HUNTING INSECTS IN THE SOUTH SEAS

Evening Star, Issue 21079, 16 April 1932, Page 17

HUNTING INSECTS IN THE SOUTH SEAS

GLOW-WORMS, POTTER WASPS, AKD CATERPILLARS It is usual to go to tlie South Seas for romance or the simple life. Whether romance and simplicity are always found there is another question. But neither of these things led Evelyn Chessman, entomologist and authoress, to the South Seas. She went there to hunt insects. Put as bluntly as that, the mission does not sound attractive; but one reads with ever-increasing interest the pages of a book by Miss E. Chessman, which tell of her visits to the South Sea Islands in search of the strange insects of those picturesque tropical islands (states an exchange). There is a remarkably vivid picture early in the book describing the raid of convolvulus hawk moths on erinura lilies. It reads almost like pure fantasy. “When you looked at the buds just before sundown’’ Miss Chessman writes, “ they would be expanded except for the tips of the narrow petals, which just touched like very long,', slender fingers, otherwise they vere prepared for visitors, as one would judge by the strong sweet scent, then the moths began to arrive; one heard the whirr of their wings as they flashed like a streak of silver lightning across the garden and began their; siege of the lilies. No cannonading, no trumpets blown; they merely hover outside and wait for the walls to fall down. Whether it is really the soft breeze made by their wings I never could tell . . . but slowly, _ very

slowly, the petals relax, and with a little pop fail apart, while their long streamers hang down negligently, and the moths, still hovering, uncurl their long proboscids and thrust them into the flowers. I have tried touching the lilies gently and shaking the stems, but they seem to need just that soft current of air from the moth’s wings to produce this dramatic unfolding of the flower.” —New Hebridean Glow-worms.—

Miss Chessman’s adventures with the New Hebridean glow-worms seem also to belong to a world of make-believe. She was walking back to camp one night with her native guides wheni sho saw a “new constellation” on the ground among the trees away from the path. Three little stars were twinkling tike harbour lights. She decided at once that the lights were not those of the phosphorescent toadstools, but the boys would bring to her only glowing fungus when she sent them off to capture the stars. So :t ended by her crawling on all-fours towards the living sparks, which she imprisoned in her tubes. After this encounter sho was escorted to the camp by the yellowish light of the phosphorescent toadstools, which the boys carried to illuminate the path. Next morning she examined her prizes, and found that sho had captured New Hebridean glow-worms. Obviously they had been waiting for their lovers, for the twinkling of the light of the glowworm is to attract the male, which is winged. Fireflies, Miss Chessman explains, !ire not, as is popularly supposed, phosphorescent flies; they are luminous beetles. The material for the light is actually secreted by them, and combustion takes place by the introduction of oxygen. Of the large West Indian luminous beetle she says: “The light shines as through the hqrn window of an oldfashioned lantern, and with so powerful a light that ono can see to read by it—not just a letter or two, but a narrow column. Just under the windows are the special cells, whose contents are actually consumed in order to produce the light.” —Camouflage and Caterpillars—

There Avas nothing novel in the camouflage Avhich disguised _ ships in Avar time. It is an old trick in the insect Avorld. One Aviso little caterpillar of the Ncav Hebrides so artfully assumes the pattern of its environment Avhen it pupates that it must be hunted up Avith a Jens. The pupa case is exactly the pale green of the plant upon Avhich the caterpillar feeds, and has long spines, Avhich give it the same hairy appearance as the plants. This is done for protection. Miss Chessman explains also Avhy some caterpillars Avrap themselves up so carefully in bales of silk before yielding to those delicate operations by ivhich they are changed into the mature form. It is to avoid the risk of a shock. The insects are at great pains to avoid being disturbed by rude vibrations. “ Caterpillars of moths,” says Miss Chessman, “make elaborate preparations before changing for the last time; not only _ placing themselves in the right position and Avedving a bed and coverlet, but, in addition, preparing their exit from the cocoon so that Avhen the right moment arrives there shall be no obstacles.” And Avhat caterpillars Miss Chessman has tracked doivn, if one does track a caterpillar! The Melanesians must have thought her a brave woman, for among the Hebridean caterpillars are some so grotesquely formed that the natives are iu superstitious awe of them —“ for anything at all abnormal, and especially if there is any pattern on it which looks like a face, frightens a Melanesian; he imagines at once that it must have some diabolical power, and Avill not chance being put under a spell. And there are large red, black, and yelloAV caterpillars Avhich squirt a yellow fluid from their mouths when they suspect danger, but these are not often molested. “ They have a distasteful flavour,” Miss Chessman explains, “ and red and yelloAV among insects are regarded as warning colours.” —The Clever Wasp.— Of all the insects about which Miss Chessman speaks with, authority none is more to bo admired than the potter Avasp, a felloAv of infinite patience, conspicuous intelligence, and great industry. He is really a bouse_ mate, and not indigenous to the Pacific Islands. “ Clothed in their homely, close-fitting yelloAV-and-broAvn jerkins,” Avrites Miss Chessman enthusiastically, “they are for ever at work manufacturing their little pots or urns or vases all over the house, Avherever the position appears to be suitable.” The cdd thing is that squirming caterpillars are the provisions Avith Avhich the _ potter Avasps stock the clay urns, Arhither they are carried by the energetic Avasp, after having been stung into_ a comatoso condition. The manner in Avhich the potter Avasps build their urns is minutely described. At the place Avhere it is collected each tiny load of clay is kneaded and mixed before _ being rolled into a neat ball and carried oil, firmly hold bctAveen the forelegs and the horny mandibles. When the nest is reached tho wasp clings to the halffinished cell with four legs, and uses tho front pair to guide tho clay Avhen necessary. When thoball is placed in position the Avasp applies is closed mandibles like a mason’s troAvel. Then comes the smoothing process, Avhen the Avasp Avalka all over tho urn, welding tho neAV strip into tha last one. Tho hui&t for caterpillars begins Avhen the urn is completed. “ Tho most amusing sight T ever saAv,” writes Miss Chessman, “ was two

potter wasps, each with a long caterpillar, trying to put them into tho same urn. Each was so certain that tho cell was hers, and it led to a bumping match of unusual vigour; the wasps facing each other in mid-air, holding their caterpillars dangling in front, like school children having a bolster fight. First ono would be sent to the floor, the victor trying to bundle her caterpillar into the urn before the next encounter. ... It was the

solemnity of their long faces which put the finishing touch to the burlesque, if they had smiled it would not have been half so comic, but as it wasl laughed till I cried. In the end neither wasp completed her task. They were both downed together, and sat for a long time collecting their fuddled wits by prolonged cleaning of their antennae. Then one after the other they flew away, leaving the caterpillars on the verandah for tho ants to clear up. Later in the day I saw one wasp working peacefully at that cell, and concluded that the other wasp had come to her senses and found her own cell.”