Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, March 1899: Volume LIV, No. 5, March 1899Various
History
Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, March 1899: Volume LIV, No. 5, March 1899
Various
Science -- Periodicals; Technology -- Periodicals
of fresh beef, placed in her cage at night, was the only thing that I
could persuade her to touch. Even of this I am not absolutely certain.
In the morning these little pellets of fresh meat were usually found
rolled in the sand and often apparently diminished in size. Several
times they disappeared altogether. The presence, however, of other
predatory insects sometimes left the matter a little in doubt. But, as
my captive remained in good health for over a month while this plan of
trial dieting was in progress, I am inclined to think that more or
less of the fresh beef was really consumed by her. Still, she took the
greatest care that I should never catch her eating, even when
surprised with a sudden light at night, a time when she was always
especially active.
I was getting a little tired of this seemingly fruitless
investigation, and had about concluded to persuade my _Thelyphonus_ to
crawl into a bottle in company with a few drops of chloroform, to have
her picture taken, and then forward the "embalmed remains" to the
Museum of Natural History in Central Park, New York, to which they had
already been promised.
I concluded, however, to make one more effort. So the next day I spent
some time in hunting for new and untried insects, of which I procured
half a dozen or so, and among other things quite a lot of so-called
"wood-lice," "white ants," _termites_, our only representative of a
family that in most warm countries is so destructive to exposed wooden
structures. All of these "finds" were tumbled, as usual, upon the
floor of my captive's cage, and I left them with very little
expectation that she would see among them anything that suited her
fastidious taste. The next morning, to my surprise, every white ant
had disappeared; nothing else was touched. The question was solved.
For about three weeks my _Thelyphonus_ was supplied each day with a
liberal allowance of what in this latitude, at least, seems to be its
exclusive food.
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