so queer that Ruth, forgetting how rude it is to make personal remarks, deliberately⁵ asked of one:

 

“If you please, what is that long piece which seems to be growing from the tip of your body? It looks like Mary’s stove hook when she sticks it in the lid.”

 

“That,” was the rather short answer, “is my abdomen⁶, and it isn’t growing from the tip of my body, but from the top of my thorax. It seems to me you have never seen an ensign fly before.”

 

“No, I never did. Please, what does ensign mean?”

 

“The dictionary will tell you that. All I know is some man got an idea that we carried our abdomens⁷ aloft like a flag or ensign, and so named us ensign fly. We are not flies, to begin with, but we have to keep any idiotic⁸ name they choose to tack⁹ on us. 150Now take Mrs. Horntail, who wants——”

 

“Thank you, I can speak for myself,” interrupted the horntail, sharply. She was quite handsome, with her black abdomen banded with yellow, her red and black head, yellow legs and horn, and dusky wings.

 

“I like my name. It means something, for I have a horn on my tail, and, what’s more, I use it. You should see me bore into solid green wood. None of your dead wood for me. I am not content with one hole either. I bore a great many, and in each I drop an egg, and when my babies hatch they get fat on the sap wood of the tree.”

 

“There seem to be such a lot of things to eat trees,” said Ruth.

 

“Perhaps there are, but I am interested in horntail babies only. They do their share of eating too, and when they grow sleepy they make cocoons¹⁰ of chips and silk from their own bodies, and go to sleep. After they wake they are changed into winged creatures, who naturally do not care to live 151in the tree any more. So they gnaw¹¹ their way through the bark to the outside world and——”

 

“Not if the woodpeckers and I can help it,” interrupted an ichneumon fly, keeping her antennæ in constant motion. She seemed to have long streamers floating from the back of her, and, altogether, Ruth thought her even queerer looking than the ensign fly.

 

“Those streamers are my ovipositor,” she explained to Ruth. “The thing I lay eggs with, you understand. When I shut them together they form a sort of auger¹², with which I bore into a tree, way, way in, where the fat horntail babies are chewing the sap wood, and so ruining the tree. Into their soft bodies I lay my eggs and when my children hatch they eat, not the tree, but the horntail baby. It is a wonderfully good riddance, and so the farmer and fruit grower consider us their friends and call us ‘trackers,’ because we find the hiding places of so many pests that harm the plants.”

 

“You can’t get my babies,” said Mrs. Saw Fly. “I haven’t a horn, but I have a saw, and, though it will not bore into wood, it saws fine gashes¹³ in green leaves. Of course I drop an egg in each gash¹⁴, and soon there’s a swelling¹⁵ all around it, and when my children hatch they rock in gall¹⁶ nut cradles, and the sap which gathers there is their food.”

 

“Talk about gall cradles,” said a gall fly, “my sisters and I are the fairies who make them to perfection. Each of us has a different plant or tree which she prefers, and each follows her own fashion in making galls¹⁷, and we puzzle even the wise men. Have you ever seen the brown galls that grow on oaks?”

 

“Why, of course,” answered Ruth, glad the question was such an easy one.

 

“Well that’s something, but I doubt if you have noticed the rosy¹⁸ coloured sponge that sometimes grows around the stem, or the mimic¹⁹ branch of currants drooping²⁰ from 153the spot where the tree intended an acorn²¹ to be, or the tiny red apple-like ball on the leaf.”

 

Ruth shook her head. “They must be very pretty,” she said.

 

“Pretty? I should say so. They are all different kinds of galls too, and we gall flies make them. Sometimes we sting the leaf, sometimes the twig²², and sometimes the stem, and always just the kind of cradle we intended grows from it, and the egg we laid there hatched into a baby grub, ready to eat the sap.”

 

“Then you know about the one on the willow²³ tree,” put in Ruth. “The one the housefly told about. It grows like a pine cone²⁴, and is made by some one with a dreadfully long name.”

 

“That is something entirely²⁵ different,” answered the gall fly. “We do not pretend to make all the galls, you understand. Some are made by insects belonging to quite another order. The willow tree cone is one. You may always know ours from the fact that we make no door for the babies to come out, as other insects do. Our babies make their own door when they are ready to leave their cradle. And now to show how much is in some names, I will tell you that those other gall insects are called gall gnats²⁶ and belong to the order of flies, while we are called gall flies, and belong to the order Hymenoptera.”

