DfilVER AMTS. 455 



cuckoo-spit {Aphrophora spumarici) of England, which has the 

 property of pouring out great quantities of water, so that a group 

 of seven or eight insects will produce three or four pints of water 

 in the course of the night. After stating that he believes the 

 water to be produced, not from the sap of the tree, but from the 

 atmosphere, he proceeds as follows : — 



"Finding a colony of these insects busily distilling on a branch 

 of the Ricinus communis, or castor-oU plant, I denuded about 

 twenty inches of the bark on the tree-side of the insects, and 

 scraped away the inner bark, so as to destroy all the ascending 

 vessels. I also cut a hole in the side of the branch, reaching to 

 the middle, and then cut out the pith and internal vessels. The 

 distillation was then going on at the rate of one drop in each 

 sixty-seven seconds, or about two ounces five and a half drams 

 in twenty-four hours. Next morning the distUlation, so far from 

 being affected by the attempt to stop the supplies, supposing they 

 had come up through the branch from the tree, was increased to 

 a drop every five seconds, or twelve drops per minute, making 

 one pint in every twenty-four hours. 



" I then cut the branch so much that during the day it broke; 

 but they still went on at the rate of a drop every five seconds, 

 while another colony on a branch of the same tree gave a drop 

 every seventeen seconds only, or at the rate of about ten ounces 

 four and one-fifth drams in every twenty-four hours. I finally 

 cut off the branch ; but this was too much for their patience, for 

 they immediately decamped, as insects will do from either a dead 

 branch or a dead animal. The presence of greater moisture in 

 the air increased the power of these distillers ; the period of 

 greatest activity was in the morning, when the air and every- 

 thing else was charged with dew." 



Three species of Driver Ant are known, namely, the common 

 species, which has already been described, Anomma Burmeisteri, 

 and a smaller species, Anomma rubella. 



The two firat insects are deep, shining black, and resemble each 

 other so closely that an unpractised eye could not distinguish 

 between them, while the last may be easily known by its brownish 

 red hue. 



The specimens which have already been mentioned are now 

 before me, and curious beings they are. The largest are black, 

 with a slight tinge of red, and have an enormous head, almost 



