Dec. 1, 1SGG.] 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



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propagation, as every winged female that survives 

 becomes the founder of a fresh colony, which readily 

 explains their abundant and wide distribution. 

 The females are more than twice the size of these 

 small neuters, beiug two lines long, and are larger 

 than the males, and like them have four transparent 

 wings. No trouble need be taken about the latter, 

 as they speedily die— indeed, immediately upon the 

 exercise of their exclusive function. 



The majority of exotic ants are extremely eccen- 

 tric in structure and remarkably diverse in form ; 

 but these little aliens are conformable to a type 

 common to these islands. They are congeneric with 

 our own species of the section Biplorhoptrum, of the 

 genus Myrmica, that section being without spines 

 to the metathorax, a spined metathorax being the 

 character of the more typical forms. The females 

 and neuters are armed with stings ; the club of the 

 antennae has three joints, and the abdomen two 

 nodes. The habits of our own species of this sub- 

 divided genus differ very considerably from each 

 other, therefore it would be perilous to jump at con- 

 clusions from one to the other. A prominent charac- 

 teristic embracing all is that the pupa; are naked ; 

 namely, that they are not enclosed in cocoons. In 

 illustration of this dissimilarity of habits, I may add 

 that some of the species live habitually in society 

 with ants of a very different genus and division of 

 the tribe ; others in close contiguity to such as are 

 •equally distinct ; whilst others, again, live totally 

 apart, and away, and by themselves. 



W. E. Shtjckahd. 



" SAWS " OE THE SAW-ELY. 



rj^HE apparatus with which the saw-flies are 

 -*- provided for depositing their eggs is well 

 worthy the notice of microscopists. 



The following notes are not by any means to be 

 considered as exhaustive of the subject ; but are 

 simply intended to direct observers to a class of 

 objects exceedingly beautiful, and offering a wide 

 field for study and comparison. 



Fig. 256. Portion of Saw of Tenthredo x 160. 



The saw-flies {Tenthredo), which, by the way, 

 derive their name from the apparatus with which 

 the females are provided, belong to the order of 

 hymenopterous or membranous-winged insects, all 

 having their abdomen terminated by an apparatus, 



which in the saw-flies, ichneumon-flies, and gall- 

 flies, serves for the deposition of their eggs ; and in 

 the ants, bees, and wasps, is connected with a 

 poison-gland, constituting the sting, with which 

 many of us are but too well familiar. 



The ovipositor in the Tenthredo consists of two 

 saws, every tooth being itself serrated. These saws 

 are worked alternately ; and to support them when 





; 



Fig. 25". Saws of Allantus a terrimus x JO. 



in action, they are each furnished with a " back," 

 which serves to strengthen them, much in the same 

 way as the "back" of a tenon-saw strengthens and 

 preserves the rigidity of its blade. 



There is this difference, however, that whereas in 

 the tenon-saw the blade is set in a deep groove of 

 the back to the whole of its length, and immovable, 

 the " saws " of Tenthredo are themselves grooved 

 to admit of a prominent ridge of their respective 

 backs, and slide forwards and backwards with the 

 greatest facility. 



The "saws" figured are those of Allantus ate r- 

 rimus, and a more highly magnified portion of a saw 

 only, without its back, of the Tenthredo. It will be 

 noticed that the character of the serratures is dif- 

 ferent in the two. J. J. It. 



Among the innumerable beings which crowd this 

 world not one is idle : all are actively employed, 

 each in its separate sphere of usefulness ; and 

 though they blindly do the work imposed upon 

 them by their Great Creator, ignorant of other's 

 ways, the grand result is perfect harmony.— Prof. 

 Rymer Jones. 



