1 68 



NATURE 



[Dec. 30, 1875 



1. Apoica pallida, one of the social wasps of Brazil, in the 

 daytime rests quietly in its nest, which resembles the nest of our 

 Folistes gallica, but is attached to the twig of a tree. During the 

 evening it looks after flowers, and, whether sitting on them, 

 and sucking their honey, or flying about in the moon-light, by 

 its moonlike colour it is protected from its enemies. It differs 

 from the allied species, which have diurnal habits, in the large- 

 ness of its ocelli. 



2. One of the solitary Apida; of Itajahy, belonging to the 

 family of Andrenidce {Eophila matutina, F. and H. Miiller) lias 

 the singular habit of visiting flowers exclusively in the twilight of 

 earliest morning, and is also provided with unusually large 

 ocelli. 



3. A species of Dorylidcc, probably belonging to the genus 

 Labidiis, found, Oct. 1875, by my brother's daughter Anna, late 

 in the evening, flying towards the candle-light, is likewise remark- 

 able for strikingly large ocelli. Concerning Dorybis, Gerstaecker 

 says: Ocelli large, bladdered (" Ocellen gross, blasig") ; and 

 Westwood (Introduct. vol. ii., p. 216), "Mr. Burchell has in- 

 formed me that the African species of Dorylus is nocturnal in its 

 habits." 



Can any of your readers give further information about the 

 function of the ocelli ? Hermann Muller 



I.ippstadt, Dec. 18 



The House-fly 



Some months ago there were several notices in Nature as to 

 the death of house-flies, caused by a parasitic fungus. One 

 instance only has come under my observation. 



Certainly not later than the first week of last October I saw a 

 fly standing dead on the outside ot the pane of my window, sur- 

 rounded with a small cloud of dust. After a day or two the fly 

 fell off"; but the curious part of the matter is that at this moment 

 (Dec. 20), the dust is still on the window-pane. The spaces 

 where the legs were are left sharp and clear, and the cloud, 

 thickest close around them and under the place of the body, 

 thins out gradually round to the distance of above an inch. 

 Looked at through the window-glass (I cannot get at the outside), 

 a pocket-lens resolves it into nothing more than coarser dust, 

 presenting much the appearance of iron filings round the pole of 

 a magnet, in the manner it diverges from the centre. Can any 

 microscopist inform me, through Nature, whether the fungus 

 actually takes root on the glass, or by what means it has been 

 able to maintain its adherence through the many drenchings of 

 rain and snow to which the window has been exposed during this 

 stormy season ? M. E. 



Mountfield, Sussex, Dec. 20 



The true Nature of Lichens 



The' writer of the criticism on " Haeckel's History of Cre- 

 ation," in Nature, vol. xiii. p. 121, will confer a favour on 

 British Lichenologists if he will explain what he means by assert- 

 ing that " the true, nature of Lichens has been cleared up " of 

 late years. W. Lauder Lindsay 



[The reviewer referred to the investigations of Prof. Schwen- 

 dener, of Basel ; " Untersuchungen iiber den Flechtenthallus " 

 (Nageli's Beitrdge zurwiss. Botanik, 1868), and " Eroterungen 

 zur Gonidienfrage " (Flora, May, 1872). A translation of the 

 latter paper appeared in the Quarterly yournal of Microscopical 

 Science (\o\. xiii. p. 235). See also " A resuinS of recent views 

 respecting the Nature of Lichens," by Mr. Archer {tbid, 1873, 

 p. 217), and " Sexual Reproduction of Thallophy tes, " by Prof. 

 Thiselton Dyer, in the same journal for last July, p. 296. — Ed.] 



The Boomerang 

 Trustworthy information respecting the performance o^ 

 the boomerang is a desideratum. Reports from professed eye- 

 witnesses as to its behaviour are frequently highly sensational 

 and perplexing. It has been seen, so it is said, to strike an 

 object with great violence and then to return to the hand of the 

 projector ! That its rapid rotation round the shortest axis pass- 

 ing through its centre of gravity should, as in the gyroscope, 

 tend to make it keep its original plane of rotation, is clear. 