 

“Oh!” cried Ruth, clapping her hands. “Now I know the kind of tera you belong to, Hy-men-op-tera,” she repeated slowly. “Please tell me just what it means.”

 

“No, I won’t,” was the ungracious answer. “I hate explanations.”

 

“I’ll tell you,” said Mrs. Horntail. “I know all about it.” And as Ruth turned to her with grateful eyes she began:

 

“Hymenoptera means membrane²⁷ wing, and that’s the kind we have, though some of our order have no wings at all. The others have four wings, the front pair being larger, with a fold along the hind²⁸ edge, that catches 155on hooks on the front edge of the hind wings; so we really seem to have but one pair. Do you understand that?”

 

“Yes,” nodded Ruth.

 

“Very well. We are divided into two sub-orders: stingers and borers. Our larvæ are called maggots. They are not like us, being white grubs, with round horny heads, pointed²⁹ tails, six legs——”

 

“Here, here!” said the ichneumon fly, “that does well enough for your children, but you know perfectly³⁰ well that the babies of the rest of us have no legs.”

 

“Yes, I know. Poor things! Legless children! How sad! Mrs. Saw Fly and I are the only exceptions.”

 

“And your children use their legs to no good purpose either,” said the ichneumon fly.

 

“My children need no legs. They never move from the spot where they are hatched until after they transform. Why should they? Their dinner is right there.”

 

“The same with mine,” added a little 156bright-coloured brachnoid. “I choose a nice fat caterpillar³¹, or something like that, to lay my eggs in, and he always lasts until my babies are ready to spin their cocoons, which they do on his shell, or dried skin, or whatever you choose to call it. I know he himself is quite gone. It is a pretty sight to see them.”

 

The brachnoid herself was a pretty little thing and as she looked not unlike the ichneumon fly, only smaller, Ruth asked Mrs. Horntail if she were not a young ichneumon fly.

 

“Young ichneumon?” repeated Mrs. Horntail. “Whoever heard of such a thing? A young ichneumon is as large as an old one. None of us insects grow after we leave our cocoons. When we are what you mean by young—babies, in other words—we are different. I thought you had learned that before now. Haven’t you had larvæ and pupæ explained to you?”

 

“Oh, yes,” said Ruth, “but I had forgotten. 157Of course you are different when you are first hatched, and then you get wings, while you sleep, but I thought maybe you grew even after you had wings.”

 

“Some of the grasshopper³² tribe do that, and spiders are hatched little spiders and grow bigger as they grow older, but we do no such thing. Besides, as you heard a while ago, an ichneumon baby is legless, absolutely legless, and homely³³. Well, I think the homeliest thing that lives, but then what can you expect with such a mother?”

 

“I don’t think she is so awfully³⁴ homely,” said Ruth. “She is odd-looking, and—and——”

 

“Odd-looking?” repeated Mrs. Horntail. “You should see her drilling a hole and laying her eggs. If she doesn’t cut a figure, I don’t know one. With her abdomen all in a hump, her wings sticking straight up, and her antennæ standing³⁵ out in front, not to mention the ridiculous loop she makes with the ovipositor, she certainly is a sight.”

 

“But I find the horntail babies,” said the ichneumon fly, quite undisturbed, “and that is the important thing. I wonder if this meeting is over?”

 

“I hope so,” answered Mrs. Horntail. “It is not a proper meeting at all. If I had the regulating of it, I would make some of these creatures behave. See that ant on the pebble³⁶ over there. She is making faces, actually making faces.”

 

“I am not making faces,” answered the ant. “I am getting ready to talk, and I haven’t had a chance.”

 

She was little and brown, and scarcely an eighth of an inch long, but she looked quite important as she prepared to address the audience.

