Chiroptera

“ Fossil Chiroptera.—The fossil remains of bats that have yet been discovered, being chiefly allied to forms still existing in the same countries, throw no light on the origin or affinities of this remarkable and isolated order of Mammalia; but as species very similar to those now living were in existence so far back as Miocene or even Eocene times, we may be sure the group is one of immense antiquity, and that there has been ample time for the amount of variation and extinction required to bring about {186}the limitation of types, and the peculiarities of distribution we now find to exist. ”

“ If we were referring to insects in general, and not to these Phasmidæ in particular, we should not lay such stress on the probability of their enemies in the past being largely reptiles [39] and birds. No one who has collected insects beneath an electric light, as I have frequently done at Pretoria, attended in the same pursuit with the shadowy rushes of Bats above, and a host of patient Batrachians beneath, can doubt what wholesale insect destroyers are found in the ranks of the Chiroptera and Amphibia. ”

“ The mammalian lung is better comparable to that of a bird than is the Chameleon lung, and therefore the air-cell structure might with better reason have been anticipated to occur in the Chiroptera than in a Lizard-ally, if it were dependent on the development of wings. ”

“ Rousettus brachyotis, Andersen, Catalogue of the Chiroptera ... British Museum, 1:809; 1931, Sanborn, Publ. Field Mus. Nat. Hist., Zool. Ser., 18:11, February 12, from Santa Ysabel.
Specimens examined (20 males and 21 females; all in alcohol; ten crania extracted and cleaned) .—Guadalcanal in May, 23863, 23915; Fauro in April, 23804-5; Malaita in June, 24079; Choiseul in March, 23563-4, 23616, 23627, 23630, 23632-3, 23642, 23658, 23663-4, 23680, 23692-3, 23713, 23722; Kolombangara in January and February, 23343, 23366, 23382-4, 23389-90, 23408-9, 23424, 23455, 23471-4, 23501. ”

“ The distributions of 16 species of megachiropterans known from the Solomons are summarized in Table 5 and in Figure 16. The larger islands (in terms of surface area and elevation) in general [827] have the highest number of species (Guadalcanal 10, Choiseul 9, and Bougainville 8) . But Fauro, one of the smallest islands for which data are available, has six species of megachiropterans whereas San Cristobal and Malaita, two of the larger islands, have only three and four species, respectively. ”

“ Gelasinus major, Matschie, Die Megachiroptera ... naturkunde, p. 84; 1904, Trouessart, Catalogus Mammalium ..., Suppl., p. 64.
Specimens examined (four males and one female; dried skins with skulls inside) .—Florida in October, 24397, 24413, 24418, 24419.
Measurements.—External measurements of four males and one female are, respectively, as follows: Length of head and body, 134, 128, 134, 134, 136; tail vertebrae, 28, 23, 27, 26, 21; hind foot, 20, 16, 19, 16, 21; ear, 17, 17, 17, 17, 18; length of forearm, 73.8, 68.0, 74.0, 73.6, 78.0. ”

“ The flies of this family bear a great general resemblance to the Culicidae. They are much more numerous in species, and it is not improbable that we have in this country 200 species of the genus Chironomus alone. They occur in enormous numbers, and frequently form dancing swarms in the neighbourhood of the waters they live in. The species are frequently extremely similar to one another, though distinguished by good characters; they are numerous about Cambridge. Many of them have the habit of using the front legs as feelers rather than as means of support or locomotion. ”

“ In the middle of the hot summer days, however, they rested in the sand, under the shade and protection of the thick chaparral. When disturbed, they glided through the bushes very swiftly, seldom resorting to flight, uttering a peculiar chirping note. The parents would utter the same chirping cry whenever an attempt was made to capture their young. The male and female bird were always found with the young, showing much affection for them, and even endeavoring to attract attention away from them by their actions and cries. ”

“ In the neighbourhood of Carmen, on the Rio Negro, it is very abundant, and when I went there its loud deep chirrup, heard from every side in the thicket, quickly arrested my attention, just as the perpetual chirping of the Sparrows did when I first landed in England. In the interior of the country it is not nearly so abundant, so that man’s presence has probably in some way affected it favourably. Its habits amuse and baffle a person anxious to make its acquaintance ”

