Page:Insects - Their Ways and Means of Living.djvu/151

 AND MEANS OF LIVING

reason, the head of an insect may be cut off and the rest of the creature may still be able to walk and to do various other things until it dies of starvation. Similarly, with some species, the abdomen may be severed and the insect will still eat, though the food runs out of the cut end of the alimentary canal. The detached abdomen may lay eggs, if properly stimulated. Though the insect thus appears to be largely a creature of automatic regulations, acts are hOt initiated without the brain, and full coordination of the functions is possible only when the entire nervous system is intact. The active elements of the nerve centers are nerve cells; the nerve fibers are merely conducting threads extended from the cells. If the nerve force that stimulates the other kinds of cells into activity comes from nerve cells, the question then arises as to whence comes the primary stimulus that activates the nerve cells. We must discard the old idea that nerve cells act automatically; being mat- ter, they are subject to the laws of matter--they are inert until compelled fo act. The stimulus of the nerve cells comes from something outside of them, either from the environmental forces of the external world or from sub- stances formed by other cells within the body. Nothing is known definitely of the internal stimuli of insects, but there can be no doubt that substances are formed by the physiological activiries of the insect tissues, similar to the horrnones, or secretions of the ductless glands of other animais, that control action in other organs either directly or through the nervous system. Thus, some in- ternal condition must prompt the insect to feed when its stomach is empty, and the entrance of food into its pharynx must stimulate the alimentary glands to prepare the diges- tive juices. Probably a secretion from the reproductive organs of the female, when the eggs are ripe in the ovaries, gives the stimulus for mating, and later sets into motion the reflexes that govern the laying of the eggs. The cater- pillar spins its cocoon at the proper rime for doing so; the

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INSECTS