Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Textbook Discover Spain 5Th Edition Coll Ebook All Chapter PDF
Textbook Discover Spain 5Th Edition Coll Ebook All Chapter PDF
https://textbookfull.com/product/discover-italy-5th-edition-coll/
https://textbookfull.com/product/discover-europe-coll/
https://textbookfull.com/product/discover-vietnam-1st-edition-
coll/
https://textbookfull.com/product/discover-thailand-4th-edition-
coll/
Discover Hawaii 1st Edition Coll.
https://textbookfull.com/product/discover-hawaii-1st-edition-
coll/
https://textbookfull.com/product/discover-india-4th-edition-coll/
https://textbookfull.com/product/discover-malaysia-singapore-2nd-
edition-coll/
https://textbookfull.com/product/discover-london-2019-6th-
edition-coll/
https://textbookfull.com/product/discover-paris-2019-6th-edition-
coll/
DISCOVER SPAIN
TOP SIGHTS, AUTHENTIC EXPERIENCES
Contents
Madrid
Museo del Prado
Sights
Tours
Shopping
Eating
Drinking & Nightlife
Entertainment
Information
Where to Stay
Barcelona
La Sagrada Família
La Rambla
Montjuïc
Modernista Masterpieces
Walking Tour: Barri Gótic
Walking Tour: Gràcia’s Squares
Sights
Tours
Shopping
Eating
Drinking & Nightlife
Entertainment
Information
Where to Stay
Costa Brava
Teatre-Museu Dalí
Tossa de Mar
Cadaqués
Cap de Creus
Figueres
Girona
Castell de Púbol
Granada
Alhambra
Sights
Activities
Tours
Shopping
Eating
Drinking & Nightlife
Entertainment
Information
Where to Stay
Seville
Catedral & Giralda
Alcázar
Sights
Activities
Tours
Shopping
Eating
Drinking & Nightlife
Entertainment
Information
Where to Stay
Córdoba`
Mezquita
Sights
Activities
Tours
Shopping
Eating
Drinking & Nightlife
Information
Salamanca
Salamanca’s Cathedrals
Sights
Tours
Shopping
Eating
Drinking & Nightlife
Information
Sierra de Francia
Where to Stay
Basque Country
Museo Guggenheim Bilbao
Pintxos in San Sebastián
Bilbao
Guernica (Gernika)
Lekeitio
San Sebastián
Hondarribia
Oñati
Vitoria
Where to Stay
Northwest Coast
Picos de Europa
Camino de Santiago
Santiago de Compostela
Cantabria
Asturias
Galicia
Where to Stay
In Focus
Spain Today
History
Flamenco
Master Painters
Architecture
The Spanish Kitchen
Survival Guide
Directory A–Z
Accommodation
Climate
Customs Regulations
Electricity
Food
GLBT Travellers
Health
Insurance
Internet Access
Legal Matters
Money
Opening Hours
Public Holidays
Safe Travel
Telephone
Time
Toilets
Tourist Information
Travellers with Disabilities
Visas
Women Travellers
Transport
Getting There & Away
Getting Around
Language
Behind the Scenes
Symbols & Map Key
Our Writers
Welcome to Spain
Passionate, sophisticated and devoted to living the good life, Spain is
both a stereotype come to life and a country more diverse than you
ever imagined.
1 Madrid
2 Barcelona
3 Costa Brava
Filled with villages, such as Tossa de Mar (Click here) and beaches
of the kind that spawned northern Europe’s summer obsession
with the Spanish coast, the Costa Brava in Catalonia is one of our
favourite corners of the Mediterranean. Beyond this, the spirit of
Salvador Dalí lends so much personality and studied eccentricity to
the Costa Brava experience, from his one-time home in Port Lligat
near Cadaqués to Dalí-centric sites in Figueres and Castell de
Púbol.
