WONDERS OF INSECT LIFE.

Colonist, Volume LI, Issue 12483, 9 March 1909, Page 4

WONDERS OF INSECT LIFE.

"In every forai of life there are methods of keeping clean. It is only of the "Weary Willie" type who likes to be dirty," 'said Mr Martin Duncan in the course of his last lecture on the "Romance of Animal Life" at the London Institution. . The leg of a bee, magnified to ten feet iii letjgth, was shown on the screen, and the brush an 4 comb on the leg were pointed out to the astonished children. Then another leg was projected, and the rows of course hairs upon it were explained to be the bee's basljet, in which' it carries home pollen and nectar. "The bee has four wings," said the lecturer, and we find that the front ones are attached to the hind ones by a series of little hooks when the bee wants to fly. .The b6es in attendance .on the queen never turn their backs on their sovereign lady, but always | move about their duties with their face I towards lfer." . ■'-- ..,"■■ [ Two caterpillars of the lobster moth j were next Seen -meeting on a bough. A series of clever lantern slides vividly portayed subsequent events, while the children clapped delightfully. I "You see they wave their arms about ! aiid get tremendously excited," said IMr Martin Duncan. "Now they draw ' hearer',. and tscjtv they are face to face ; ! B*ut, neither gives way- Nearer still, ahfl they start furiously biting each ! other' s legs dS '.■ The caterpillar • with : the quickest jaW§ Wilis' the day, and . finishes by devouring his opponent." | ' "It has- often puzzled observers that -.long before the dew lias passed awaj 1 from the foliage, it has disappeared from the spider's webs," he stated. "Now. this is what happens. ''Mrs Spider, when she has risen aiid stretched her arms in the morning; sua-Miij 1 runs fight to the centre of her web, pullihg hard .at every thread as she 'passes. The, result is that all the dewclrops fall oft. If she did not do this she would not get any breakfast.", _■ . -.•-.'..