“ With respect to the relation between the size acquired by the different species of sessile cirripedes, and the temperature of the localities inhabited by them, the genera Chthamalus, Tetraclita, and Balanus, alone can serve for comparison: in Chthamalus much the largest species is found in the temperate zone: on the other hand, the two largest species of Tetraclita are from the torrid zone, though one of them also sometimes ranges into the temperate seas: in Balanus, the largest species, and six other species having a basal diameter sometimes over two inches, inhabit the temperate regions ”

“ The sound of fiddling, coming from beneath their feet, always puzzled the hens. They would stop scratching and cock their heads on one side, to listen. And they tried to look very knowing. But they were really the most stupid of all the creatures in the farmyard. If they had only been as wise as Farmer Green’s cat they would have kept still and waited and watched. And sooner or later they would have given Chirpy Cricket the surprise of his life, when he came crawling out of his hole to get a few blades of grass for his supper. ”

“ The common cricket of our houses, Gryllus (Acheta) domesticus (Fig. 204) , has a very wide distribution in the Old World, and is also found in North America. It is believed to have had its natural distribution extended by commerce, though really nothing is known as to its original habitat. The shrill chirping of this little Insect is frequently heard at night in houses, even in the most densely inhabited parts of great cities. Neither the female nor the young are musical, yet the chirping may be heard at all seasons of the year, as young and adults coexist independent of season. ”

“ If Chirpy Cricket had begun to make music earlier in the summer perhaps he wouldn’t have given so much time to fiddling in Farmer Green’s farmyard. Everybody admitted that Chirpy was the most musical insect in the whole neighborhood. ”

“ The more it thrashed about, the tighter grew the fatal trap until death put an end to its struggles.
The chironomus larva is quite unlike that of the mosquito. The chironomus has brush-like feet which it can withdraw from sight—a sort of telescopic arrangement—or extend when it wishes to crawl along the plants, while the mosquito wriggles and swims.
The chironomus is caught more often even than the mosquito larva. At certain seasons of the year it is almost impossible to find a bladder without one or more of these victims entrapped. ”

“ The penultimate abdominal segment has four long hollow outgrowths, which contain blood, and have the function of gills, while the hindmost segment has four shorter outgrowths of the same nature. Enabled thus to breathe dissolved air, the Chironomus larva needs not, like the Culex or the Eristalis, to find contact with the atmosphere beyond the surface-film. ”

“ Those insect-like chirps are the voices of their little folk, probably just out of the nest, brand-new, ignorant, and curious babies, who know no better than to stare at us, and make their comments within reach of our hands. ”

“ But the second time he heard the voice he guessed that it came from the pond. So Chirpy leaped to the water’s edge; and there, sitting on a lily-pad, was the tiniest Frog he had ever seen. He seemed no bigger than Chirpy himself.
“How do you do!” Chirpy said to him. “Was it you that spoke to me?”
“Yes!” the stranger said. “I’ve been enjoying your music. And I’m glad to meet you. It’s time we knew each other, living as we do in the same neighborhood. My name is Mr. Cricket Frog. And may I inquire what yours is?”
“I’m called Chirpy Cricket,” said the fiddler on the bank. ”

“ Chirpy Cricket took great pains never to spend another day in hiding in Farmer Green’s garden. He was afraid there might be trouble if he saw more of his cousin. And he couldn’t forget those powerful forelegs and enormous feet of Mr. Mole Cricket! They looked very dangerous.
The longer Chirpy pondered over his brief meeting with Mr. Mole Cricket, the more firmly he made up his mind that he had been in great danger and that he had 64 been lucky to escape alive. Everybody knew that Grandfather Mole was a terrible-tempered person when aroused. He would rush at anybody, big or little. ”

“ Indeed so suddenly do they disappear among the rocks, and remain so silent in their retreat, that it is scarcely possible to believe them beneath your feet till 444 after a lapse of a few minutes you begin to hear a low cautious chirp, and the next moment, at the head of the ravine, the old female probably again appears, scolding and jerking in the most angry attitudes she is capable of assuming. ”

