130 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[June ], 1SGG. 



figure of one of these stipes (fig. 127) bearing the 

 perithecia. The other figure (126), of a species of 

 Hypena from the same locality, supports the Isarioid 

 condition of the same fungus. Both these insects are 

 in the collection of our friend Mr. Frederic Moore. 

 One species is indigenous to China [Torrubia sinensis), 

 where it is held in great esteem as a drug, and 

 realizes a high price. Eive species are recorded in 

 South Carolina, one in Pennsylvania, parasitic on the 

 larvse of the May-bug (llelolonlha), and one other 

 North American species of a very curious kind on 

 Nocturnal Lepidoptera, one in Cayenne, one in 

 Brazil, on the larvae of a Cicada, and one on a 

 species of ant (fig. 122), two in the "West Indies, 

 one of them being parasitic on a species of wasp 

 (fig. 121), one in New Guinea on a species of Coccus, 

 and one on a species of Vespa in Senegal. Thus 

 about twenty-five species are known which are para- 

 sitic upon insects, in some stage or other of their 

 existence, either as larva, pupa, or imago, and the 

 majority of them in sub-tropical climates. As our 

 knowledge of the fungi of tropical countries in- 

 creases, we may become acquainted with new forms. 

 Hitherto the large, conspicuous, leathery fungi have 

 been almost all that have reached Europe, from 

 many warm regions where fungi must abound. 

 Entomological collectors abroad would do well to 

 preserve all specimens that may fall in their way, 

 akin to those we have been describing, and not 

 discard them as mere curiosities, or with regret that 

 for them a good specimen has been spoilt by the 

 presence of the parasite. M. C. C. 



THE GIGANTIC JAPANESE SALAMANDER. 



{Sieboldia maxima.) 



rriHE greatest individual ever imported into 

 -*- Europe of this largest member of the soft- 

 skinned and scaleless reptiles (family Urodela) is 

 now in the Hamburg Aquarium. This enormous 

 water-newt,* the Japanese or Javanese representa- 

 tive of the little pond-newt, or water-eft, of Britain, 



* The publication All the Year Round, of May 19th, I860, 

 as an amusing paper on a specimen of this salamander, then 

 hecently imported to the Zoological Gardens, Regent's Park, 

 and from this I extract a few sentences expressive of the 

 popular dislike for this creature. Few people, indeed, look on 

 t without shuddering, and the Hamburg specimen is much 

 arger than the London one :— 



"A sort of eft or lizard, of enormous size, brown, bloated, 

 and hideous ... the bloated and abhorrent eft . . . this 

 noisome animal . . . this hu-e and bloated eft ... a crea- 

 ture about two feet in its extreme length, from the end of its 

 most appaUing snout to the extremity of its hideous tail. It 

 s a crawling dragon, an exaggerated eft, a pestifercus and 

 appalling lizard, a soft and dwarfish crocodile. What is it 

 not that is unclean and fearful? From end to end it is 

 covered, and on its huge and flattened head especially, with 

 blotchy manginess, of a diseased and mouldy order . . . The 

 ugliest and largest lizard that was ever seen." 



measures 4 feet in length, and weighs twenty-two 

 pounds. It lives in a room expressly built for it, 

 measuring 16 feet long, 8 feet broad, and 12 feet 

 high, at the further end of which is a tank, mea- 

 suring internally 8 feet long, 6 feet broad, and 1 foot 

 deep, and having an additional depth of 6 inches 

 of fine sand. The front of the tank is of thick 

 plate-glass, continued 18 inches above the water- 

 line, so that the salamander cannot climb over and 

 fall on the floor of the room, as it once did before 

 it got accustomed to its home, previously to the 

 heightening of the glass ; but since then it has 

 shown no disposition to leave the water. The other 

 three sides of the tank are lined with rock-work 

 cemented together, and it runs up in a picturesque 

 manner, with bold overhanging and shelving masses, 

 till it terminates at about four or five feet above the 

 surface of the water, to which it gives the requisite 

 degree of shadow to suit the animal. This rock- 

 work is plentifully furnished with ferns and other 

 living plants, and among them fly about and roost a 

 few tame canaries and goldfinches. On one side of 

 the tank is a little beach, and near the middle is an 

 island of about two feet square, formed of rock- 

 work. From the centre springs a slender fountain 

 of one jet, or of a group of jets, as may be needed by 

 the weather, which, playing day and night, keeps 

 the water always in good condition. The overflow 

 passes off at one corner, and is returned through 

 the fountain by an engine working in an adjoining 

 apartment, so that the same water is ever used. 

 The illumination is from a small skylight, and from 

 a window in front. This aquarium is thus par- 

 ticularly described, because it is found to be an 

 excellent arrangement, not only for the Sieboldia, 

 but for other animals of the same general habits, 

 such as tritons, frogs, small tortoises, &c. ; and, 

 moreover, owing to the large surface exposure and 

 small depth of the water, and its even temperature 

 of about 55° to 60° Eahr. all the year, it is found to 

 be well adapted for many delicate fishes. In winter 

 the room is warmed by hot-water pipes, and in 

 summer the construction of the walls and roof keeps 

 it cool. Gas is laid on for evening observations. 



But though thus provided with a beach and an 

 island, which I once supposed to be requisite for 

 this great salamander, in order that it might have 

 places to creep up upon, to get out of the water 

 and expose itself to the air, after the fashion of 

 British animals of the same order, it really never 

 does avail itself of these means of getting an airing, 

 but it generally lies, during the hours of daylight, 

 in the half-shadow of the foreward overhanging 

 edge of the little island, and in a sort of cavern it 

 has excavated by digging away the sand and throwing 

 it up around. Here by preference it reposes with 

 its huge flat head in the darkest spot ; yet, fortu- 

 nately, as it is never thus more than from a foot or 

 so away from the glass front of the aquarium, it is 



