Oct. 1, 1S68.] 



HAUDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



237 



Ostriches incubating. — The more I consider, 

 the more I am surprised to find the extent to which 

 vulgar ideas, fancy, and tradition lead us, even 

 against our own inclinations. I have positively 

 been constrained to believe the absurd idea that 

 ostriches, having dug about five holes in the sand, 

 proceed to lay an egg in each, covering them over 

 with sand, leaving the sun to hatch them. And, 

 unless your enlightened correspondent had thought 

 fit casually to mention the fact that she not only 

 arranged her eggs in a triangle, but " sat upon " all 

 but two or three unfavoured ones, to whose unfor- 

 tunate existence she makes an end in order that the 

 ultimate chicks, whose favoured eggs have had the 

 good fortune of being well sat upon, may have full 

 beaks, I should still remain in perfect ignorance of 

 such a sublime process. I must also suppose that 

 during parturition the poor hen must increase in 

 bulk to almost the size of the far-famed Arabian 

 Roc in order that she may sit upon twenty eggs, of 

 at least four inches of diameter to each, if the 

 sagacious bird (which I must suppose she is) had 

 sense sufficient to arrange all her eggs with their 

 points upwards. — C. L. 



Harvest Mites. — Will any of the readers of 

 Science-Gossip who have studied the nature and 

 history of the little animal commonly called the 

 "harvest-bug," or." harvest insect," favour me with 

 some account of its appearance as seen under the 

 microscope, its structure and habits ? and if any 

 means of destroying the animal before it has 

 wrought out its fell designs on the poor human 

 being who encounters it could be added, it would 

 be a boon indeed. My own present experience of 

 its attacks is most distressing. In former years, 

 when in the country, I have suffered much from 

 their ravages, but of late I have not come in their 

 way. A fortnight ago I came to a country lodging 

 by the sea, and for the first four or five days con- 

 fined my walks to the sands. During that time no 

 insect attacked me. But then I bent my steps 

 countryward, and ascended a little hill behind the 

 house, my pathway lying between potato-grounds. 

 On my return I discovered a little hillock on my 

 flesh, and seated on it a small scarlet creature, with 

 whose aspect 1 was but too well acquainted. Soon 

 another and another appeared, and by the evening of 

 the next day I bad from fifty to a hundred of these 

 horrible little brutes sticking in my flesh and making 

 me rend it in such anguish of mixed smarting and 

 itching as I cannot describe. In the course of the 

 second or third day the suffering abated, and by the 

 sixth I had pretty well recovered from the attack. 

 That evening— which was that of Saturday, the 15th 

 August — I visited some friends, and walked round 

 their garden, orchard, &c. That night I was again 

 assailed, and in the morning counted forty new 

 hillocks of suffering on my chest and shoulders 

 only. By the next evening (Monday) the number 

 increased to seventy-four countable ones, besides 

 many that were in such clusters as to be wwcountable, 

 and that on the front of the neck, throat, arms, and 

 shoulders only, a more than equal number being 

 scattered about elsewhere, the nape of the neck 

 being an especially crowded situation. I began to 

 think that I had mistaken the cause of my sutfering, 

 and that I must be the subject of some eruptive 

 disease, but on taking a lens I saw that on every 

 mound sat a scarlet-coated enemy. I have vainly 

 tried to kill or dislodge them. 1 have put lumps of 

 wet carbonate of ammonia on them, and drops of 

 glycerine, but without success. I have tried to 

 remove them with a fine needle — with scissors. I 



have attacked them "tooth and nail," in front and 

 in rear, all alike in vain. The body of the insect 

 moves backward and forward as you push it, but 

 the head remains buried in the flesh, and, as I 

 believe, remains there until the animal dies — a 

 deliverance which appears to occur about forty-eight 

 hours after its first grip is taken. So far as I have 

 been able to see with no higher power than the 

 lens of a good " linen-viewer," the insect appears 

 to be without legs, and not unlike in form to a 

 narrow planaria, with a tough flea-like skin that 

 resists pressure, of a brilliant red hue, and with a 

 small black eye — it may have two, but only one was 

 visible. The creature I examined was the only one 

 that I succeeded in dislodging, and I could make 

 nothing of the head : perhaps it had been partly 

 broken off. The special questions I would ask are : — 

 Whence does it come ? How, if without wings or legs, 

 does it effect its lodgment on human beings ? How 

 is it that for two or three days after the first attack, 

 the numbers increase so rapidly, and that they so 

 congregate in clusters ? Is there any means of 

 prevention or cure? The harvesters, and others 

 around me, are sorely troubled by this nuisance, and 

 it would be a wide-spreading benefit if a remedy for 

 it could be suggested. — M. D. P. 



Blechnum spicant. — In answer to Mr. Davies's 

 query respecting the " sporting" of this fern, I beg 

 to say I have found a bifurcate fertile frond, but 

 only in one instance, in which it was divided about 

 two inches down, and I thought it the result of an 

 injury. I also found near Christchurch, Hants, a 

 plant of Blechnum in which the majority of the 

 fronds, both fertile and barren, had deeply serrate 

 pinnae. It grew on the edge of a ditch, and was 

 extremely luxuriant. The difference in length be- 

 tween the fertile and barren fronds was scarcely so 

 noticeable as usual. Many of the barren fronds 

 were over twenty inches long, and one fertile one 

 reached thirty-two inches, of which the stipes was 

 eight inches. I sent a notice of it to Science- 

 Gossip at the time, but was told to make sure of the 

 species. I am quite sure it was Blechnum (one can't 

 very well mistake it), and several friends have since 

 verified two herbarium specimens I have of it. — 

 Geo. Edey, Rochester. 



Insects on Ferns.— The _ insect described by 

 your correspondent " A. A." is unquestionably the 

 Thrip. It is one of the greatest pests that can gain 

 a footing on plants of any kind. The larva? and 

 pupee are of a dullish white, but the perfect insect is 

 jet-black. This insect attacks plants by piercing 

 the under-side of the leaf, and in the same manner 

 the fronds of ferns. If your correspondent has not 

 many ferns infested by thrips, they may be removed 

 by a damp sponge, to which they will adhere, on the 

 sponge being drawn over them, care being taken 

 not to injure the fronds in doing so. If very much 

 infested, the best plan would be to smoke them in a 

 case, frame, or room, until not a frond were visible. 

 If this course is adopted, the fronds of the ferns 

 must be quite dry. To prevent their attacks next 

 year, keep the atmosphere about the ferns more 

 moist. — George Newlyn. 



Bifurcated Fern Fronds. — In reply to the 

 query of "T. Davies," on page 187, I am able to 

 inform him that this " sporting " is not confined to 

 the two species mentioned by him. This summer a 

 rootstock of Asplenium filix-fcemina growing in my 

 garden produced two bifurcated fertile fronds.— 

 /. B., Chester. 



