THE FAUNA OF "RESERVOIR-PLANTS." 185 



the products of their decay. Dipterous larvae of several families 

 (Culicidce, Phoridce, Anthomyiidce) have been found living in these 

 pitchers. If it be true, as is asserted, that the plants actively 

 secrete a digestive product to act on the substance of drowned 

 insects, then it is noteworthy that the living larvae withstand the 

 action of this digestive product and flourish in the pitchers. 



Passing back to the New World, one finds, in the temperate 

 forests of part of North America, the Sarracenias. In Sarracenia 

 nearly the whole leaf forms a long narrow pitcher. In these 

 pitchers the water often dries up ; nevertheless larvae of Culicidce 

 and Ckironomidce have been found in them, certain of which are 

 regarded as peculiar to this habitat. It is stated that the Culicid 

 in question, Wyeomyia smithi, Coq., lays its eggs in the pitchers 

 even when the latter are dry, and that hatching is deferred till 

 the pitchers refill with water. 



In the Hawaiian Islands a species of Eriocaulon provides a 

 habitation for the larvae of a Culicid and for a species of Cyclopid 

 Crustacean. This case is different in several respects from the 

 others under consideration. The plant is a perennial herb with 

 grass-like leaves, and it was found, not in forests but floating 

 on a marsh ; in spite of this, investigation failed to reveal the 

 presence of the animals mentioned in the surrounding waters of 

 the marsh — they were detected only in that between the leaves 

 of the plant. 



Among the Liliacece there is the well-known discovery of 

 Perkins, also in the Hawaiian Islands ; that is, that the hollow 

 leaves of a plant of this order are inhabited by certain Agrionid 

 Dragonfly larvae. 



Palms. — In the mountain-forests of the Seychelles * the 

 present writer found a fauna, numerous both in species and 

 individuals, inhabiting the spaces between the overlapping leaf- 

 bases of certain endemic palms. These spaces contained not 

 water but moist organic debris. The fauna was principally 

 coleopterous, and included representatives of Aphodiince, Scydmce- 

 nidce, Pselaphidce, Staphylinidce, &c, several of the species being 

 found nowhere else. Only some of the palms have their leaf- 

 bases so formed as to hold detritus. In others the spaces are far 

 too narrow, and consequently contain neither debris nor fauna. 

 * Trans. Linn. Soc. London, ser. 2, Zool., vol. xiv., 1910, p. 24. 



