36 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF ONTARIO. 



findetli to do, do it with thy might," or in '• Be not slothful in business,'' or in the homely 

 saying, "Make hay while the sun shines." There is nothing in them to countenance the 

 hoarding propensities of the miser. 



It has been supposed that Solomon referred to the Atta barbara of Palestine, which, 

 like the Atfa malefariens of Texas, is said to store up grain However this may be, it is 

 very certain that Adelaide Taylor had an English ant — Formica rafa, or one of its con- 

 geners — in view. Rev. J. G. Wood says, — 



" Ants do not, as has been so frequently said, lay up stores of corn for the winter, for they are in a. 

 state of torpidity during the cold months, and require no food. Moreover, an ant would find as much 

 difficulty in eating or digesting a grain of corn as we should in devouring a truss of straw."— 111. Nat. Hist., 

 p. 426. 



Thomas Hood, however, in his " OJe on Autumn," goes to the full length of the mistake 

 and says, — 



" The ants have brimm'd their garners with ripe grain." 



(2) Many entomological mistak-'.s of ant/iurs are found to be exaggeration-'^ of the 

 truth. 



Whatever is strange in other lands becomes a " traveller's wonder." Stories of the 

 admiration it excited in the beholders have afforded food for credulity and speculation. 

 Of mistaken ideas the following Eastern Townships' story atfords an instance. Two 

 young Irish immigrants landed at Montreal some years ago. They travelled by the then 

 new line to Waterloo, as far as Farnhara. They walked from that place to Cowansville, 

 and arrived at the hotel in the dusk of the evening. After supper they retired to their 

 room. It was a hot July night and they threw open the window for air. In flocked the 

 mosquitoes of course, and began to be very attentive to the new-comers. One of the lads, 

 who was already in bed, called to his fellow, " Pat, put out the light and jump in, and 

 then the omadhouns will not find us." Pat put out the light, but at that moment in 

 sailed a fire-fly. " Och, Terry," he exclaimed, " its not a bit of use, one of the spalpeens 

 lias been and got a lanthern" 



Saint Pierre, the ingenious author of " Paul and Virginia," learned from Father du 

 Tetre concerning Pi/ronhorus noctilacios, and says of it, in his " Studies of Niture," Vol. 

 IL, p. 299. 



" There are insects which need no pharos to guide them in their nocturnal perigrinations. They carry 

 their lanterns with them ; s-uoh are the luminous flies." 



Pietro Martire, in the "Decades of the New World," tells us th it the lanterns of the 

 fire-flies enable them to see the musquitos on the sleepers' noses, and to pick them off. 

 (He siys /aces ; but the whole includes the parts). His account is as follows: 



" Hee who understandeth he hath these troublesome gueste? (the gnattes) at home, diligently hunteth 

 aftgrthe CucuiJ. Whoso wanteth Cucuij goeth out of the house in the first twilight of theiii^ht, carrying 

 a burning fire-brande in his liande, and ascendeth the next liillock that the Cucuij may see it, and he 

 swingeth the fire-brande about calling Cucuius aloud, and beating the ayre, with often calling out Cucvie, 

 Cucuie" .... " The hunter having the hunting Cmcm^^' returneth home, and, shutting the doore of 

 the house, letteth the preye goe. The Cucuij loosed, swiftly flyeth about the whole house, seeking: gnattes 

 under their hanging bedds, and about the faces of them that steepc, which the guattes used to assayle : they 

 seem to execute the office of watchmen, that such as are shut in may ([uietly rest. Another pleasant and 

 profitable commodity proceedeth from the Cucuij. As many eyes as every Cucuius openeth, the hosts en- 

 joyeth the light of so many candels ; so that the inhabitants spinne, sewe, weave and dance by the light of 

 the flying Cucuij." 



The same writer tells us that the inhabitants travelling at night used to tie a tire-fly 

 to each great toe. 



Madam Meriam, the authoress of a History of the insects of Surinam, says that the 

 light of the lantern-fly, Falgora lantern aria, is sufficient to read by. 



Now, all these stories are " travellers' wonders," and need to be taken cum grano 

 salis. Dr. G. A. Perkins, in the American Naturalist, Vol. II., p 462, states that — 



" By placing the luminous pads of one insect quite near the paper, very fine print can be easily read 

 by its aid, though I cannot imagine the light, even of a large number, to be sufficient for any practical il- 

 luminating purposes, as has been affirmed by some writers." 



