450 Simon Henry Gage 



larva introduced. If tlie creature is vigorous it almost im- 

 mediately commences to bury itself, and in the following 

 manner : It stands almost vertically on its head and then 

 makes most vigorous swimming movements. At the same 

 time the head with its hood-like dorsal lip is twisted from side 

 to side something as one turns the hand in tr3'ing to force an 

 awl into wood or leather. In a short time the animal will 

 bury itself to about the extent of its branchial apparatus, that 

 is until the sand affords a kind of hold for it. The animal 

 then ceases to go directly downward, but with a serpentine 

 movement, constantly twisting the head from side to side to 

 open the sand, it goes more nearly horizontally till the body is 

 entirely covered. Once in the sand the creature moves around 

 with great ease, the head and hood-like dorsal lip serving by 

 their stiffness and mobility to part the sand. It soon makes a 

 burrow and the opening to the surface of the sand. In this 

 burrow it can move to and fro at will. The sand seems to be 

 packed in some way so that it does not cave in and fill the 

 canal. 



In discussing the habits of the larvae it is frequently stated 

 that they have a great dislike to light and swim around in the 

 vessel in which they are placed until exhausted and they die. 

 From my own experiments the larvse do not seem to have a 

 great dislike to light, but rather there is a sense of insecurity 

 when not covered by the sand. Experiments were carried on 

 for weeks with those in glass vessels to see if, when the bur- 

 rows were next the glass, and that side turned to the light the 

 larvae would move away from the light, as they could very 

 easily do if desired. Sometimes they would make a new bur- 

 row on the side from the light, but nearly as often the change 

 would be made from the shaded to the light side. It thus ap- 

 peared that if the animals were protected by being in a normal 

 habitat in the sand the restlessness mentioned by authors as 

 due to light would not be observed. Furthermore one was 

 kept alive in a small globe, hanging, glass aquarium with other 

 aquatic animals from Christmas till the following Ma}'. In it 

 there was no sand present and the animal was thus constantly 

 exposed to the light throughout the day. 



