58 A NEW ZEALAND NATURALIST'S CALENDAR. 



come to know the life history of Lamprocolletes. What a 

 name ! These bees are not early risers ; they do not seem 

 to come forth till about 10 or 11 o'clock in the forenoon, 

 and disappear on a threat of rain or if the day becomes 

 cold or overcast. 



If a flower-pot in one of the frames is lifted, one is sure 

 to disturb a great number of wood-lice, which quickly 

 Ijetake themselves in all directions for shelter. Some of 

 them stay still for a while, trusting to that wonderful 

 instinct by which many animals seek to evade their 

 enemies, an instinct which leads some to sham death 

 and others to stay still in such a position that their re- 

 semblance to their surroundings hides them. The wood- 

 louse, or slater as it is often called, is not an animal of 

 high intelligence, but it seems to have enough to know that 

 it is sometimes a wiser plan to stand still than to run away. 



I don't come across many people who are interested in 

 wood-lice. Strange want of taste, is it not ? They are too 

 creepy, they seem to have too many legs, and superfluous 

 legs are uncanny things, and they don't seem to have any 

 special role in nature except to be where they are not 

 wanted. Gardeners have a great antipathy to them, and 

 credit them with a good deal of damage which they do not 

 do. For my part I find them very interesting, and will try 

 to show why. In the first place, they are not insects at all. 

 They belong to the Crustacea, the same family which in- 

 cludes the crabs and crayfishes of the coast, and of which 

 some hundreds of species are known in New Zealand. They 

 belong to the group known as the Isopoda, or equal-footed. 



The best way to examine the structure of a wood-louse is 

 to drop it into a little spirits of wine, which will kill it in a 

 few seconds. Looked at from above, the body is then seen 

 to be made of a number of segments or divisions. In front 

 is a square head which is really formed by the union of 

 several body-segments ; this bears the numerously-jointed 

 antennae, and on the underside the mouth organs. Behind 

 the head are arranged seven hard plate-like divisions, 

 evenly granulated and sculptured on the back, and so 



