Page:Hardwicke's Science-Gossip - Volume 1.pdf/87

1, 1865.]

.—I have always understood that the cabbage-worm eventually undergoes the transformations common to the insect tribe. Now, in the autumn of 1864 I observed some dark-green caterpillars, marbled on the sides with yellow spots and streaks, making great havoc of some winter greens in my garden. I squeezed one, by accident, and there exuded a number of small cocoons about the size of those belonging to the ants' nest. Not long after this, I found some of these larvæ climbing my window-panes. They deposited small heaps of these cocoons, protecting them with a covering of yellow silk, the caterpillars then, without changing to a chrysalis, died, being merely nothing but skin. Are these cocoons those of the Ichneumon fly?—T. H.The fly in question is one of the Braconidæ, tribe Ichneumonites; it is the Ichneumon glomeratus of Linnæus, and the Microgaster glomeratus of modern authors.—F. W.

.—In reply to —The following is Dr. Gunther's description of the smooth snake (Coronella lævis):—"Scales in twenty-one rows; anal bifid; upper labials, seven. Brown. Back with two, sometimes confluent, series of irregularly rounded dark spots. Hinder maxillary tooth smooth." It more resembles the viper than the snake in general appearance, but differs in the number of plates on the head, is commonly smaller in size, with a double row of spots down the back, and not a single zigzag line as in the viper."

.—Will you oblige a particular friend of mine, a salamander, by informing me what would be most likely to please his eftship's dainty palate? I became acquainted with this gentleman some six months ago, and from that time to the present he appears to have lost his appetite, possible because I dragged him from the society of his friends, and have immured him in an aquarium too small to please his high notions of his former estate; possibly because I have not tempted him with a sufficiently delicious morsel, though I should have thought a recherché blood-worm, dangling before his uselessly large mouth, would have satisfied any reptile. He ekes out a monotonous existence, enthroned in a small cash-bowl filled with moss, which floats on the top of my aquarium, looking down upon fish, leeches, his cousins the newts, a tortoise, &c., with the most supreme indifference, except that occasionally, when disposed for a spree, he mounts the back of the latter for a ride round his diminished domains. The tortoise, on these, occasions, seems fully alive to his inferiority, and submits to be made a horse of for his highness the salamander, without so much as a murmur. I am the more puzzled to know what to make of his digestive organs, or the want of them, as he not only lives upon nothing, but actually gets fat upon it. His forty days and forty nights' fast have been repeated five times over, and I am beginning to get anxious about "the subject of our memoir." Perhaps you will kindly inquire of any of his family with whom you may meet, of what their favourite dish consists, as I should be sorry to be the cause of his untimely death resulting from my inattention, and thus bring upon my friend the fate of Timothy Daly.—Dytiscus Marginalis.

.—I shall be obliged by information upon this—The aquarium to have a glass cover, the ferns placed under it on floating cork islands; what would be a good assortment, not only of ferns, but of any other suitable plants, if possible bearing flowers? It is said all the species of lycopodia will do well in this situation, but there may be many others. What description of growing moss or lichen would be suitable to form a ground, those plants requiring least soil to be preferred, also where the varieties recommended may be procured? Will the glass cover require apertures for ventilation? There is a film like spiders web interlacing the plants in the aquarium—what is this? The same has been seen in rivers. Is there any cure for the fungus that grows on the fish in the aquarium?—E. S.

.—Your correspondent inquires how it is there are no wasps in London. I live within four and a quarter miles of the Bank, so there is no doubt as to whether I live in London. In front of my house there is a field in which I destroyed four wasps' nests last year; so tormented were we with them, that at any time during the hot months, from five to twenty together might be found in one room. After this I hope will not imagine there are no wasps in London.—C. S. Barnes.[We saw plenty of wasps in London last year, some within three minutes' walk of Charing Cross.—''Ed. Sc. G.'']

.—Will any of your readers, acquainted with Africa and South America, inform me whither the hirundines of those countries migrate, according as the rainy season affects each country respectively? I am induced to ask this question from reading, as follows, in Dr. Livingstone's South Africa:—"During the first week of June, 1855, in latitude 10° S., 19° W., saw many goat-suckers, swifts, and different kinds of swallows;" and again, during the last week of December, 1852, "large flocks of swifts were observed flying over the plains of Kuruman, S. lat. 28°, long. E. I estimated one stream alone of these birds (on their migratory route?) at 4,000 and over—can these be the swifts that beset Europe?" Mr. Bates, although seven years travelling in equatorial South America, only once names swallows as being seen by him, though so keen a naturalist, and this occurs at p. 239, where he says: "On the 3rd January, 1854, a kind of second summer sat in at Villa Nova, 2°—3° S. lat., when a species of swallow, of a brown colour, with a short square tail (Cotyle), made its appearance in great numbers, and built their nests in holes of the bank on which the village is built." Now, Prince L. Bonaparte, in his beautiful work on Ornithology, enumerates among his 63 varieties of Hirundines, 10 distinct varieties for South America alone, and seven varieties as peculiar to South Africa. Where do all these hirundines migrate to, in each continent, considering that they cannot overpass that belt of intense rain (from 400 to 500 miles broad) that oscillates, according to the sun's declination, from north to south, from between lat. N. 15°, and lat. S. 5°? I cannot but think that these southern hirundines, take those of India, Australia, and the Eastern Hemisphere generally (as do the parakeets), all move north or south within their respective countries only. What say your travelled naturalist readers?—H. E. A.

.—, inquires what time of the year is the best for cutting sections of wood for the microscope? As green wood is not employed for this purpose, we see no reason why any one period of the year should be preferable to another.