224 



HARDWICKE'S SC IEN CE- GO SSIP. 



• The female gave birth to ten young ones one 

 night, but I am sorry to say all were dead in the morn- 

 ing, probably from having been put in unclean 

 water. The young are pure white, and have no 

 tubercles on the back,' but have the strange lobes 



Fig. 127. Caprella acanthi/era (female), mag-. 



on the sides, and the antennae are not so long but 

 thick. The large spine on the second foot is but 

 half-grown. The male I unfortunately destroyed 

 while under the microscope, but the female and 

 young I have preserved in spirits of wine. 



Paljemon Squilia. 



In drawing one of these crustaceans from life, I 

 notice that there is an error in Professor Bell's 

 sketch in his "British Stalk-eyed Crustacea," 

 though I suppose I am but killing the slain, and 

 that this has often been pointed out before. Still 



// 



Kig. 128. Palcemnn gquilla. 



it might mislead a novice on comparing the animal 

 with the engraving. The swimmerets, or swimming 

 feet, are all turned the wrong way, backwards 

 instead of forwards. I think probably several of 

 the delineations of other species have the same 

 error. This Palacmon has just cast its shell, all in 

 one piece to the very points of its long antennae. 



Tom Workman. 



" I have often seen a cuttle completely spoil, in a 

 few seconds, all the water in a tank, containing one 

 thousand gallons."— Henry Lee on the " Octopus ." ,<£ 



PROCESSIONARY CATERPILLARS. 



TN a letter received, 25th March last, from a 

 J- friend staying in the south of Erance 

 (Mentone), some interesting observations upon 

 a species of the Processionary Caterpillar are 

 recorded, which may be interesting to the readers 

 of Science-Gossip. She writes— 



" While out for a walk the other day we came 

 across a curious incident iuj[natural history. At 

 Cap Martin, about two miles from Mentone, our 

 attention was attracted by something by the road- 

 side which looked, at a little distance, like a long 

 thin serpent. At first we thought it best not to go 

 very near, but curiosity prevailed, and upon closer 

 inspection we found it was a long line, consisting of 

 99 caterpillars, crawling in single file close after one 

 another. Our curiosity led us to remove one from 

 the middle, a little distance from the others, and we 

 found his place was soon filled up; but he crawled 

 back to them and edged his way into the line again. 

 Then we removed the leader : this brought them for 

 a time to a standstill. After a little while they began 

 to move on, and then we put the original leader in 

 his proper place, but this brought them again to a 

 standstill ; and from the way they moved their 

 heads from side to side, a great deal of talking 

 seemed to be going on, and they decided their 

 original leader was not fit to lead, and they chose 

 another, while he had to make his way into the line 

 lower down. A little further on we saw [another 

 line of 44 coming up in the opposite direction, and 

 we were curious to see what would happen when 

 they met,imagining they might perhaps have a fight ; 

 but such was not the case : they joined the others 

 by degrees, and so made a much longer line and 

 marched on. 



" We have since heard they climb some particu- 

 lar kind of trees, and make their nests in thenii 

 which has a very injurious effect and often kills 

 the trees, unless the branches are cut off which hold 

 the nests." 



In an interesting little work 011 "Insect Archi- 

 tecture," published; in 1S30, mention is made of 

 these social caterpillars, the construction of their 

 nests, and their processionary habits. The writer 

 says:— "Ic is remarkable that, however far they 

 may ramble from their nest, they never fail to find 

 their way back, when a shower of rain or nightfall 

 renders shelter necessary. It requires no great 

 shrewdness to discover how they effect this ; for 

 by looking closely at their track it will be found 

 that it is carpeted with silk, no individual moving 

 an inch without constructing such a pathway both 

 for the use of his companions and to facilitate his 

 own return. All these caterpillars, therefore, move 

 more or less in processional order, each following 

 the road which the first chance traveller has marked 

 out with his strip of silk carpeting." Eurther re- 



