A NATURE NOTE FROM GALLIPOLI.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 31, 5 February 1916, Page 16

A NATURE NOTE FROM GALLIPOLI.

The following extracts from a letter from a member 1 of the BA-SLC. at th-> Dardanelles, together with ' some notes thereon by an entomologist to whom tlie letter was submitted, may be of nome general interest:—"l have had a touch of sand-fly fever, which is caused by the bite of the phlebotomus fly, but am. almost better again. It is am illness of only about a'week's duratiion, but it is I somewhat' weakening. We get some very interesting "visitors, both ' welcome and unwelcome,- in our'diag-outs. There [ was a flying fellow who became a regular caller; we named him Juilu. He would fly in • anff' say 'Ju-Ju, ju-ju,' every morning and evening, then, off he would go again. Od/e morning I hit hiih on thej head with a book, and we then discovered that he was a mouse-moth. His head and body 1 were like those of a mouse, while his tail 'was like a shrimp's; he'was very inieresting. Sometimes .ye have visits fjrom !the rhinocerps beetle. It 58 just lifce a 'large black beetle; with the addition of a horn on its he-id like that of a rhinoceros. ■ One night we 'sai.y a huge hairy yellowish" monster crawling oyer; pur roof. One "of my comrades s'aputed, 'Lppk out', it's a Or/c of us got a stick, another a baiiin, wbale I got the ether spray and administered an anaesthetic ahd got him. into the basin. He was a large tarantula spider, about two and three-quarter hoches long, yellowish in colour, having a -very hairy body, ten long'hairy legs, and a pair of nasty jaws like a" crab's "pincers. A bite from one of these spiders mea-ns death, or at least fhx.ee inohths' ses.ious' illness. Other conrmom visitors are great dragonflies about fpnr inches lonjj, and very beautifully and ' delicately coloured. They ase like. " little monoplanes, and we have named them taubes.' Snakes and large centipedes are also common. Thesi; are quickly squashed, as we don't wisji to be bitten."

A scientist's conjments upon the above are ajs follows:— The sand-fly is Phlebotomus papatasle, not far away j n relationship from our midges and mq .squitoes. There are two other'species—P.' minutus and P. phly papiutasie is prcved to be the intermediate carrier of the organism which causes tlie fever. The flies hide and skulk duriij-g the day, and come out at night to feed on blood; they are vicious biters, and easily pass through the meshwork oif ordinary mosquitocurtains. The big spider would be Lycpsa tarantula, whose bite is severe. Legend associates it with a dance. Those bitten are said to turn delirious and to revolve and dance and tbirpw themselves about until the fit passesl Spiders, however, have only eight legsj the writer has mistaken the pedipalps (part of the mouth apparatus) for an extra, pair of legs. The pedipalps, however, resemble legs. I think the Joo-joo must be the death's-head moth, but the shrimp's tail puzzles mc."