March 1, 1894.] 



KNOWLEDGE. 



55 



the upper and lower surfaces, until at the tip it finally 

 assumes the form of a depressed flattened club, which 

 would have formed a most eflicient weapon for a giant. 

 Along the sides of its extremity this club is marl^ed by a 

 number of oval depressed discs, showing a sculptured 

 pattern of ridges and grooves radiating from the centre, 

 and some of them attaining a length of six or seven 

 inches. From the structure of their sculpture it is quite 

 evident that during life these discs must have formed the 

 bases of huge horns projecting at right angles to the tail, 

 which must thus have formed a veritable cliffuux-tlt'-frise. 

 If, as is quite probable, these horns were as long as those 

 of the common African rhinoceros, the tail of the 

 dsedicurus must have presented a most extraordinary 

 appearance as it dragged on the ground behind its owner 

 (for it is impossible to believe that any muscles could have 

 raised such a stupendous structure). The use of these 

 horny appendages is, however, hard indeed to di\ine, since 

 the creature was amply protected by the underlying bone ; 

 and it is therefore probable that they must come under 

 the category of ornamental appendages. Be this as it 

 may, with its bristle-clad body and horned tail, the club- 

 tailed glyptodont may well lay claim to the right of being 

 the most extraordinary-looking creature that ever walked 

 this earth during the whole duration of the Tertiary period. 

 Another species belonging to the same genus, of which the 

 remains are found in the Tertiary beds of Monte Hermoso, 

 is remarkable for possessing a cone-shaped aperture in the 

 middle of the hinder part of the carapace, of which the 

 only conceivable use is that it acted as the point of dis- 

 charge of a gland. 



Nearly equal in size to the Pampean representative of 

 the preceding genus, but distinguished markedly by the 

 characters of the skull and the more regularly dome-like 

 form of the carapace, is another monster from the pampas 

 which has been described uuder the name of Panochthm. 

 Although the plates of the carapace have the same oblong 

 form as in the club-tailed glyptodont, they lack any per- 

 forations for bristles, and are marked by a number of 

 patches of minute tubercles, so that this species may be 

 spoken of as the tuberculated glyptodont. Doubtless the 

 carapace was covered during life by thin horny shields, 

 although the marks of these are not generally shown on 

 the bone ; and fi-om the absence of bristles the creature 

 must have been as smooth as the small existing mulita, or 

 three-banded armadillo. The tail was much smaller than 

 that of the club-tailed species, consisting at the base of a 

 number of relatively small rings, and terminating in a 

 tube of about a yard in length. This tube lacks, however, 

 the terminal expansion and flattening of that of the 

 preceding form, while the large discs with which it is 



Fig. 3. — Terminal tube of the tail of the Smooth-tailed 

 Grhptodont. 



ornamented take the form of prominent rough bosses, 

 which probably carried flattened horny knobs, instead of 

 spines, during life. 



The last representatives of the group to which we shall 

 allude are much smaller species from the deposits of 

 Monte Hermoso and the pampas, which may be known as 



the smooth-tailed glyptodonts, or technically, Hoplophonis. 

 In these creatures the carapace was much more elongated 

 and depressed than in the other kuids, while it projected 

 forward on the sides of the shoulders in a manner some- 

 what like that of the armadillos. The plates of the 

 carapace show a rosette pattern, not unlike that of the 

 ring-tailed glyptodonts, but they are still smoother, and 

 of an irregular oblong shape. As regards the tail, this 

 consisted at the base of a number of smooth rings, fitting 

 into one another at their junctions like the joints of a 

 telescope ; while at the end it terminated in a slightly 

 flattened tube ornamented with a number of small, smooth, 

 oval discs of about an inch in diameter, interspersed with 

 which were arranged a few much larger but equally smooth 

 and prominent discs along the sides. These discs of all 

 dimensions were evidently coated with smooth scales of 

 horn during life ; and from the absence of apertures for 

 bristles, the same smoothness doubtless characterized the 

 carapace. The head was protected by a smooth shield of 

 small tesselated plates ; and the skull, as shown in our 

 figure of the skeleton (Fig. 1), is characterized by the 

 peculiar twisting and curvature of the bones of the nose. 



Such are the chief characteristics of the better known 

 representatives of the mailed monsters of Argentina — a 

 group which was continued in a straight line from the 

 pigmy glyptodont of Patagonia to the ring-tailed species 

 of the pampas, while all the other giant forms of the latter 

 must be regarded as lateral oifshoots from the original 

 stock, which continued, as is so often the case, to develop 

 more and more bizarre characters until the date of their 

 final disappearance. In conclusion, we must not omit to 

 mention that a strange gigantic armoured creature, foimd 

 commonly in the cavern deposits of Brazil, and also rarely 

 met with in Argentina, seems to have been a kind of 

 connecting link between the glyptodonts and the armadillos, 

 having the carapace formed of a number of movable plates, 

 arranged in a series of overlapping bands as in the latter, 

 but with teeth of the type of the former. Unfortunately, 

 however, this interesting creature, which must have been 

 as big as a large rhinoceros, is known by such fragmentary 

 remains that its full affinities cannot yet be determined, 

 as we are still ignorant whether its skull approximated 

 to the glyptodont or the armadillo type. 



STINGING INSECTS 



By E. A. BuTLEB. 



II, 



{Continued from page 43.) 



AT the close of our last paper we dealt briefly with 

 the aculeate Hymenoptera, the sole representa- 

 tives of the first of the four groups into which we 

 divided " stinging " insects, for no others possess 

 the true vengeful sting ; we may now further 

 consider the same group. In connection with what was 

 said of the inability of bees to withdraw their stings when 

 they have pierced such a yielding substance as soft leather 

 or india-rubber, a correspondent has pointed out that the 

 same disability rests upon wasps, but that these diS'er 

 from bees, so far as his experience goes, in lacking the 

 power to tear themselves away as a bee would do, leaving 

 the sting behind. In fact, the wasp that has ventured to 

 employ its sting in this way is completely trapped, and the 

 writer states that he found the only way to liberate a 

 prisoner so detained was to cut off its sting. 



The accompanying plates, which represent the stmgs of 

 the hornet and honey bee, are from photographs taken by 

 Mr. T. E. Freshwater, and lent by Messrs. Newton and 

 Co., of Fleet Street, The original photographs were 



