eas ee eee 
1894,] Entomology. 961 
ENTOMOLOGY." 
Biology of the Glowworm.—Some interesting observations on 
the New Zealand Glowworm ( Bolitophila luminosa) are recorded by A. 
Norris? The larvs secrete a mucus, on which they slide, leaving a 
mucus track like the snail. The mucus is also used to make luminous 
webs. * When the larva is making a fresh web, it raises its head and 
the first four or five segments in the air, and reaches round about till 
strikes something. It then draws its head back a little way, thus 
making a very fine thread of mucus. It then passes it to the thick 
mucus on the first segment, then slides out a little way and makes 
another thread on the other side in the same way, fastening each to the 
thick mucus on the body. When it has made a sufficient number of 
these braces, it begins to make the strings of beads which hang down- 
ward from these braces by gliding out on the braces and lowering its 
head and about half the body. It then works its head up and down as 
if to vomit. You can see the mucus gathering on the body. Then it 
draws its head right back into the first two segments, as if it were 
turning inside out. It then catches hold of the mucus on the edge of 
the segment and forces it forward. Now the head is out straight, with 
a large drop of mucus all round it, like a drop of water. Then it 
draws its head gently out of the mucus, thus making a short, fine 
thread from it. It then makes another drop and another short thread ; 
then a drop and so on until it has made several of these pendents of 
beads, which vary in length. I have seen them from one inch to four 
or five inches.” In the small caves where the larva lives, these webs 
reflect the light from the shining glowworm. 
Mr. Norris believes the webs are formed to entangle insects and 
Crustacea, as he has found many of these dead in the webs, and some 
were hollow as if the body contents had been eaten. “When the 
insects are alive, the larva may be seen smothering them with mucus.” 
One was also seen actually feeding on the inside of a Crustacean. 
Embryonic Development of Tortrix.—As a result of recent 
studies of Tortrix ferrugana, J. W. Tutt says? “ It appears certain that 
! Edited by Clarence M. Weed, New Hampshire College, Durham, N. H. 
?Ent. Mon. Mag., Sept., 1894. 
3 Ent. Record, V, 215, Sept., 1894. 
