Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 9.djvu/271

Rh point, furnished with two barbs; then they become enlarged, and present on the lower surface three portions of the thread of a screw, while their sides and their upper surface are covered with short, strong spines, projecting from the centre of a depression with hard and abrupt margins. The purpose of these spines is to tear the cells of the orange pulp, as the rasp serves to open the cells of the beet-root, in order to extract sugar. The upper region of the trunk is covered below and on the sides with fine, close-set striæ, arranged in half-screws, which give it the properties of a file; the striæ are interrupted here and there by small spines of soft consistence, which serve for the perception of tactile sensations. The orifice of the canal is situated in the lower surface, below the first screw-third. All this will be seen better from the annexed figures:



On investigation, M. Künckel has found that all the species of the genus Ophideres possess a similar terebrant trunk. This circumstance establishes a closer relationship between the Lepidoptera, the Hemiptera, and certain Diptera in which the maxillæ are adapted to pierce tissues.

As we learn from Prof. A. R. Grote, the group of Noctuidæ to which Ophideres belongs, called by Borkhausen Fasciatæ, is represented by only a few forms in Europe, but it is largely developed in the tropics of both hemispheres. The peculiar structure of the maxillae observed in Ophideres has not been found in any of the North American genera of the group. In the genus Catocala, which is largely represented in North America, the spiral tongue or trunk is simply furnished with lateral papillae, appearing like serratures, toward the extremity of the trunk.

Cunning of the Adder.—A correspondent of the Milwaukee Sentinel confirms Mr. Lewis's observations on the cunning of the adder (in the February number of the ). This correspondent states that, over thirty years ago, in Leeds, Greene County, New York, his attention was one day attracted by the plaintive cry of a cat. Looking into a garden, an adder was seen near the cat. The cat seemed to be completely paralyzed by fear of the adder; she kept up the plaintive cry, as if in great distress, but did not take her eye off the serpent, or make any attempt to attack or escape. Soon the snake saw that human eyes were observing him, and he commenced to crawl slowly away. "I then," continues the writer of the narrative, "concluded to release the cat from its trouble. I took a garden-rake and put it on the snake's back, and held it without hurting it. As soon as I had the snake fast in this position, it raised its head, flattened it out, and blew, making a hissing noise, and something resembling breath or steam came from its mouth. When that was exhausted I removed the rake, and the adder turned over on its back, lying as if dead. With the rake I turned it over on its belly again, but it immediately turned on its back. This was repeated several times. At last it was taken out of the garden, laid in the road, and we all retired to watch its movements. It commenced to raise and turn its head slowly (looking about the while), until entirely on its belly, and started at full speed for a little pool of water in the road, from which it was raked out and dispatched."

Measuring Distances by Sound.—The Prussian correspondent of the London Times makes mention of an instrument devised by Major Le Boulanger, of the Belgian Artillery, which, with great accuracy, indicates the distance between two armies from the report of their guns. The