“ The Cirripedes are medium-sized Crustacea, with the body consisting of few segments, and enveloped in a mantle formed as a fold of the external integument, which may be strongly protected by calcified plates. The abdomen is greatly reduced. The larva, after hatching out as a Nauplius, and passing through a Cypris stage, when it resembles an Ostracod, fixes itself to a foreign object by means of the first antennae, and becomes a pupa, which after profound changes gives rise to the adult. ”

“ Where these fall across the grasses there grow triangles of silence which travel fast. Oftentimes as the point of one of these progresses you may locate a chirper by the sudden ceasing of his chirp and find him in the tip of shadow, already numb. The black crickets keep up their tune longest, singing from beneath sheltering stones and bark or fallen leaves. With the direct sun vanish also other summer pasture people who have made the warmth of the day beautiful. ”

“ Tender insects that live abroad either enjoy only the short period of one summer, or else doze away the cold uncomfortable months in profound slumbers; but these, residing as it were in a torrid zone, are always alert and merry—a good Christmas fire is to them like the heats of the dog-days. Though they are frequently heard by day, yet is their natural time of motion only in the night. As soon as it grows dusk, the chirping increases, and they come running forth, and are from the size of a flea to that of their full stature. ”

“ Chiromantis is distinguished by the peculiar arrangement of the fingers, the first and second being opposed to the others; their terminal phalanges are obtuse and support small knobs or discs. The general shape is that of a frog with long and slender hind-limbs. The tympanum is distinct.
Ch. xerampelina, the type-species, was discovered by Peters at Mozambique; it is a middle-sized frog, about 2 inches in length, brown above with reddish spots on the sides; the male is devoid of vocal sacs. ”

“ The same explanation would apply to the complemental males in Scalpellum, etc., these individuals being also potential hermaphrodites, which are arrested in development, though not so completely as in the Rhizocephala, owing to the position they have taken up.
This theory throws light on another dark feature of Cirripede life-history, namely, the gregarious instinct. The associations of Cirripedes are not formed by a number of Cypris larvae fixing together on the same spot, but rather by the Cypris larvae seeking out adolescent individuals of their own species and fixing on or near them. ”

“ Certainly it seemed to Chirpy Cricket that his cousin led a very lonely life. He explained to Chirpy that it was easy to dig in the garden, because its soil was loose. The ploughing in the spring, and the harrowing, as well as the hoeing that Farmer Green’s hired man did during the summer, kept the earth in fine condition for tunnelling. Of course, living beneath the surface as he did, Mr. Mole Cricket had no way of knowing why the garden soil was so nicely stirred up. ”

“ Professor Forbes says he had never met with a living example. I allude to Chirodota digitata.
Many living specimens of this species were forwarded to me by the kindness of the Rev. C. Kingsley, who obtained them in the vicinity of Torquay. He says, "I got this and Actinia chrysanthellum in two contiguous coves, washed up after a heavy gale [in January] in company with Lutraria elliptica, and the common red hag-worm, indicating life on a mud-sand bottom." ”

“ There are three species of chirus common along the island and mainland coasts. The one usually sold is Chirus hexagrammus (Cuv., Regne An., ‘Poiss.,’ pl. 83) , the Six-lined Chirus.—Sp. Ch.: A skinny tentacle over each orbit; palatine teeth none; two muciferous channels, between the lateral line and dorsal fin ”

“ Its sides, though somewhat rough, rival in beauty many a tropical flower: clad in scales, adorned with colours not only conspicuous for their brilliancy, but grouped and blended in a manner one sees only represented in the plumage of a bird, the wing of a butterfly, or the petals of an orchid, this ‘ocean swell’ is known to the ichthyologist as the Chirus—the Terpugh (a file) of the Russians—the Idyajuk of the Aleutian Islanders—the Tath-le-gest of the Vancouver Islanders.
Quite as delicious to the palate as pleasant to the eye, the chirus is altogether a most estimable fish. ”