Aran. 1, 1S70.] 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



S7 



Pope asks us : — 



" Who taught the natives of the field and wood 

 To spurn their poison and to choose their food : 

 Prescient, the tides or tempest to withstand, 

 Build on the wave, or arch beneath the sand ? " 



And though we are all prepared to answer his 

 question, still there appears in this case something 

 wrong, if I dare use the expression, or something 

 defective in what has been called the "unerring 

 providence of instinct." Here a little insect has 

 been introduced into a new habitat and has disar- 

 ranged the balance of nature. I am disposed to 

 think that the " little birds " alluded to have sought, 

 as was their custom, the tree blossoms more perhaps 

 for the insects attracted thither than for the 

 supposed honey stores they contained, as compara- 

 tively few birds are purely nectar-sippers, or that 

 possess tongues which can work like the sucker of 

 a pump in a tubular bill, as is the case with the 

 humming-bird, the honey-eater of New Holland 

 (Meliphaga Novce Hollandia), and the wattled honey- 

 cater of Australia {Anthochmra corunculata), &c. 

 Even in the gem-like Trocliilidre insect food has been 

 detected in their stomachs, proving to us that their 

 nourishment is drawn from both sources. Could we 

 only ascertain the fact, 1 think it would be found 

 that the introduced bee bears some'strikingly decep- 

 tive resemblance to one or more of the stingless 

 diptera peculiar to New Zealand, and that the 

 insectivorous and honey-sipping birds, ignorant of its 

 character, have preyed upon it as food. A knowledge 

 of the bees imported might assist in throwing some 

 light upon this singular subject. In England we 

 have, I believe, in a state of semi-domestication, 

 three varieties of this valuable little insect ; viz., 

 Apis fasciata, or the Egyptian bee ; Apis ligustica, 

 the Italian bee, and Apis mellifica, or the common 

 honey bee. Probably one or other of these bees is 

 now carrying on the death-war with the New 

 Zealand birds. 



In conclusion, I may observe that it is with 

 touching suggestiveness the aborigines compare 

 these doomed little birds to themselves, and say that 

 their own gradual decrease is caused in the same 

 way. Unconscious of the many dangers introduced 

 into their once happy land by civilization, they run 

 into them as unsuspectingly as the little birds fly to 

 their gorgeous flowers for the sweet juices contained 

 in their nectaries, and are suddenly destroyed or die, 

 which is but too frequently the case with those who 

 have learned from the white man the life-destroying 

 habit of drinking ardent spirits, a sad and a lingering 

 death. Henry Moses, M.D. 



Sainton House, Heading. 



Musical Eishes. — We hope to give some further 

 information on this subject in our next issue. 



THE ANT-LION. 



{Myrmeleon formicarius.) 



/~\NE of the most curious and interesting of the 

 ^ many objects which were exhibited at the soiree 

 of the Quekett Microscopical Club, on the 11th of 

 March, was the larva of the Ant-lion shown by Mr. 

 Edmund Wheeler, of Holloway. During our school- 

 boy days we had read about the Ant-lion, and how 

 it caught its prey, and why it deserved its name, but 

 until now had never gazed upon its form. That very 

 interesting volume "Homes without Hands" has of 

 course something to say about this creature, and 

 from this source we will proceed to lay its history 

 before our readers. "In its mature state it presents 

 nothing worthy of remark, except, perhaps, the 

 elegance of its form and the delicacy of its wide 

 gauzy wings, which much resemble those of the 

 common Dragon-fly. But in its larval condition it 

 is truly a wonderful being. 



Fig. 9S. Larva of Ant-lion magnified. 



" Though predaceous, and feeding chiefly on the 

 most active insects, it is itself slow, and totally un- 

 able to chase them ; and were it not furnished with 

 some quality which serves it in the lieu of speed, it 

 would soon die of hunger. The very look of the 

 larva is enough to make the observer marvel as to 

 its method of obtaining food. Thick, short, soft, 

 and fleshy, the body is supported on six very feeble 

 legs, of which the hinder pair only are employed for 

 locomotion, and these can only drag it slowly back- 

 wards. Indeed, the general outline of the body and 



