GLITTER THE GLOW-WORM.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20402, 2 November 1929, Page 4 (Supplement)

GLITTER THE GLOW-WORM.

Bj EDITH HOWES

"Now who aro you?" asked W eft tho Weaver. " You're rather like Daddy Lcnglegs, only smaller. I haven't scon you before." " I'm not Daddy Longlegs."

" You needn't be offended. 1 only said ' rather like.' You're, smaller, but your wings are like his and so is your long, thin body." " You should say ' slender body, not ' (bin body.' 1 have a beautiful slender shape." , "Oh well! Just as you like. \\ ho are you, anyway?" "T am Glitter the Gnat." "Glitter? I don't see any glitter about you. A dark littlo thing, you are'.'* " I glittered when I was a caterpillar. Now I go about as secretly as possible, glittering no longer, flying in tho darkest shadows I can find." "Ah! You love the darkness as I do." cried Weft, delighted. "The soft, safe darkness." she agreed. "The cool sweet darkness," Weft added. "We roam in it and feast in it, but when the light conies wo have to hide."

" Who are you?" asked the gnat. "I am Weft the Weaver." "Did you wcavo your fine house " I did." he answered proudly. "I ho safest, house in all tho bush! Lacli morning I tie it, to a branch'and pull tho draw-cord fast and rest in it securely through the day. Now lam seeking a dry shadv spot where it may hang for weeks, for I feel tho Great Change coming-" " A dry shady spot! I seek a wet shadv spot." "What for, Gnat? You are through the Change." " Not for myself. For my eggs. For my children, that when they hatch they may not starve." " What will they eat ?"

" Midges and other tiny creatures that fly up from the water. There is u rock overhanging a pool. . . A splendid place. . • I lived there, but it, is full, overcrowded. I have como away to find a spot where my children may find an easier living. I smell water, but a? yet, I have not found it." " Midges; and mosquitos como up that dim alleyway where the trees bend over and the scents drift along," said A\eft., "Perhaps the water is there." " Thank you," sho said. " I will go to sec." And she flew off.

"Safe going!" called Weft. " Safe going!" Sho flew down the dim alleyway, following the smell of water. Presently she came to a placo where a tiny spring oozed through the green mosses of a bank and fell on an ago-old rotted trunk, lying prone. Tho dropping water had worn through the upper surface of the log and lay in a littlo pool with it. Filmy ferns and crested mosses grew about the pool, and over its lower end was arched that portion of the hollow log which was not yet worn away. Tho gnat flew into tho deeper darkness of the archway and explored. "It will do perfectly," she said; "a nico cosy corner." And she began to lay at once, gumming her eggs under the roof of the arch.

"Mv nice cosy corner!" said a wolf spider' quietly, pouueing 011 her from among the mosses. "Glad you called in!" and she ate up the gnat. Only ona egg had been laid. It hung there unnoticed and unhurt, for next morning the spider was carried off and buried by a digging wasp, and the archwav remained unoccupied except by the tiny creatures that camo up from the pool. The egg hatched into a little grey caterpillar with a skin so transparent that every part of her body could be seen through it. She looked a frail creature, and not at all pretty. Sho had <1 plain horny head, no legs, and a coating of fine slime over her transparent skin. But though not beautiful, she was clever, and well fitted to take care of herself, and gain a living. The first thing she did was to spin a long silken sheath, which she gummed firmly at each end to the roof of the arch. This was to he her home. Within it was soon smooth and slippery as water with the slime from her body; she could dart from end to end in a flash. She had no need of legs; she glided, she slid along. ' "Behind tho sheath there was a srnal hole in the wood. Into this she could retreat when danger threatened. It was a deep hole. vet. narrow, and would give her safety in*a moment from a prowling enernv. " Now my house is ready, sho said, " and a comfortable house it is, open along its sides to the air and the night, vet strong and well hung and dependable. Tho next thing is to catch something to eat. lam dreadfully hungi\. Sitting still iu her house, she spun a silken thread about an inch long, and beaded it all the way down with drops of gum from her mouth. She hung the thread fronj the edge of her sheath where it looked exactly like a bit of suspended spider-web. "Now for tho lure, said Glitter the Glow-worn, and she flashed on the jght in her tail. Swift as an electric ight it gleamed out, a bluish radiance brill ant vet soft, in the end of her body; a little ir.mp shining suddenly and astonishingly in the black darkness of the atch«<• A midge, just emerged from hei imltl hood in the ooze at the bottom ° 1 poo), flew up to look at the wonde.M brightness. She touched 'c hanL . thread her wings were caught in a uioi of gum, she struggled heiress v could not win free. In a moment Glow-worn was drawing up tho thiea is a fisherman draws up his line, and another moment the midge was crunched and devoured. ipf "Delicious!" said Glitter. > down her line again, and kc P L ' K ;- steadilv shining. Within a lew minute., she pulled up her line with two nudges caught on it. That was a least So she fished all night. ,J\ hen came, she hid and rested. Next night her lino had gone; the wind jr, away. But she spun anothei she spun three new lines, and liun 0 - S h,r home. l'. r ««• l » «"°, l iv sliu alKlt.l, winding than, up and ing them of their entangled p.cj,, ctt wy them down again. Sho fed wcl the tinv creatures of the pool weie diaun to 'her light as a needle to a niagnc:t For months s!ie led well. >- « dozens of fishing lines and atten.U-d to them all most adequately. » I S large and long—nearly an inch -iint • • in length—and nightly her brilliant light shone under the arch. M tunes, when sight or sound told of a lurking <n<.ir > it would be suddenly cNhnguished o ly to shine forth as brightly as over wliui tho danger had passed. . , . \t last sho was full-fed and full grown and ready for the Change One by one she drew up her shin K " : ,ud swallowed them, then slipped out from her sheath, clung to its edge an ( l there hung. For several days aid ni n hts sho staved in that position, still, lu,in,,, ; uls ,' encased in her chrysalis skm. On . still night she broke her wa\ out, and flow into the bush, a dark-winged gnat long-bodied and banded fw.co as g as a mosquito, but not so big as a dadd> lO 'S g a while she flew about, meeting her kind in the darkest of he tree. Then she returned to tho littJe archway over the pool. "h ran find no better place for my eggs, she s.» , " nor anv lialf so good. Under'that safg roof she laid many eggs. In later months hundreds of silken fishing lines hung down, and each night the pool was lit from end to end by the radiance that thone down on it. I