 That its progressive force being expended before its rotatory 

 force, it should tend to fall in the direction of the least resistance, 

 i.e. to return on its path, need not be doubted. But striking an 

 object with violence must, one would suppose, change its plane 



of rotation ; and then there would be no disposition to return 

 on its path. In the notice in last week's Nature of " Artes 

 Africanse " it is stated that the African boomerang is thrown so 

 as to rotate in a horizontal plane ; in which case, except by 

 accident, there would be no tendency to return to the thrower, 

 a mode of action supposed to be proper to the boomerang. 

 Many know the toy boomerang made of card-board, "V" 

 shaped, with one limb shorter than the other, say four and two 

 and-a-half inches respectively. When this toy is laid on the 

 smooth cover of a book held at an inclination of about 60°, and 

 when the shorter limb projecting just beyond the edge of the 

 book is struck with a smart fillip of the finger so as to project it 

 rotating rapidly at an upward angle of 60°, the toy will reach 

 the further side of a room and return ; but of course if it 

 strikes anything its plane of rotation is changed and 't falls 

 irregularly. Henry H. Higgins 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN 



Small Star with great proper Motion.— In 

 vol. V. of the Madras Observations, Taylor mentions 

 having observed in 1838 or 1839 -^ star of the 9th mag- 

 nitude near to Brisbane 3458 (which appears not to have 

 been found), the position of which, by three observations, 

 is thus given for 1840: — R.A. iih. 5m. 2571s, N.P.D. 

 118° 59' 12" -62. 



Argelander twice observed a star of the same magni- 

 tude (Oeltzen, Nos. 1 1237-8) in zones 374 and 377, 1851 

 April 22 and 28, the mean place of which for 1850 is in 

 R.A. iih. 5m. 50-98S, N.P.D. 119° i' 52"-95. Assuming 

 the identity of the stars observed by Taylor and Arge- 

 lander, of which there can be little doubt, the comparison 

 of positions for 1840 and 1850, taking the date of oppo- 

 sition of the star in 1838 as about the epoch of Taylor's 

 observations, unfortunately not stated, shows an annual 

 proper motion of — o'293s in R.A., and of — 2"74 in 

 N.P.D., or 4"72 in arc of great circle in the direction 

 305°"5. If this amount of proper motion is confirmed, it 

 will be fourth in order of magnitude of the great proper 

 motions of stars yet satisfactorily ascertained, and the 

 list will then stand as follows : — 



Proper Motion 



in Arc of great 

 Circle. 

 / 

 Groombridge 1830... 7 05 

 61 Cygni ... 5-21 



Lalande2ii85 ... 475 

 Taylor's star ... 473 



€ Indi ... 4*63 



Lalande 21258 ... 4*40 

 40 Eridani ... 4*09 



H Cassiopese ... 3*83 



o Centauri ... 3 "81 



Lalande 21 185, is " Argelander's second star" of Prof. 

 Winnecke, and No. 21258 is the star called "Argelander's 

 third " by Dr. Kriiger. 



If Taylor's observations of the star of ninth magnitude 

 were made in 1839, it should be third on the above list, 

 but the precise amount of proper motion must remain for 

 comparison of Argelander's position obtained in 1851, 

 with future observations, it may be hoped early in the 

 next year. 



The N.P.D. of Brisbane 3458 mentioned above, agrees 

 exactly with that of Lacaille 4641, but the R.A. differs 

 im. 8s. ; the magnitudes are the same. 



The Second Comet of 1702.— The first comet of this 

 year does not figure in our catalogues of cometary orbits, 

 no observations properly so-called having been obtained. 

 In Europe the tail only was seen by Maraldi and Bian- 

 chini at the end of February and beginning of March. 

 The second comet of 1 702 was observed at Berlin, Paris, 

 and Rome, in the last ten days of April and beginning of 

 May, and orbits have been calculated by Lacaille and 

 Burckhardt ; the latter reduced the observations anew, 

 but it does not appear what data he had besides those 