 

1 ruffling   

弄皱( ruffle的现在分词 )； 弄乱； 激怒； 扰乱

参考例句：

• A cool breeze brushed his face, ruffling his hair. 一阵凉风迎面拂来，吹乱了他的头发。
• "Indeed, they do not,'said Pitty, ruffling. "说真的，那倒不一定。" 皮蒂皱皱眉头，表示异议。

2 wasps   

黄蜂( wasp的名词复数 )； 胡蜂； 易动怒的人； 刻毒的人

参考例句：

• There's a wasps' nest in that old tree. 那棵老树上有一个黄蜂巢。
• We live in dread not only of unpleasant insects like spiders or wasps, but of quite harmless ones like moths. 我们不仅生活在对象蜘蛛或黄蜂这样的小虫的惧怕中，而且生活在对诸如飞蛾这样无害昆虫的惧怕中

3 pulp   

n.果肉，纸浆；v.化成纸浆，除去...果肉，制成纸浆

参考例句：

• The pulp of this watermelon is too spongy.这西瓜瓤儿太肉了。
• The company manufactures pulp and paper products.这个公司制造纸浆和纸产品。

4 marketing   

n.行销，在市场的买卖，买东西

参考例句：

• They are developing marketing network.他们正在发展销售网络。
• He often goes marketing.他经常去市场做生意。

5 deliberately   

adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地

参考例句：

• The girl gave the show away deliberately.女孩故意泄露秘密。
• They deliberately shifted off the argument.他们故意回避这个论点。

6 abdomen   

n.腹，下腹(胸部到腿部的部分)

参考例句：

• How to know to there is ascarid inside abdomen?怎样知道肚子里面有蛔虫？
• He was anxious about an off-and-on pain the abdomen.他因时隐时现的腹痛而焦虑。

7 abdomens   

n.腹（部）( abdomen的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The women especially disliked their stomachs or abdomens, hips, thighs and legs. 这些妇女特别不喜欢自己的胃部，腹部，臀部，大腿，腿部。 来自互联网
• They danced not with their legs or arms, but with their entire bodies, undulating their abdomens. 他们跳舞不是用腿和臂，而是用整个身子，腹部一起一伏地扭动着。 来自互联网

8 idiotic   

adj.白痴的

参考例句：

• It is idiotic to go shopping with no money.去买东西而不带钱是很蠢的。
• The child's idiotic deeds caused his family much trouble.那小孩愚蠢的行为给家庭带来许多麻烦。

9 tack   

n.大头钉；假缝，粗缝

参考例句：

• He is hammering a tack into the wall to hang a picture.他正往墙上钉一枚平头钉用来挂画。
• We are going to tack the map on the wall.我们打算把这张地图钉在墙上。

10 cocoons   

n.茧，蚕茧( cocoon的名词复数 )v.茧，蚕茧( cocoon的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• The silkworms have gone into the bushes to spin their cocoons. 蚕上山了。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• In two more days the " little darlings" would spin their cocoons. 再得两天，“宝宝”可以上山。 来自汉英文学 - 春蚕

11 gnaw   

v.不断地啃、咬；使苦恼，折磨

参考例句：

• Dogs like to gnaw on a bone.狗爱啃骨头。
• A rat can gnaw a hole through wood.老鼠能啃穿木头。

12 auger   

n.螺丝钻，钻孔机

参考例句：

• We make a hole in the ice with an auger.我们用螺旋钻在冰上钻洞。
• Already the Snowblast's huge auger blades were engorging snow.扬雪车上庞大的钻头叶片在开始大量吞进积雪。

13 gashes   

n.深长的切口（或伤口）( gash的名词复数 )v.划伤，割破( gash的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• The classmates' hearts ached for him and they begged him to wear gloves to prevent any more gashes. 同学们都心疼他，劝他干活时戴上手套，免得再弄破手。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He stripped himself, and I counted twenty-seven separate scars and gashes. 他脱去衣服，我在他身上数出了二十七处瘢痕和深深的伤口。 来自辞典例句

14 gash   

v.深切，划开；n.(深长的)切(伤)口；裂缝

参考例句：

• The deep gash in his arm would take weeks to heal over.他胳膊上的割伤很深，需要几个星期的时间才能痊愈。
• After the collision,the body of the ship had a big gash.船被撞后，船身裂开了一个大口子。

15 swelling   

n.肿胀

参考例句：

• Use ice to reduce the swelling. 用冰敷消肿。
• There is a marked swelling of the lymph nodes. 淋巴结处有明显的肿块。

16 gall   

v.使烦恼，使焦躁，难堪；n.磨难

参考例句：

• It galled him to have to ask for a loan.必须向人借钱使他感到难堪。
• No gall,no glory.没有磨难，何来荣耀。

