NATURE NOTES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16300, 5 August 1916, Page 5 (Supplement)

NATURE NOTES.

BY J. DBCMMOND, F.L.S.. F.Z.S.

An- Ohakune resident who asked mo a j few weeks ago to recommend a book on fleas has propounded another question. " Is it the buzzing mosquito, or the sil.-nt one, that bites?" he asks. It is the buzzing one, the female. Th« male neither buzzes nor bites, that is. i.e .i.-s not bite human beings or other ;u;:n>;-;-because he is not a blood-sucker, but a vegetarian. As a matter of fact, he is a harmless, inoffensive, gentlemanly kind of insect, who wishes no harm to anybody, while his mate is a ghoul. She always is a source of annoyance to human beings, and sometimes, in tropical countries, she disseminates some of »he mo*t virulent diseases that afflict suffering humanity. She is equipped with mandibles that the male does not posses She does not sting in the same wav as a bee or a wasp stings, as she has" no weapon for this method of attack. She uses her mandibles merely for biting and absorbs blood through a sucking or „ an operating like a flea.

The male really is a honey-eater. An English writer on mosquitoes has described the habits of the sexes in poetical language. "The male." he savs. " sips nectar from the flowers, and passes his days in jovous dancing in the sunlight; the female spends not her days only, but her nights, in pursuit of men and cattle, into whom she may drive her sharp lancets and suck from their bloody her more nutritious if less delicate diet." The buzzing sound is made bv the female in flying. The deeper not« are produced by verv rapid vibrations of her wings. It is estimated that these vibrations, sometimes, are not fewer than 5000 a minute. The higher notes, it is stated, are made by membranes at the openings of certain 'air-tubes.

Her eggs are deposited on the surface of fresh or salt water. The insert goes through the changes of life common to flies. There is first the grub, then the P'jpa. and then the peifect insect. Mr. G. V. Hudson, of Wellington, states that j the grub of a native mosquito. Culex I iracundus, feeds on the animacula; that 1 swarm in all still water. These are captured by strange appendages, near th* mouth of each grub. The appendages are furnished with Jong hairs, and are pulled through, the water like fishermen's nets, and then are drawn into the mouth, and the contents are devoured. The grubs often are seen suspended from the surface of the water by an air tube. The pupa has fins, and by using these, when pursued by enemies, it rushes through the water with great rapidity. At other times it remains absolutely motionless suspended from the surface of the water. The pupa does not take nourishment, and it has no proper legs. Mr. Hudson adds that the perfect insect emerges from a rent in the shield of the pupa, drawing each pair of legs separately and placing them in front of it on the water. Then the wings and the body are extracted, and in a few minutes the insect flies away. There is one species of native mosquito that is always found near the shore, and has become known as- the " coastal mosquito."

It is the female sandfly also that bite* so irritatingly. Through a lens, one of these insects may be seen distending herself with the blood she greedily sucks i-i. until her body, which, by the way. bit* beautiful rainbow hues, bulges like a miniature balloon. When her" skin seems to have reached bursting point she flies off. Professor P. Marshall, who some years ago observed the grubs of sandflies, states that each grub is equipped at both ends of its body with sucker.-. With the help of these it crawls about like a leech on plants growing in the running streams it inhabits. It lives on tiny crustaceans and rotifers that abound in those streams. The common sandfly in New Zealand is Simulium australiense, but there is a larger one on the Auckland Islands, named Simulium vexans, whose habits have not been recorded.

An unusual experience with a kiwi Lx reported by Mr. A. G. Allom, of Marama Avenue, Epsom. He writes on Julv 18, and says: For several days I had noticed peculiar holes in the beds of my garden They were like holes made by worms, but I was not convinced that they were the work of worms. In order to discover the facts, I went into the garden one moonlight night last week and was surprised to find a large brown kiwi probing amongst mv lettuces. On seeing me he scampered off to the shade of some shrubs near a wall, and there my wife with the help of a candle had no difficulty in catching him. When lie was liberated he did not seem to he in great haste to depart, but walked leisure ly away to the shade again, followed by three cats, who did not try to molest him. and seemed to be on friendly terms with hjni. Evidently, during the day he had found a secluded hiding place on my property. He ha.i been at work in. the Harden every nicht since he was first discovered. It would be interesting to know where he has come from and how he managed to reach my place without falling a prey to the numerous dogs of this neighbourhood, as the sections in this street are fairly small and the houses are close together. I ran only suppose that the bird came from some of the hu.-hv slopes on the eastern side of Mount Eden."

Dr. F. G. M. Brittin. of Papanui, reports that he heard the first English thrush this year on February 6. His first record in the year, usually, is in the first week in Ma v. He heard the first blackbird this year on June 21. Mr. C. R. Tilly, of Hobson Bay. Remuera. states, as evidence of the mild, season there, that on June 25 he found on his property a thrush's nest, with one bird recently hatched and three eggs. The female thrush was very tame. When he inspected the nest on the following Sunday, July 2, it was a mass of feathers, and he thinks that a rat had discovered.it.