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HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



it appears in the June number of the Journal of the 

 Royal Microscopical Society, p. 474, as Dactyanmha 

 clongata, described and figured by M. A. Korotoneff ; 

 it is quoted from Arch. Exp. et Gen. Zool. vm. 

 (1880), pp. 467-83--^^ ^- S^ff"'''- 



Honey Buzzards.— Perhaps it might interest 

 some of your readers to know that two spotted 

 crakes and also two honey buzzards have been shot 

 near Woodbridge, Suffolk. — Ji. D., 



]Voodbric!:l 



How Worms turn" in their Burrows.— Dr. 

 Darwin, in his work on Worms, remarks at page 1 1 7, 

 " When a worm comes to the surface to eject earth, 

 the tail protrudes, but when it collects leaves its head 

 must protrude. Worms therefore must have the 

 power of turning round in their closely-fitting burrows ; 

 and this, as it appears to us, would be a difficult 

 feat." It does seem to be a difficult feat indeed, 

 unless we have put to the test the marvellous 

 attenuating power which the worm possesses. I have 

 put this to the test, with a result which certainly 

 surprised me and helps to explain how the feat is 

 accomplished. In order so to do, I obtained a long 

 narrow glass tube— so narrow in fact that it seemed 

 impossible that a worm of any size could be got into 

 it— and attempted therein to cage a large worm, say 

 in its normal condition, about five inches in length. 

 The tube was too small to get the worm into it, 

 except when drawn out to the utmost attenuated 

 condition of its anterior (head) part when dragging 

 itself along the ground. It was a matter of no little 

 time and difficulty to compel the worm to go into 

 so slender a tube, too small to admit it except in its 

 attenuate condition. It was unearthed in the daytime, 

 so I had plenty of light to watch its movements and 

 direct my own. Laying the glass tube on the ground, 

 I carefully moved the end towards the finely drawn- 

 out head of the worm, so that the next movement 

 forward in the same line must bring part of the crea- 

 ture within the tube. But no, time after time did it 

 withdraw before any length had entered the tube ; at 

 length however, after checking its onward movement, 

 time after time, except into the opening of the tube, 

 and by gently and repeatedly tapping the tail, at last 

 drawn out apparently to its utmost length so as to fill 

 the circumference of the tube, I had my unwilling 

 prisoner fairly caught in his narrow cell. One end 

 of the tube was already plugged up, and no sooner 

 was the worm inside than I securely plugged the 

 other, so that at neither end was there a possibility of 

 escape. The inside surface of the tube was soon 

 covered with a kind of slimy secretion, but the tube 

 was more than double the length of the worm, thii: 

 drawn as it was, and it soon made its way to the 

 extreme end. Here, however, all egress or progression 

 was barred, and now, thought I, if you want any 

 more locomotion, Mr. Worm, you must go back- 

 wards, for turn round you cannot. What was my 

 surprise, to see it slowly and gradually attenuate its 



head even yet more, and double back over itself ! I 

 should have said itwas impossible, had I not seen it 

 do it, as slowly ring by ring of its length was drawn 

 round and two circumferences of the worm occupied 

 the space in the circumference of the tube, until at 

 last the whole worm had fairly turned round and 

 begun to crawl back to the other end of the tube, 

 where as egress was barred it repeated the operation. 

 After this, I had no difftculty in understanding how 

 a worm turns in its burrow, so as to protrude its 

 head or tail as the necessity of the creature requires ; 

 as the worm hole is, I believe, always large enough for 

 the worm to draw itself into its normal or unattenuated 

 condition. — JV. Buddeii, Ipswich. 



On the Cocoon of Cionus.— In the third vol. 

 of his "Memoires" (pp. 31-3. pl- 2, fig- 9-12), 

 Reaumur describes among leaf-miners, the larva of a 

 weevil which lives in the leaves of mullein {bouillon - 

 blanc), and which is evidently a species of Cionus. 

 Judging by the size and description, p. 33, I suppose 

 it to^'be C. thapsus. It differs from C. Scrophularia 

 in living, according to Reaumur, in the substance of the 

 leaf and not upon the surface, and also in the duration 

 of the pupa stage— seven to eight days, or less ; whilst 

 the same stage in C. Scrophularicc is from thirteen or 

 fourteen to some eighteen days. His account of the 

 cocoon agrees substantially with that which I have given 

 of the cocoon of C. Scrophularia; in Science-Gossip, 

 vol. xvi. p. 209 ; except that Reaumur was unable 

 to discover the mode in which it was made, but 

 supposed it to be spun by an oval spinneret like that of 

 caterpillars. " Pour se transformer en nymphes, ces 

 vers se filent une jolie coque, presque spherique, de 

 couleur blancheatre, et d'un tissu si serre, qu'elle 

 paroit plutot faite d'une membrane, que de fils 

 appliques les uns contre les autres. . . . Je ne suis 

 pourtant pas parvenu a les leur voir filer, parce 

 qu'ils ont tons pris la nuit pour le temps de leur 

 travail. Mais j'ai cru voir leur filiere placee comme 

 celle des chenilles, et leur tete se donner des 

 mouvemens semblables a ceux des chenilles qui 

 filent. J'ai d'ailleurs etc convaincu que leurs coques 

 n'etoient point faites de la peau du ver," &c. &c. 

 The resemblance to the coarctate pupoe of the diptera 

 seems also to have struck your correspondent, 

 W. H. G., in his Note on the Betony Weevil, in 

 Science-Gossip for Jan. 1876, p. 17. As to the 

 way in which the beetle makes its escape from the 

 cocoon, Reaumur says: " Le scarabe qui vient de 

 laisser sa depouille, ronge circulairement la coque ; 

 la piece qu'il a detachee presque tout autour, est une 

 porte aisee a ouvrir, il la pousse, elle cede et elie lui 

 donne un libre passage.''-^- -l- Osborne, M.D., 

 Milford, CO. Donegal. 



Dover Field Club and Natufal History 

 Society.— The annual meeting of this society was 

 held recently and was well attended. Thomas 

 Lewis, Esq., was elected president ; Sydney Webb, 



