IN TOUCH WITH NATURE

Otago Witness, Issue 4031, 16 June 1931, Page 10

IN TOUCH WITH NATURE

MYSTERY OF THE SANDS.

By

J. Drummond,

F.L.S., F.Z.S.

Standing at the mouth of the Waitangi River, at almost low tide, a resident of Paihia, Bay of Islands, saw something that looked like a fish’s head appearing above the surface of the’water. As it reappeared in the same place every time, her curiosity was aroused, and her friend and she moved to the edge of the water, in order to discover what it was. They were surprised to find apparently a piece of the common seaweed about a foot long.

“ The amazing thing about it,” the correspondent states, was that it not only kept rearing itself up, but also seemed to open a mouth, the brown skin —of the seaweed, we presume —parting on either side and disclosing a pink tongue with a small white tip. We could hardly believe the evidence of our own eyes. The thing was in an upright position in the sand Another piece was further in the water. Yet another one, much smaller, came up from under the sand, merely the point showing. In this one I noticed no mouthlike opening; the water completely covered it. The other pieces opened their mouthlike appliances only, when their tops appeared above the water. They did this at frequent intervals. We poked one piece up out of the sand where it stood, but could see nothing unusual about it. On throwing it back into the water, it did not remain in a lying position, but stood up, and seemed to be trying to get the wide end back into the sand. The evening was drawing in, and we did not wait to see if this strange thing, like a ribbony piece of seaweed, succeeded in pushing back into the sand. Did it have a mouth, or was this an optical illusion? ”

The creatures were New Zealand sandeels, remarkable for their eel-like appearance, but not eels or any connection of eels. They are allied to the carps, and should be called sand-fishes. They are characterised by protruding snouts, from beneath which their mouths protrflde like suckers. When alive they usually have rich purply-blue markings. Their habits do not seem to have been studied, and little is known about them except that they burrow in sand with great rapidity and that their flesh is firm, white, and delicate. They bear a double name in ichthyological literature: Gonorhynchus gonqrhynchus. Only' one New Zealand species has been identified.

In the Old Country more is known about the sand-eels there. These also are fishes, pot eels, but they belong to a different family from the family of New Zealand sand-eels. Their official name is Ammodytes. Their family is the Aphidiidffi, which suggests their resemblance to snakes. The ling is a member of this family. The Old Country’s sand-eel begins life in an asylum of sand in fairly deep water. It hatches from one of from 10.060 to 30.000 evgs laid by the female. About only one-seventh of an inch long, it goes through several metamorphoses while it is buried in the sand. Later, and before settling down to its underground haunts, jt is a free swimmer, one of millions of little sand-eels that get into the fishermen’s nets. Under the influence of the sun’s heat and light it grows rapidly at the surface, and then returns to the depths.

The launce is another Old Country species, allied to the sand-eel and known also as the greater sand-eel. Both species, in parts of England, are caught by raking the sand with a long-pronged rake while they remain buried five or six inches in the sand. They arc used chiefly for bait. .The most notable members of the Ophidiidae are two species of small cave-dwellers that live in the subterranean fresh waters of caves in Cuba.

ANOTHER UNDESIRABLE.

Discovery of the small cabbage-white butterfly in Hawke’s Bay has brought reports of several other undesirable introduced lepidoptera in New Zealand. In November, 1922, Mr F. Tapley, at his residence, Governor’s Bay, caught a moth with shiny brassy-bronze fore wings and dark grey hind wings, a bronzy metallic head, and conspicuous white antenna or feelersj-ringed with dark brown. Two years later he caught 11 more individuals. Mr Stuart Lindsay. Sydney street, Spreydon, identified them as a species of the

sheath-bearers, Colcophora, well known in the Old Country. This species is ColcophoTa Fabiciella, somewhat plentiful in Durham, England, and present in Central Europe and Asia Minor.

Since 1926 Mr Lindsay has found the species to be fairly plentiful at Horseshoe Lake, Kaituna Valley, Price’s Valley, and Little River. Probably it is present in many other parts of Canterbury. Mr Lindsay states: "In all those places it was found where the common white clover is abundant. Although I have not yet been able to work out its life history, I have little doubt that its caterpillars feed on that plant, probably in the flower heads. Meyrick, in his hand book of British Lepidoptera, quotes the legumins as its food-plant, and small clovers were the only plants of that family that occur commonly in Mr Tapley’s grounds. Mr A. Tonnoir took an individual of the species in November, 1924, in the grounds of Canterbury Museum, where clovers occur. This moth was introduced into New Zealand fairly recently. It is doubtful whether its natural enemies have accompanied it, and it may become a pest on clovers.”

The caterpillars of some other members of the Colcophora in England make peculiar homes, which have given the family its name. A caterpillar, like the caterpillar of New Zealand’s basket-mak-ing moth, drags its home about with it. There is a home in a home, the creature living snugly in the inner one. A caterpillar can draw the entrance of its double home tightly against the surface of a leaf and fasten it down with a large number of silken bauds. Inside, the caterpillar changes into a chrysalis, from which the perfect moth emerges. Another member of the family makes a very long and slender case; pale brown, and quite straight. Still another, called the little wagoner, makes a case shaped like a round-headed Fijian club. Knowing something of the introduced moth’s habits, Mr Lindsay doubtless will disclose some of its life history and the probable measure of damage done by the caterpillars.

Native moths may be mistaken for this newly-introduced moth. Mr Lindsay explains that the native species lack the conspicuous white rings on the upper half of the antennae, and have much broader hind wings. There are three species of these natives, the Prototynasma. Their wings have an expansion of only about half an inch, but their markings, mostly dark browns, purply-brown, grey, and yellow. give them a very unusual appearance. Their caterpillars seem to feed on native grasses and nigger-heads, where they spin webs and make cocoons, in which they pass the chrysalis stage. Mr G. V. Hudson states that in one species the appearance of a cocoon and one of the chrysalis inside strongly suggests a large grass seed, probably the object the caterpillar aimed at. A small dog-winkle whose rough , shell is covered with tiny pimples is simply “ the borer ” to the public in New Zealand, but in the “ molluscs ” official literature it is given the name of Thais, the notorious wife of a King of Egypt. She was a friend of Alexander the Great, accompanied him on his Asiatic expeditions, and, it is stated by at least one historian, persuaded him to set the city of Pereepolis ablaze. This mollusc Thais iscobina, does not bear the stamp of destructor outwardly, but it is a menace to the oyster industry in the Auckland province, and has become so important that borer-pickers are paid by contract to destroy it. During the past year 6,366,500 borers were destroyed. In addition, 11.000 individuals of a larger dog-winkle, Thais succincta, known by its Maori name, pupu, were gathered and destroyed. Several other species of dogwinkles are found in New Zealand, but against these there are no charges of destructive practices. There was some strong imagination in dedicating the dogwinkles to Thais. She is famed for her beauty, while the dog-winkles lack beauty in form or colour.