Feb. 1, 1870.] 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



41 



ZOOLOGY. 



Cicada.— Captain Hancock informs me that the 

 Brazilian Cicada sing so loud as to be heard at the 

 distance of a mile. This is as if a man of ordinary 

 stature, supposing his powers of voice increased in 

 the ratio of his size, could be heard all over the 

 world. So that Stentor himself becomes a mute 

 when compared [with these insects. — Kirby, Introd. 



Fireflies. — If we are to believe Mouffet (and 

 the story is not incredible), the appearance of the 

 tropical Fireflies on one occasion led to a more im- 

 portant result than might have been expected from 

 such a cause. He tells us that when Sir T. Caven- 

 dish and Sir R. Dudley first landed in the West 

 Indies, and saw in the evening an infinite number 

 of moving lights in the woods, which were merely 

 ihese insects, they supposed that the Spaniards 

 were advancing upon them, and immediately betook 

 themselves to their ships ; a result as well entitling 

 the elaters to a commemoration feast as a similar 

 good office of the land crabs of Hispaniola, which, as 

 the Spaniards tell (and the story is confirmed by an 

 anniversary Fiesta de tos Cangrejos), by their clat- 

 tering — mistaken by the enemy for the sound of 

 Spanish cavalry close upon their heels — in like 

 manner scared away a body of English invaders of 

 the city of St. Domingo. — Kirby, Litrod. 



Eood of Insects.— Some insects in their perfect 

 state, though furnished with organs of feeding, make 

 no use of them, and consume no food whatever. 

 Of this description are the moths which proceed 

 from the silkworm, and several others of the same 

 order ; the different species of gadflies, and the 

 ephemerae insects, whose history is so well known 

 as to afford a moral or a simile to those most 

 ignorant of natural history. AH these live so short 

 a time in the perfect state as to need no food. 

 Indeed it may be laid down as a general rule, that 

 almost all insects in this state eat much less than in 

 that of larva. The voracious caterpillar/when trans- 

 formed into a butterfly, needs only a small quantity 

 of honey ; and the gluttonous maggot, when become 

 a fly, contents itself with an occasional drop or two 

 of any sweet liquid. — Kirby, Introd. 



The Woodlotjse {Armadillo vulgaris) when 

 alarmed rolls itself up into a little ball. In this 

 attitude its legs and the underside of the body, 

 which are soft, are entirely covered and defended by 

 the hard crust that forms the upper surface of the 

 animal. These balls are perfectly spherical, black, 

 and shining, and belted with narrow white bands, 

 so as to resemble beautiful beads ; and, could they 

 be preserved in this form and strung, would make 

 very ornamental necklaces and bracelets. At least 

 so thought Swammerdamm's maid, who, finding a 

 number of these insects thus rolled up in her 



master's garden, mistaking them for beads, em- 

 ployed herself in stringing them on a thread ; when, 

 to her great surprise, the poor animals beginning to 

 move and struggle for their liberty, crying out and 

 running away in the utmost alarm, she threw down 

 her prize !— Kirby, Introd. 



The Mole Cricket (Gryllotalpa) .—Of the ex- 

 traordinary voracity and insensibility to pain some- 

 times exhibited by these insects, Nordlinger relates 

 a striking example. It chanced that in a certain 

 garden a mole cricket was struck by a spade, and 

 completely divided into two nearly equal halves. In 

 a quarter of an hour's time, the would-be slayer 

 turned his eyes in the direction where lay the sup- 

 posed corpse : what was his surprise and horror to 

 see the forepart of the insect, which had in the 

 meanwhile turned itself round, deliberately 

 devouring its own tail hnW.—Taschenberg, Wirbel- 

 lose Thiere. 



Ability of Aquatic Insects to sustain 

 Severe Cold. — 1 have an insect aquarium placed 

 in a window with a northerly exposure, and during 

 the late frost, from December 26th to 29th, the 

 water in it was converted into a solid block of ice, 

 and its inhabitants, a few beetles, were completely 

 imbedded in it. As the ice melted, one of them got 

 its body liberated, and was struggling to free its 

 legs, and now they are swimming about as usual, 

 quite lively, and apparently nothing the worse of 

 the severe cold which they endured. The minimum 

 temperature outside was 22°. — G. S. 



P.S. — Kirby and Spence notice the fact of insects 

 regaining their vitality after being imbedded in ice ; 

 but in this instance they retained it while part of 

 the body was imbedded. — G. S. 



The Herring. — I do not know whether you will 

 consider the size of a herring worth recording, but 

 I write a line to say that one was bought at my 

 door the other day which was sixteen inches in 

 length from the nose to the tip of the tail ; from the 

 eye to the centre of the fork was twelve inches, and 

 from back to belly straight through was three inches 

 and a quarter. I would have weighed it, but the 

 cook had cleaned the fish before I saw it. Such 

 books of reference as were at hand give the usual 

 length of the herring as from ten to twelve inches. 

 The vendor termed it a " Scotch herring." I am 

 not aware of the existence of a larger species of 

 Clupea than harengns ; Gosse enumerates but four 

 others — Leachii, pilchardus, sprattus, and alba, all of 

 which are smaller. — George Guy on. 



Macroglossa Stellatarum.— The Humming- 

 bird Hawk-moth was about late last year. I saw one 

 on Nov. 20th, though a cold day, flying briskly about 

 the few remaining blossoms of valerian.— G. Gvyon, 

 T'entnor, Isle of Wight. 