SHAUN EGAN / GETTY IMAGES ©
SPAIN’S TOP 12 PLAN YOUR TRIP
4 Granada
6 Seville
7 Córdoba
8 Salamanca
9 Basque Country
The Basque Country has its own unique flavour. Chefs here have
turned bar snacks into an art form. Sometimes called ‘high cuisine
in miniature’, pintxos (Basque tapas;) are piles of flavour and the
choice lined up along the counter in any San Sebastián bar will
leave first-time visitors gasping: this is Spain’s most memorable
eating experience. But this is also a relentlessly dynamic cultural
region with visitors drawn to Bilbao’s shimmering titanium fish, the
Museo Guggenheim Bilbao, as well as riverside promenades, clanky
funicular railways, an iconic football team and quality museums.
The economy of Sapyga, the only genus, has been the subject of
difference of opinion. The views of Latreille and others that these
species are parasitic upon bees is confirmed by the observations of
Fabre, from which it appears that S. 5-punctata lives in the burrows
of species of the bee-genus Osmia, consuming the store of
provisions, consisting of honey-paste, that the bee has laid up for its
young. According to the same distinguished observer, the Sapyga
larva exhibits hypermetamorphosis (i.e. two consecutive forms), and
in its young state destroys the egg of the bee; but his observations
on this point are incomplete and need repetition. We have two
species of Sapyga in Britain; they differ in colour, and the sexes of S.
5-punctata also differ in this respect; the abdomen, spotted with
white in both sexes is in the female variegate with red. Smith found
our British Sapyga 5-punctata carrying caterpillars.
Fam. 2. Pompilidae.
The Pompilidae are perhaps the most extensive and important of the
groups of Fossores, and are distributed over all the lands of the
globe, with the exception of some islands and of the inclement arctic
regions. The sting of the Pompilidae, unlike that of most of the
Fossores, inflicts a burning and painful wound; the creatures
sometimes attain a length of two or three inches, and a sting from
one of these giants may have serious results. Although there is
considerable variety in the external form of the members of the
group, the characters given above will enable a Pompilid to be
recognised with approximate certainty. The elongation of the hind
legs includes all the parts, so that while the femur extends nearly as
far back as the extremity of the body—in dried examples at any rate
—the tibiae and the long tarsi extend far beyond it; thus these
Insects have great powers of running; they are indeed remarkable
for extreme activity and vivacity. They may frequently be seen
running rapidly on the surface of the ground, with quivering wings
and vibrating antennae, and are probably then employed in the
search for prey, or some other of the operations connected with
providing a store of food for their young. Spiders appear to be their
special, if not their only, prey. Several authors have recorded details
as to the various ways in which the prey is attacked. Fabre has
observed the habits of several species, and we select his account of
the modus operandi of species of the genera Pompilus and
Calicurgus, in their attacks on poisonous spiders that inhabit holes in
the ground or in walls. The wasp goes to the mouth of the spider's
burrow, and the latter then dashes to the entry, apparently enraged
at the audacity of its persecutor.
The Calicurgus will not actually enter a burrow when there is a spider
in it, because if it did so the spider would speedily dispose of the
aggressor by the aid of its poisonous fangs. The Calicurgus,
therefore, has recourse to strategy with the object of getting the
spider out of its nest; the wasp seizes its redoubtable foe by one foot
and pulls; probably it fails to extract the spider, and in that case
rapidly passes to another burrow to repeat its tactics; sooner or later
a spider is in some moment of inattention or incapacity dragged from
its stronghold, and, being then comparatively helpless, feels itself at
a disadvantage and offers but a feeble resistance to the wasp, which
now pounces on its body and immediately inflicts a sting between
the fangs of the foe, and thus at once paralyses these dangerous
weapons; thereafter it stings the body of the spider near to the
junction of the abdomen and cephalothorax, and so produces
complete inactivity. Having secured its prey, the wasp then seeks a
suitable hole in which to deposit it; probably an empty burrow of a
spider is selected for the purpose, and it may be at a height of
several feet in a wall; the Hymenopteron, walking backwards, drags
its heavy prey up the wall to bring it to the den. When this is
accomplished an egg is deposited on the spider, and the wasp goes
in search of a fragment or two of mortar, with which the mouth of the
burrow is finally blocked. Fabre's accounts refer to the habits of
several species, and give a good insight into some points of the
instincts of both the spider and the wasp. It seems that a sense of
superiority is produced in one or other of the foes, according as it
feels itself in suitable conditions; so that though a spider out of its
burrow and on the ground is speedily vanquished by the Pompilid,
yet if the two be confined together in a vase, both are shy and
inclined to adopt defensive or even evasive tactics, the result
probably being that the wasp will be killed by the spider during the
night, that being the period in which the attacking powers of the
spider are more usually brought into play.
