HA RD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OSS IP. 



39 



1878, and sown in 1879, six of the plants from the 

 synanthic terminal capsule flowered last summer. 

 Each of them had flowers of the character common 

 to its kind without synanthy. None of the others 

 having flowered yet, I have still two hundred plants 

 on which to make observations next year. 



John Gibes. 



PARASITES AND THEIR FUNCTIONS. 



A NOTE upon the subject of the parasite of the 

 honey-bee appears at page 277 of Science- 

 GOSSIP, December, in which the writer further implies 

 that it relates to the queen in particular, and in respect 

 of which he solicits the attention of readers and 

 certain information. 



Without now entering fully into the subject of 

 health and disease, or the purposes and uses of the 

 lower organisms in the economy of nature, of which 

 he desires to be informed, it may be remarked that 

 parasites are not always to be regarded as being 

 injurious to health ; not unfrequently they are con- 

 ducive to comfort and longevity. Those that kill 

 are simply natural checks to excessive multiplication, 

 while many others are present as sanitary agents 

 only. Parasites, therefore, cannot necessarily be re- 

 garded as evils, always contributing as they do, 

 directly or indirectly, to the benefit of man, and to 

 harmony in the universe. 



Members of the family Pediculida seldom remain 

 long upon a victim after its death, but more generally 

 leave the body on the approach of dissolution. On 

 this account the ignorant in all ages havesuperstitiously 

 — though with good reason — regarded their sudden 

 appearance, in cases of sickness, as the harbingers of 

 death. 



Confounding the orders Diptera and Anoplura 

 creates some little confusion in the statement of the 

 writer. Would the insect in question, if parasitic, 

 which I doubt, belong to the order Strepsiptera ? 

 Members of the family Plippoboscidce, intimated, 

 derive their nutrition from living animals. Unless 

 Mr. Horsenaill should describe the " sijecific cha- 

 racters" of his insect, an answer to his important 

 questions, which might be useful to his friend, can 

 scarcely be expected j but it may be remarked that 

 we should scarcely be justified in calling the vulture 

 a parasite of an animal on which it may be found 

 feeding. 



It is not perhaps so curious that the queen alone 

 should have succumbed to the ravages of the marau- 

 ders (?) of Mr. Pettitt's apiary. Preference and 

 antipathy, in respect of taste, is very strikingly dis- 

 played by insects as is well known, not only to 

 entomologists, but also to schoolboys, who never 

 fail to select certain localities and plants when in 

 search for particular insects ; and as the constitution, 

 habits, manners, uses, secretions, and excretions of 



the queen, differ so essentially from all other bees in 

 the hive, there is nothing surprising that she should 

 have been selected by some fastidious suctoria, that 

 may have intruded itself into the community, should 

 such untoward event really have taken place. (?) 



It would be desirable to know how the discovery 

 of the death of the queen was made. What were the 

 circumstances and conditions under which she was 

 found ? What is the proof that she alone was para- 

 sitically, or otherwise, affected ? How long since she 

 was removed from her country home ? How came 

 the colony to select a diseased and dangerous gover- 

 ness for the perpetuation of their race ? Instinct is 

 undoubtedly occasionally at fault, but it is perhaps 

 not rare for a community of bees in full possession of 

 their instinctive faculty to behave with due regard to 

 the laws of hereditary transmission. 



I have not anopportunity of seeing the paper, 1870, 

 referred to, but assuming it is a "Paper," and 

 knowing Mr. Taylor's extensive acquaintance with 

 so great a variety of subjects, as also his great care 

 as Editor of Science-Gossip and other valuable 

 publications, to admit only what is valuable and 

 reliable, I am disposed to believe that the statements 

 and descriptions of Mr. Packard were true. 



Perhaps Mr. Horsenaill will be pleased to describe 



more particularly, for the subject is full of interest, 



and should there have been anything not previously 



observed, it is desirable that the facts should be 



further elucidated. 



J. Fedarb, B.E. 



E-vaminer, Privy Council. 



LIST OF ASSISTING NATURALISTS. 



\Contintied.'\ 



Yorkshire. 



Sheffield. James E. Westby, 83 Barber Road, 

 Crookes Moor Road, Local Field and Fossil 

 Geology. 



GRAPPLE FOR POND LIFE OR MARINE 

 WORK. 



A SMALL grapple for collecting pond life, is, I 

 believe, used by some naturalists, and from its 

 construction I should think that if it fouled anything 

 at the bottom, nothing could prevent its being lost. 

 But by having such an instrument as that figured 

 above, it will be seen that, by having the main cord 

 (with a breaking strain of say 5 lbs. for a small one, 

 and 40 lbs. for a large one for marine use) fastened to 

 a ring below the hooks, and by having another cord 

 with a breaking strain of a much less weight con- 

 necting the top ring of the grapple with the main 

 cord, as shown in the cut, it will follow that when the 

 grapple fouls any rock, root, or snag of timber, as the 