17 galls   

v.使…擦痛( gall的第三人称单数 )；擦伤；烦扰；侮辱

参考例句：

• Best results will be obtained on recently formed galls. 如果瘿瘤是新近形成的，则效果最好。 来自辞典例句
• Crown galls are cancerous growths composed of disorganized and proliferating plant cells. 冠瘿是无组织的正在不断增殖的植物细胞所组成的癌状物。 来自辞典例句

18 rosy   

adj.美好的，乐观的，玫瑰色的

参考例句：

• She got a new job and her life looks rosy.她找到一份新工作，生活看上去很美好。
• She always takes a rosy view of life.她总是对生活持乐观态度。

19 mimic   

v.模仿，戏弄；n.模仿他人言行的人

参考例句：

• A parrot can mimic a person's voice.鹦鹉能学人的声音。
• He used to mimic speech peculiarities of another.他过去总是模仿别人讲话的特点。

20 drooping   

adj. 下垂的，无力的 动词droop的现在分词

参考例句：

• The drooping willows are waving gently in the morning breeze. 晨风中垂柳袅袅。
• The branches of the drooping willows were swaying lightly. 垂柳轻飘飘地摆动。

21 acorn   

n.橡实，橡子

参考例句：

• The oak is implicit in the acorn.橡树孕育于橡子之中。
• The tree grew from a small acorn.橡树从一粒小橡子生长而来。

22 twig   

n.小树枝，嫩枝；v.理解

参考例句：

• He heard the sharp crack of a twig.他听到树枝清脆的断裂声。
• The sharp sound of a twig snapping scared the badger away.细枝突然折断的刺耳声把獾惊跑了。

23 willow   

n.柳树

参考例句：

• The river was sparsely lined with willow trees.河边疏疏落落有几棵柳树。
• The willow's shadow falls on the lake.垂柳的影子倒映在湖面上。

24 cone   

n.圆锥体，圆锥形东西，球果

参考例句：

• Saw-dust piled up in a great cone.锯屑堆积如山。
• The police have sectioned off part of the road with traffic cone.警察用锥形路标把部分路面分隔开来。

25 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

26 gnats   

n.叮人小虫( gnat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He decided that he might fire at all gnats. 他决定索性把鸡毛蒜皮都摊出来。 来自辞典例句
• The air seemed to grow thick with fine white gnats. 空气似乎由于许多白色的小虫子而变得浑浊不堪。 来自辞典例句

27 membrane   

n.薄膜，膜皮，羊皮纸

参考例句：

• A vibrating membrane in the ear helps to convey sounds to the brain.耳膜的振动帮助声音传送到大脑。
• A plastic membrane serves as selective diffusion barrier.一层塑料薄膜起着选择性渗透屏障的作用。

28 hind   

adj.后面的，后部的

参考例句：

• The animal is able to stand up on its hind limbs.这种动物能够用后肢站立。
• Don't hind her in her studies.不要在学业上扯她后腿。

29 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

30 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

31 caterpillar   

n.毛虫，蝴蝶的幼虫

参考例句：

• A butterfly is produced by metamorphosis from a caterpillar.蝴蝶是由毛虫脱胎变成的。
• A caterpillar must pass through the cocoon stage to become a butterfly.毛毛虫必须经过茧的阶段才能变成蝴蝶。

32 grasshopper   

n.蚱蜢，蝗虫，蚂蚱

参考例句：

• He thought he had made an end of the little grasshopper.他以为把那个小蚱蜢干掉了。
• The grasshopper could not find anything to eat.蚱蜢找不到任何吃的东西。

33 homely   

adj.家常的，简朴的；不漂亮的

参考例句：

• We had a homely meal of bread and cheese.我们吃了一顿面包加乳酪的家常便餐。
• Come and have a homely meal with us,will you?来和我们一起吃顿家常便饭，好吗？

34 awfully   

adv.可怕地，非常地，极端地

参考例句：

• Agriculture was awfully neglected in the past.过去农业遭到严重忽视。
• I've been feeling awfully bad about it.对这我一直感到很难受。

35 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

36 pebble   

n.卵石，小圆石

参考例句：

• The bird mistook the pebble for egg and tried to hatch it.这只鸟错把卵石当蛋，想去孵它。
• The pebble made a ripple on the surface of the lake.石子在湖面上激起一个涟漪。