Fam. 3. Sphegidae.
Pronotum free from the tegulae; when the stigmatic lobes extend
as far back as the wing-insertion, they are placed below it and
separated by a space from it.
The habits of one species of this genus have been fully described by
Fabre; he assigns to the species the name of S. flavipennis, but Kohl
considers that it is more probably S. maxillosus. This Insect forms its
nests, in the South of France, in the ground, excavating a main shaft
with which are connected cells intended for the reception of the
provisions for the young. The entrance to the burrow is formed by
piercing a hole in the side of a very slight elevation of the soil. Thus
the entrance to the construction consists of a horizontal gallery,
playing the part of a vestibule, and this is used by the Sphex as a
place of retreat and shelter for itself; at the end of the vestibule,
which may be two or three inches long, the excavation takes an
abrupt turn downwards, extending in this manner another two or
three inches, and terminating in an oval cell the larger diameter of
which is situate in a horizontal plane. When this first cell has been
completed, stored with food, and an egg laid in it, the entrance to it is
blocked up, and another similar cell is formed on one side; a third
and sometimes a fourth are afterwards made and provisioned, then
the Insect commences anew, and a fresh tunnel is formed; ten such
constructions being the number usually prepared by each wasp. The
Insect works with extreme energy, and as the period of its
constructive activity endures only about a month, it can give but two
or three days to the construction and provisioning of each of its ten
subterranean works. The provisions, according to Fabre, consist of a
large species of field-cricket, of which three or four individuals are
placed in each cell. Kohl states, however, that in Eastern Europe an
Insect that he considers to be the same species as Fabre's Sphex,
makes use of locusts as provisions, and he thinks that the habit may
vary according to the locality or to the species of Orthoptera that may
be available in the neighbourhood. However that may be, it is clear
from Fabre's account that this part of the Sphex's duties do not give
rise to much difficulty. The cricket, having been caught, is paralysed
so that it may not by its movements destroy the young larva for
whose benefit it is destined. The Sphex then carries it to the burrow
to store it in one of the cells; before entering the cell the Insect is in
the habit of depositing its prey on the ground, then of turning round,
entering the burrow backwards, seizing as it does so the cricket by
the antennae, and so dragging it into the cell, itself going backwards.
The habit of depositing its prey on the ground enabled Fabre to
observe the process of stinging; this he did by himself capturing a
cricket, and when the wasp had momentarily quitted its prey,
substituting the sound cricket for the paralysed one. The Sphex, on
finding this new and lively victim, proceeds at once to sting it, and
pounces on the cricket, which, after a brief struggle, is overcome by
the wasp; this holds it supine, and then administers three stings, one
in the neck, one in the joint between the pro- and meso-thorax, and a
third at the base of the abdomen, these three spots corresponding
with the situation of the three chief nervous centres governing the
movements of the body. The cricket is thus completely paralysed,
without, however, being killed. Fabre proved that an Insect so treated
would survive for several weeks, though deprived of all power of
movement. Three or four crickets are placed by the wasp in each
cell, 100 individuals or upwards being thus destroyed by a single
wasp. Although the sting has such an immediate and powerful effect
on the cricket, it occasions but a slight and evanescent pain to a
human being; the sting is not barbed, as it is in many bees and true
wasps, and appears to be rarely used by the Insect for any other
purpose than that of paralysing its victims. The egg is laid by the
Sphex on the ventral surface of the victim between the second and
third pairs of legs. In three or four days the young larva makes its
appearance in the form of a feeble little worm, as transparent as
crystal; this larva does not change its place, but there, where it was
hatched, pierces the skin of the cricket with its tiny head, and thus
begins the process of feeding; it does not leave the spot where it first
commenced to feed, but gradually enters by the orifice it has made,
into the interior of the cricket. This is completely emptied in the
course of six or seven days, nothing but its integument remaining;
the wasp-larva has by this time attained a length of about 12
