HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



7i 



rather than a sign of increasing intelligence, as it 

 enables other insects to obtain access to the honey 

 which otherwise they would not be able to reach." 

 The bee that usually makes the puncture is B. 

 terrestris. In its action we have an illustration of an 

 old proverb. The tongue of this bee is short, con- 

 sequently, it often finds that the honey is out of reach 

 if it enters the flower in the usual way ; it must 

 therefore invent other means, or be deprived of 

 enjoying the coveted sip. The bee adapts itself to 

 ■circumstances, and does not appear to take into 

 account the effect upon the community. — Robert 

 Paulson. 



Vitality of Dor-Beetle. — Yesterday I found a 

 fine specimen of Geotrupes stercorarius (the dor- 

 beetle), which I put in my cyanide bottle, a tolerably 

 strong one, and left there for an hour. I then took it 

 out, dissected it, and gummed each part of the body 

 separately, on a sheet of card, except the first pair of 

 leg^, which I left on the thorax. I did not notice 

 anything peculiar at the time, but about five hours 

 later I looked at it and saw that one of the tarsi, that 

 on the left fore-leg, was moving. It continued to 

 wave from side to side for some minutes. I also saw 

 the whole leg move very slightly once or twice. This 

 seemed more wonderful as the thorax had been 

 emptied of its contents, and was nearly dry. — F. J. 

 Waller. 



Mark Antony, in discoursing on bees, p. 239, 

 Vol. 1886, supplies, to my mind, an argument in 

 favour of instinct as opposed to any reasoning power 

 in these insects. He concludes that ' ' after all it would 

 appear that bees only fly in a direct line on their 

 return to the hive." Further on, quoting Sir John 

 Lubbock, " ' I have betn a good deal surprised at the 

 difficulty which bees experience in finding their way,'" 

 instancing the fact that a bee taken two hundred 

 yards to a room, and given honey, failed to return ; 

 with the statement, also Sir John's, that he rarely 

 found bees return to honey if brought any consider- 

 able distance at once. Now, if bees, as a rule, fly in 

 a direct line when returning to the hive, after an 

 erratic course of many hundred yards from it, often 

 to pastures new, how is it that these found a difficulty 

 in returning, if they ever desired to return, to a spot 

 only two hundred yards from the hive ? Surely not 

 from an inability to find their way, when they are 

 able to return home direct from long distances by a 

 route perhaps never before traversed. Was it not 

 rather instinct which carried Sir John's bees off to 

 the flower of the field in the very face of his allure- 

 ment? Would it not rather savour of reason, had 

 they, instead of resuming their wonted method, 

 quitted the instinctive track and forthwith returned to 

 the room, whither they had previously been conveyed, 

 for the honey they remembered to have found there ? 

 -Sir John found, however, his bees capable of being 

 trained. Does not training itself appeal to this very 

 instinct for its success ? Would not strange habits, 

 by training, become assimilated, as it were, into the 

 instinctive economy? — G, A. Newman, Jersey. 



A Strange Butterfly. — I have a butterfly, 

 taken at Shanklin, I.W., which I believe is unknown 

 to British collectors. Not mentioned in Newman's, 

 or Colman's, or Morris's, or Wood's works on ento- 

 mology. The insect measures at least 4! inches across, 

 is of a bright Vandyke brown, with black markings 

 similar to black veined white {Aporia Cratesgi), and 

 has a white and spotted black edge to each wing, 

 with deep black line on inner margin ; body is black, 

 with white spots on thorax ; is in splendid condition, 

 seemingly fresh from chrysalis. — J. A. Billings. 



A Query. — The other day, whilst looking at my 

 aquarium, I saw hanging to a leaf what appeared to be 

 a small leaf suspended by a spider's thread, but on 

 examining it closely, found, to my surprise, to be a 

 small grey slug of about three-eighths of an inch long ; 

 it was twisting itself about and gradually letting itself 

 down, till at length it reached the water, when it 

 suddenly dropped. From the time when I first began 

 to watch it, I suppose it must have come down four or 

 five inches. Can any of your readers tell me whether 

 the slug actually spun the web on which it was, or 

 whether it simply clung to a spider's thread, if so, 

 how did it maintain its foothold ? — -IV. J. 



Phenomenal Bugs. — I venture to send a short 

 account of an incident which has happened in my 

 experience, and which bears in some respects re- 

 semblance to the narrative in your November 

 number with the above heading. About twenty 

 years ago I lived in a house (in Bury St. Edmunds), 

 the back door of which opened on to a path some 

 five or six feet wide, paved with ordinary paving or 

 flagstone. This path ran past first the kitchen, and 

 next that came a washhouse or brewhouse, the 

 further end of which was divided off as a receptacle 

 for coals, faggots, ecc. One hot morning in the 

 middle of summer, on going out I found the whole 

 front wall of the washhouse and the adjoining pave- 

 ment literally brown with fleas. There were myriads 

 upon myriads. Where they came from I have not 

 the slightest idea, nor did it occur to me to ascertain 

 of what variety they were. Where they went to I 

 am equally at a loss to say, but their numbers de- 

 creased as the day went on and the next morning 

 not one was to be seen. — C. I. 



NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS. 



To Correspondents and Exchangers.— As we now 

 publish Science-Gossip earlier than formerly, we cannot un- 

 dertake to insert in the following number any communications 

 which reach us later than the 8th of the previous month. 



To Anonymous Querists. — We must adhere to our rule of 

 not noticing queries which do not bear the writers' names. 



To Dealers and others.— We are always glad to treat 

 dealers in natural history objects on the same fair and general 

 ground as amateurs, in so far as the "exchanges" offered are fair 

 exchanges. But it is evident that, when their offers are simply 

 disguised advertisements, for the purpose of evading the cost of 

 advertising, an advantage is taken of our gratuitous insertion of 

 " exchanges " which cannot be tolerated. 



We request that all exchanges may be signed with name (or 

 initials) and full address at the end. 



E. A.— The best books on the British Graminese and 

 Cyperacea; are Sowerby's, price il. is. 



J. P. Cousin. — Accept our best thanks for specimens of 

 Faxoe chalk and fossils. 



W. H. L.— We do not know of any books like that you 

 require, in a popular way, except Beeton's " Dictionary of 

 Natural History," and the "Treasury of Botany." Both are 

 alphabetically arranged. 



H. Jackson.— You will get silkworms' eggs by applying to 

 Messrs Watkins & Doncaster, 36 Strand, London. 



W. Duncan. — We received your specimens of Sertularta 

 abietina, but have not found any algse to which the red colour 

 can be assigned. Where were they gathered ? It looks more 

 as if they had been gathered along some shore where red rocks 

 prevailed, so as to allow the iron to colour them. 



F. B. W. — Your specimen is certainly not a sponge, *t 

 looks like the dried mycelia of some fungus. The best book 

 on British sponges is in three vols, by Dr. Bowerbank, published 

 by the Ray Soc. There is no elementarv book on the subject. 

 See "Half Hours at the Seaside" (Messrs. Allen & Co., 

 price is. 6d.). Chapter on " Half an Hour with Sponges. 



J. S. Galizac— Apply to Mr. W. P. Collins, 157 Great 

 Portland btreet, London, for all or any of the monthly 

 scientific journals you require. 



J. S. Walker.— See " Notes on Collecting and Preserving 

 Natural History Specimens" (Messrs. Allen & Co., price y. 6d.), 

 I Chapter on " Collecting Bones," &c. 



