Vegetable and Animal 



has no real friend. Its children are carried away by 

 ants, who probably neglect them ; other ants come and 

 '' milk " the aphis of its drop of honey. Wasps, birds, 

 and several beetles eat the aphis. There is a fungus 

 which forms a white threadwork growing over the haw- 

 thorn, and this also attacks and kills the aphis. Another 

 beetle feeds upon the fungus.^ Yet the aphis is not at 

 all likely to die out, for its progeny are so abundant 

 that it can withstand all its enemies and even such a 

 bird population as we have in Britain. 



Certain fungi (Mucor exitiosus) also invade the 

 bodies of locusts, but unfortunately it has not yet been 

 found possible to use this fungus to destroy that danger- 

 ous South African and South American pest.® 



Many well-known and often described plants do prey 

 upon insects, and indeed live mainly by them. The 

 butterwort, whose leaves roll inwards over the midges 

 stuck on them ; the pretty little red sundew, with its 

 deadly tentacles ; Venus' fly-trap, which closes and im- 

 prisons its fly visitors, are too well known to be again 

 treated of here. But there are certain complex cruelties 

 connected with Nepenthes bicalcarata of which the 

 reader may not be aware. 



There are two remarkable spurs which project or 

 curve inwards over its pitcher, and which have been 

 compared to the fangs of a snake ready to strike. 



These have intrigued naturalists who could give no 

 explanation of them. Burbidge suggested that they 

 would prevent the Kobold monkey from scooping out 

 the insects with its little hand or fingers, but this 

 was not accepted by every one. But Herr Behnick 

 states that honey is secreted at the top of these spurs. 

 In consequence ants climb up the spurs and so jostle 

 and crowd one another that many are pushed off the 

 smooth, slippery surface and drop into the pitcher, where 



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