28o 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



Red Arches Pond, on Hampstead Heath (the only 

 North London localities known to me for this species) 

 for forms which I could consider in shell as mesostates 

 between vivipara and contecta, and which I wanted 

 for dissecting purposes. I have not been fortunate 

 enough to find any other than the type and Jeffrey's 

 var. iiiticolor — none to correspond with Locard's 

 var. injiaia (though I know this has been recorded) : 

 ' ' less elongated spire, ventricose shape, rounder 

 whorls."— >j-^//^ W. Williams. 



N. B.— In " Shells from North London Districts " 

 (p. 164 ante), 2nd column, line 19 from top, 

 "Hendon" should be "Finchley." 



Helix caperata. — The Rev. S. S. Pearce, in his 

 interesting paper on this species in the July " Journal 

 of Conchology," proposes to call the unnamed small 

 variety var. minor. No name could be more 

 appropriate, but for the circumstance that Picard has 

 long ago used it for a different variety of the same 

 species. It will therefore be necessary to give a new 

 name to var. minor Pearce. Now that so much 

 attention is given to band-variation in Helix nemoralis, 

 one wishes that banded species of other sections, such 

 as H. caperata, might receive a little notice. I am 

 somewhat inclined to suppose that dryness tends to 

 produce forms with the bands much split up, and yet 

 distinct. I find this tendency in American examples 

 of H. nenioralis, and it occurs to excess in H. jbisatia, 

 which always frequents hot and dry localities. Here 

 are a few band-formulae of British Helices of this 

 group, taken from specimens I have examined — it 

 will be seen how complicated they are : — H. caperata, 

 var. 123444555, var. 003445 ; H. virgata, var. 

 0034455, var. 00344455 (this last from near Clonmel, 

 Ireland, collected by Rev. A. H. Delap) ; H. pisaiia, 

 var. i23334n55, var. 123334444455. From Bordighera, 

 in the south of Europe, I have seen H. pisana var- 

 0033444455 (collected by Colonel Wilmer). Some 

 southern examples of H. pisand, however, have 

 quite simple formulae ; Mr. J. H. Ponsonby gave 

 me examples of vars. (123)00, 00534, and 0034O. — 

 T. D. A. Cockerell, West Cliff, Colorado. 



Slug Notes. — It is curious that apparently no 

 genuine Arion is native to North America, unless it 

 is A. subfuscus in Greenland. The Massachusetts 

 A. fuscus, as I learn from Mr. W. G. Barney, is 

 A. hortensis, and introduced — notwithstanding that 

 Bourguignat has described it as a new species. Mr. 

 Binney also informs me that ^^ Arion" foliolatus, 

 Gould, is not an arion at all. Arion distinctus, 

 Mabillc, introduced into the British fauna from 

 Ireland, appears, from the researches of Messrs. 

 Simroth and Ashford, to be only a young form of 

 A. ater, the stripes notwithstanding. This is inter- 

 esting, as pointing to the probability that the oldest 

 type of Arion was striped. Arton celticiis, PoUonera, 

 described from N.W. France, should be looked for 

 in S.W. England and S. Ireland, though it seems 



likely enough to be only a form of Bourguignati. 

 While on the subject of slugs, I may correct an error 

 I made in a former note. L. dzrulans and L. monte- 

 negrinus belong to Frauenfeldia, and not to Leh- 

 mannia, as I had it. — T. D. A. Cockerell, West Cliff, 

 Custer Co., Colorado. 



The Rudimentary Intelligence of Infu- 

 soria. — Mr. Deane appears to contend that "in- 

 stinct " is an outcome of intelligence. Is not rather 

 intelligence a higher development of instinct ? The 

 various faculties of the paramaecium, which is taken 

 as an illustration, may surely be the result of the law 

 of the survival of the fittest, since those faculties tend 

 to the well-being of their possessor, and those in- 

 dividuals of a colony who possessed them in even a 

 slight degree whilst their fellows did not possess 

 them at all, or had them developed to a greater 

 degree than their cotemporaries, would presumably 

 be in a better position to avoid danger and to pro- 

 cure food, with the necessary result of a greater 

 chance to perpetuate their kind. Of the offspring, 

 many might doubtless fail to inherit the advan- 

 tageous peculiarities, and in turn would be handi- 

 capped as compared with those who did inherit 

 them. The greater the degree in which the faculties 

 were developed, the greater the advantage the for- 

 tunate individuals would possess over others. It does 

 not seem to be necessarily a question of intelligence 

 or instinct at all ; a mere mechanical advantage 

 would have the same result if transmitted. — H. 



The Hearing of Ants. — In reply to the note 

 by Sir John Lubbock, in the October issue of 

 Science-Gossip, I may say that whilst experiment- 

 ing with the glass-bell, I held the glass in my hand, 

 and not, as he seems to think, on the table. Thus 

 proving that the ants in this case could not be 

 startled by the vibration in the wood upon which 

 they were creeping. I have, as I said in my paper, 

 tried this experiment over and over again, always 

 with a like result. I attach some importance to the 

 experiment with the blue-bottle fly, and ere long I 

 hope to record more experiments of a varied and 

 interesting nature tending to substantiate my case. — 

 Jos. Bo'iVman. 



A Few Shells from Clifton, Bristol. — 

 Mr. R. O. Millward has recently sent me to name for 

 him from this locality a small packet of shells. The 

 packet included Hyalina cellaria, Limncea peregra, 

 Flanorbis umbilicatiis, ( = F. complanatus and P. marg- 

 inatus), P. contort us, P. spirorbis, Tcstacella Maugei 

 and Spharium corneum, which may be interesting 

 enough to place on record. — J. W. Williams. 



LlMNi^A STAGNALIS AND L. PEREGRA DEVOURED 



BY Dytiscus marginalis. — During last summer I 

 kept several dytisci and fed them upon L. stagnalis 

 and L. peregra. One dytiscus killed and devoured 



