VIII. 4 

 FOUNDLINGS AMONGST FRUIT 



MANY and confused are the diverse types of creatures 

 that have been imported unknowingly into Britain, yet the 

 diversity ranges itself round definite main methods of dis- 

 persal. Each carrying agent, it will be seen, bears its own 

 characteristic types of animals, so that from the nature of an 

 imported animal it is possible to say, with close approximation 

 to accuracy, with such and such a kind of cargo this traversed 

 the oceans to our shores. 



So we Jeave the Beetles and Micro-Lepidoptera of dry 

 goods, for the varied assortment of aliens which have taken 

 advantage of the transport of fresh fruit. The development 

 of this trade is largely of recent date, and well illustrates 

 the influence upon our animal life of commerce, which brings 

 an influx of new animals with its every extension. 



THE LIVING FREIGHT OF BANANAS 



Bananas in their great clusters have been fruitful carriers 

 of strange animals. From widely scattered towns in Scotland, 

 from Aberdeen in the north, from Cupar, Edinburgh, Leith, 

 Musselburgh, and from Dumfries in the south, 1 have seen 

 many unexpected arrivals, exotic Jacks-in-the-box that 

 appeared when cases of foreign fruit were opened. Most 

 interesting of these was a Green Tree- Frog, a species of 

 Hyla, which from the tropics, as it were with one bound, 

 landed full of activity in an Edinburgh fruit shop. More 

 terrify ing are the appearances of that heavy and fierce-looking 

 monster, a Bird-Eating Spider (Mygalid), which has ap- 

 peared in Edinburgh, though it is fortunately a less frequent 

 visitor than the delicate Snowy Tree Cockroach (Oecantkns 

 (Pancklora) niveus) ('\g. 75, p. 448) of the East and middle 

 West of America. The slender, half-inch long, ivory-white 

 body, tinged with the palest green, and armed with long 



