Sept. 1, 1865.] 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



195 



incli in length; the wings, like pale blue gauze, 

 when at rest are always kept in a horizontal posi- 

 tion; the alulets are large and strong. The eyes 

 are exquisitely beautiful, in colour dark-blue, but 

 ghttering with the lustre of highly-polished gems, 

 and nearly covering the entire head. 



The nest in size is the Belted Breeze-fly {Tahmms 

 cinctus), about one-third smaller than his sable 

 brother. He is clad in bright orange livery, banded 

 with stripes almost black ; and has a most showy 

 appearance, being decidedly the best dressed fly of 

 the family. The eyes are emerald green, and, when 

 viewed in the bright sunlight, have the appearance 

 of being ci into numerous facets. 



The third or smallest is the Lined Breeze-fly 

 {Tahamis linecdus) ; of a bluish colour, and only 

 conspicuous from having a white line along the top 

 of the head. In this fly the eyes are of bluish-green, 

 and quite as beautiful as in the two preceding. 



The lady Breeze-fly, I am grieved to say, is far 

 more to be dreaded than her lord. These insects 

 can never, one would suppose, enjoy the luxury 

 and delight, or whatever may be the proper term 

 applicable to such a universal habit as kissing. 

 How could a winged lady, I should like to 

 know, be kissed by a winged wooer when her 

 lips are a bundle of lancets, six in number, and 

 as sharp as a surgeon's ? True the m.ale has four 

 blade-like instruments arming the mouth, but it is 

 questionable whether he uses them, for other pur- 

 poses than that of sucking nectar from flowers. The 

 apparatus of the female is beautifully adapted for 

 puncturing the skin and then pumping up the fluid 

 through the sheath of the lancets, that acts as a 

 tube or cauuia. It would be of trifling interest to 

 advert more in detail to the minute anatomy of these 

 insects ; that can be better learned from works on 

 structural entomology ; the habits of the insect in 

 far-away lands, sketched from personal gleanings, 

 being more strictly " Science Gossip." The rambler 

 alone has an opportunity to investigate the haunts 

 and watch the habits of strange beasts, birds, and 

 insects ; to the anatomist at home, in cosy closet, 

 belongs the task of developing, with scalpel and 

 microscope, the complicated machinery by which 

 life's varied duties are carried on. 



The larva lives in the earth, a grub easily dug up 

 in the moist prairie lands; of an elongated sub- 

 cylindrical form, ^tapering off towards each ex- 

 tremity; its colour a dingy yellow; destitute of 

 feet ; having a body divided into twelve segments, 

 each segment being banded with a row of minute 

 horny hooks— an admirable contrivance, enabling it 

 to drag itself along through the earth. The head is 

 horny, and brownish -yellow in colour, also armed 

 with hooks to aid in progression. The pupa I have 

 never seen, but De Geer tells us the pupa of 

 Tahamis hovinus is " naked, incomplete, elongated, 

 sub-cylindrical, with six spines at the end of the 



body, the margins of the abdominal segments 

 ciliated, and the forehead bi-tubercled." 



Where or when the eggs of the Tahanus are 

 deposited is not generally known, but it is more 

 than probable on the stems of plants, to which they 

 are fastened by a glutinous secretion; the grub 

 when hatched, falling on the ground, at once buries 

 itself. Neither is it known how long a time the larva 

 remains in the earth ere it changes to the pupa form. 



I remember once being busily occupied all day 

 collecting beetles anu other insects, in the dense, 

 shady pine-forests, close to a small stream called the 

 Mooyee, that flows down the western slope of the 

 Rocky Mountains : boxes, bottles, bags, even my 

 hat, indeed every available locality about my person 

 was appropriated to the stowage and transport of 

 the proceeds of my hunt. My horse, rather a wild 

 Mustang, had been tethered close to the water, and 

 thus kept clear of the Breeze-flies during my 

 absence; soon, however, after mounting him to 

 return, emerging from the forest, I came on a small 

 patch of open prairie land, but no sooner was I clear 

 of the timber than the pests were at us. My beast 

 commenced practising every species of jump and 

 leap that it was possible for a horse to execute, and 

 several of them of a nature so extraordinary that 

 one would have thought no animal that ever went 

 on four legs could accomplish ; he pranced, shied, 

 kicked, leaped forward, backward, sideways — in a 

 word, performed such demoniacal pranks, that, 

 although a practised horseman, I found it a most 

 difficult matter to keep my seat. As a finale, off he 

 went like a mad creature, caring nothing for all my 

 e€orts to stop him ; then, as if from sheer madness 

 ca-ased by the punctures of the flies, that followed 

 like a swarm of enraged bees, he stopped suddenly 

 short, viciously threw his head between his forelegs, 

 and at the same time elevated his hind ones into the 

 air ; the whole being performed with such sudden 

 and savage violence that I was pitched clean out of 

 the saddle : boxes, bottles, bags, together with all 

 my insect treasures, lay scattered over the prairie 

 and ere I could regain my feet I had the satisfaction 

 of seeing him put his legs into the bridle-reins, drag 

 it clean off his head, and, with a snort that sounded 

 mightily like a derisive horse laugh, he galloped off 

 leaving me to my own devices. I mention this little 

 adventure to show how terribly these pests can 

 madden an animal. 



From an intimacy by no means sought, or on my 

 part cultivated, with the Tabanidce, or Breeze-flies, 

 I am disposed to think the fly called Zimb, and 

 described by Bruce, belonged to this family, and was 

 not an (Estrns, as many have supposed. Speaking 

 of the Zimb, in reference to the camel and elephant : 

 " When the first of these animals are attacked, its 

 body, head, and legs break out into large bosses, 

 which swell, burst, and putrify, to its certain 

 destruction." Just such effects have I again and 



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