millimetres, and makes its exit through the orifice it entered by,
changing its skin as it does so. Another cricket is then attacked and
rapidly consumed, the whole stock being devoured in ten or twelve
days from the commencement of the feeding operations; the
consumption of the later-eaten crickets is not performed in so
delicate a manner as is the eating of the first victim. When full-grown,
the process of forming a cocoon commences: this is a very elaborate
operation, for the encasement consists of three layers, in addition to
the rough silk that serves as a sort of scaffolding on the exterior: the
internal coat is polished and is of a dark colour, owing to its being
coloured with a matter from the alimentary canal: the other layers of
the cocoon are white or pale yellow. Fabre considers that the outer
layers of the cocoon are formed by matter from the silk-glands, while
the interior dark coat is furnished by the alimentary canal and applied
by the mouth of the larva: the object of this varnish is believed to be
the exclusion of moisture from the interior of the cocoon, the
subterranean tunnels being insufficient for keeping their contents dry
throughout the long months of winter. During the whole of the
process of devouring the four crickets, nothing is ejected from the
alimentary canal of the larva, but after the cocoon is formed the larva
ejects in it, once for all, the surplus contents of the intestine. Nine
months are passed by the Insect in the cocoon, the pupal state being
assumed only towards the close of this period. The pupa is at first
quite colourless, but gradually assumes the black and red colour
characteristic of the perfect wasp. Fabre exposed some specimens
of the pupa to the light in glass tubes, and found that they went
through the pupal metamorphosis in just the same manner as the
pupae that remained in the darkness natural to them during this
stage of their existence.
This is one of the smallest of the divisions of the Sphegidae, but has
a very wide distribution, being represented in both the Eastern and
Western Hemispheres. It is allied to the Sphegides, but differs by the
prolongation of the neck and of the head, and by the articulation
between the petiole and thorax being placed on the under surface of
the body; the wing-nervures are said to be of inferior importance
owing to their frequently differing in individuals of the same species.
These Insects appear to be rare in individuals, as well as few in
species, and but little has been recorded as to their habits; but it is
known that they live on cockroaches. Perkins has given a brief
sketch of the habits of Ampulex sibirica that is of great interest, but
requires confirmation. He says that this Insect, in West Africa, enters
apartments where cockroaches abound, and attacking one, that may
probably be four times its own size, succeeds, after a struggle, in
stinging it; the cockroach instantly becomes quiet and submissive,
and suffers itself to be led away and placed in confinement in some
spot such as a keyhole, and in one case was apparently prevented
from afterwards escaping, by the wasp carrying some heavy nails
into the keyhole. The larva of the Ampulex may be presumed to live
on the Blattid, as it is added that dead bodies of the cockroaches are
frequently found with the empty cocoon protruding from them. This
account, if correct, points to some features in the habits of this Insect
that are unique. A remark made by Rothney in reference to the
habits of A. (Rhinopsis) ruficornis seems to indicate some similar
instinct on the part of that species; he says, "I also saw two or three
of these wasps collar a peculiar cockroach by the antennae and lead
it off into a crack in the bark, but as the cockroach reappeared
smiling each time, I don't know what was up." The same observer
records that this species associates with Sima rufonigra, an ant it
greatly resembles in appearance, as well as with a spider that is also
of similar appearance (Fig. 72). Schurr has given a brief account of
the proceedings of Ampulex compressa, and his statements also
tend to confirm the correctness of Perkins' report. The habits of a
species of Ampulex were partially known to Réaumur, who described
them on the authority of M. Cossigni. The species is believed to be
A. compressa, which occurs not only in East India, but also in the
island of Bourbon, the locality where M. Cossigni made his
observation: his account is, like the others, a mere sketch of certain
points observed, the most important of which is that when Ampulex
cannot introduce the cockroach into a hole that it has selected as
suitable, it bites off some portions of the body in order to reduce the
poor Insect to the necessary extent.