IN TOUCH WITH NATURE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21688, 5 July 1932, Page 2

IN TOUCH WITH NATURE

ROSE-PETALS. LINEAGE LOST IN MISTS OF TIME. By J. Drummond, F.L.S., F.Z.S. Rose-petals, whose pinky-red or orangered hues catch the eyes of people who stroll New Zealand beaches, have a history as interesting as their appearance is beautiful. Records in the flinty rocks show that this race of shells has come down from very early geological times, almost unchangeably. The group has persisted from the dim, distant and mysterious Cambrian Period of the Era of Early Life down to these days. When the world was young, and powerful enemies were few, rose-petals probably were the commonest creatures ’ in existence, like the stars for multitude.

Attaining their highest development in seas of the Silurian Period, they left countless individuals, classed in at least 2000 species, to witness to their success and prosperity. Then they began to decline. In rocks of later ages their fossils are fewer and fewer. Only about 120 species are known in all the wide seas of these times. An English student of the rose-petals, in view of their unchanging persistence and conservative adherence to the ancient type, has conjectured whether ip 50,000,000 years, when higher creatures are extinct, they will be the same sort of rose-petals as they were in the beginning and are now. A more feasible theory is that the ancient race is fast drawing to extinction, and will be numbered amongst other mighty creatures of the sea that have been blotted out.

They are easily identified. They are about an inch or an inch and a-half long, slightly less in breadth. They look like cockle-shells. Each shell is bivalved, often ribbed. In it, the owner shelters its soft body, covered with a skin-like mantle. Each individual has a digestive track, which deals with minute creatures and plants used for food, a heart, a liver blood vessels, a nervous system ana muscles to close and open the valves of its shell Af one end of the shell there are two spiral organs that look like arms. It was believed that the arms were used for locomotion. Further acquaintance with the rose-petals showed that these organs are used for breathing, but the rose-petals still bear their old title, Brachiopods, meaning arm-foot. One of the valves is shaped like an ancient Roman hand-lamp, a flange representing the handle and a round hole near the hinge the hole for the wick. For this reason the rose-petals often are called lamp-shells. The hole in the shell is a passage for a sinewy stalk, by which the owner tethers itself to a stone or a shell or almost anything else in the water. A company of rose-petals fancied an old jam pot. They almost covered it with the shells.

Books on New Zealand molluscs usually include the rose-petals. \They are so like molluscs that they once' were classed with the cockle, the pipi, the oyster and their allies; but the rose-petals now are placed in a group by themselves. Their position in relation to the rest of the animal kingdom is still in doubt, and it cannot be fixed until deeper erabryological studies into the rose-petals have been made.

The life development of the common species in New Zealand, Terebratulina, has been thoroughly investigated. Each of these rose-petals has definite stages in life. It begins as a small oval creature, swimming freely. In its next stage it becomes pear-shaped and wears on_ its head a conspicuous tuft of long hairs. At the following stage, the body is divided into two sections. The'young rose-petal then is very active, but as it is still very small, it cannot swim far. and, unless it is caught by an ocean current, it comes to rest near its parents. Another stage sees it in sluggish moods. These increase in the following stage. The creature then ceases to wander and permanently fixes itself by its stalk to a base, to which it may re-, main fixed for the rest of its life. There are still further stages until development complete, and a jam o ■•shell has been built for the relatively small body inside.

A lady at Bussell, Bay of Islands, states that she is surprised that nobody has charged the pukeko with destroying young ducklings. Some years ago,” she writes, “I was staying at Fairborn’s. The lady I was with told me that she. was constantly losing her Voting ducklings through the pukekos: Her ducks were living in the swamp a lot, and while I was there one duck hatched out 15 ducklings. They began to disappear, till only one was left. I was looking from a window at the back of the house and heard a duck crying out. I then saw the cause. A pukeko had taken the only duckling left, and was shooing it ahead, while the poor mother was running a*id creaming behind. I ran but and called the dog, but by the time I reached the swamp the pukeko and the duckling were across a small creek and disappeared. My friends told me that they could not explain the reason, as the pukeko did not seem to eat the duckling, only cracking it on the head. The only conclusion I can come to is that they might be like some of the hawks that have a fancy for brains. This is another pukeko crime against the farmer. Government protects the wild ducks, also the pukeko, and the pukeko kills the ducklings; and if they kill tame ones, they will do so to the wild ones.”

Mr Allen Bell writes from Kaitaia; “It was reported in the newspapers that a song-thrush had tried to snatch an oyster from its shelf at Tamaki and was found firmly caught by the beak, the oyster having closed its shell on its assailant. During Wizard Smith’s visit to the Ninety-mile Beach, a black-backed gull was seen in an almost similar predicament, a toheroa having closed its shell on one of the gull’s feet. When seen, the gull was fluttering around vainly trying to rid itself of its unwelcome attachment."

A letter from Mr R. Brown, Waiau, North Canterbury, shows that New Zealand’s bats have been rare ever since Europeans caipe to this country. They probably never were plentiful, although they had few natural enemies. Mr Brown has lived in New Zealand for 56 years, mostly in Canterbury and on the West Coast, but has not seen a native bat. In any case, there are only two species of native bats. Both are retiring in disposition. One, the short-tailed bat, has not been hearjl of for many years, and may be extinct. The other, the longtailed bat, is known to • the Maoris as pekapeka. Early settlers knew it. Memberg of the species sometimes made their homes under bridges, even in town and villages, but mostly lived in hollow trees in the forests, where there may still be some colonies. It is hoped that this is so, as bats are New Zealand’s only landmammals, the native dog and the native rat ranking as introductions, brought by the Maoris during the migration from Hawaiki.

Mr Brown’s object in \vriting is practical, not sentimental. He states:—“lf bats were as numerous here as they are in my native Scotland, they might be effective in destroying large numbers of the bronze beetle . The beetle being nocturnal, the bat would probably prove a nocturnal enemy, and thus help in lessening the enormous- damage done to the pastures by the grass-grub, which is the larvae of the bronze beetle. Some years ago I read in the Journal of Agriculture, published by our Government, that bats were encouraged to multiply in the Sacramento district, California, in order to combat the mosquito pest. The encouragement consisted of specially constructed houses as day-rookeries. From that, one would surmise that bats are considered harmless.”

There are fruit-eating bats and insecteating bats. The fruit-eaters include the flying-foxes, which are bats with fox like heads. The common fox-bats belong to Oriental countries, Madagascar, New Guinea, and Australia, They swarm in large numbers. It is stated that in the evening, dotted over the sky, all heading in one direction, but all flying independently. they are very impressive, especially as their flight is performed by long sweeps of the wings.

The insect-eating bats Mr Brown knew in Scotland probably are the mouseeared bats. There are several species of them. The best known is Daubenton’s bat, found in England, Scotland, and Ireland, and in the temperate parts of Asia.

Most of these live in woods, but some in caves or under the roofs of houses, favouring places near water. They skim over the surface with slow and quivenng night, performed by powerful beats of the wings. Daubenton’s bats are plentiful in the middle parts of England and in parts of Scotland. On the Avon, near Stratford, they are so plentiful that at places, it is estimated, there has been one to every square yard. This abundance extended over a large area. In the winter, when insects are scarce, these bats do not migrate, but simply hibernate. No fewer than 450 species of bats are known. Daubenton’s bat belongs to the same family ag New Zealand s short-tailed bat, a family with a pleasant, tripping title, the Vespertilionidns.