i879-J 
( 45i ) 
NOTES. 
Biology. 
Mr. E. Gittins, of Tivoli, Queensland, in a letter to the Editor, 
communicates some interesting fadls concerning ants. He 
writes : — “ If meat shows the least possible tendency to decom- 
pose — and it will do so in the course of twelve hours in summer 
— the ants will find it, though suspended by a wire or string 
from the house-top or the top of a tent. The ant perceives de- 
composing animal matter at a long distance, and does not go 
exploring for such matter, but goes straight to it from the ant- 
hill. A snake killed in the Bush is generally placed on the 
branch of a tree, so as to be seen by travellers, and as soon as 
decomposition sets in the ants find it, and the flesh is soon 
carried off to the ant-hill ; even their own comrades, when killed, 
are carried off to the underground cells. They never stay to feed, 
but they take up the booty and off they go.” The writer then 
describes a number of experiments, showing that portions of 
meat placed near ant-roads were overlooked till putrefaction set 
in, and were then eagerly carried off. He remarks that “ ants 
that feed on saccharine matter are as difficult to] keep off as 
the carrion-feeders ; they smell the sugar, and endeavour to get 
at it wherever it may be placed. The largest kind of sugar-ants 
will feed until the cold air of night comes on, and then fall into 
a stupor and there remain during the day.” We should feel 
much obliged if our correspondent would determine the two 
following points: — Whether his meat ants prefer tainted meat 
to fresh when both are placed equally near, as, e.g., close to one 
of their roads ; and whether they will attack animal matter in 
an advanced stage of decomposition ? It certainly seems that 
they occupy a more prominent place among “ Nature’s Sca- 
vengers ” than has been hitherto supposed. 
According to M. Max Cornu, a new malady is attacking plants 
belonging to the order Rubiacese preserved in hot-houses in 
France. An Anguillula deposits its eggs in the roots, which 
swell and decay, while the plant speedily perishes. The depre- 
dator is closely allied to the species which has occasioned so 
much havoc in the coffee-plantations of Brazil. 
M. G. Bonnier has laid before the Academy of Sciences an 
anatomical and physiological study of the nedfaries of plants. 
He criticises the views of Messrs. Darwin, Muller, Lubbock, &c., 
and in opposition to their views contends that the dimensions of 
the corolla, the development of colour in the flowers, of per- 
fumes, spots, and stripes, are not correlated to the formation of 
