Many experiments were tried, and at last these proved successful.
Several specimens of Dytiscus[7] were obtained, and put into a small
aquarium in which was no other food for them than some snails and other
molluscs. The Beetles were carefully watched, and were several times
seen trying the snails. In crawling along the inner surface of the
glass, Planorbis and Limnaea both protrude the foot to a considerable
extent, and pieces were ripped out by the strong mandibles of the
Beetles before the shells were actually broken up.
All the shells represented in Fig. 16 were taken from this aquarium,
so that there is good evidence as to what creatures broke them up and
devoured their inmates. In these, as in the specimen kindly sent me by
Mr. Tegetmeier, the Natural History Editor of the _Field_, the
bisection is not complete, though in all cases it is carried far enough
to allow of the extraction of the mollusc. The large Limnaea shell in
the centre has been attacked, but it seems to have been left when the
beetles discovered it was empty. (The empty shell was noted before the
Beetles were put into the tank.) Another Limnaea shell is figured, from
which the snail has been picked out, and that of a fresh-water mollusc.
After these observations had been recorded in the _Field_[8], I
found that I had been anticipated by about forty years. I picked up,
at a bookstall, a copy of G. B. Sowerby’s _Popular History of the
Aquarium_, and there I found that the author had distinctly seen
Dytiscus at this kind of work. He says[9]: ‘I have only once witnessed
him in the act of seizing an unfortunate Planorbis or Flat-coiled Water
Snail. At first, the Dytiscus seemed to be roaming about in quest
of something, first under, then over, the leaves of a water-lily.
At last, in a rather dark corner, he seemed to perceive suddenly a
Planorbis which was browsing upon the stem of a plant just under the
shade of a broad leaf. He darted at this, seized it, and then, putting
his tail out of water, for the purpose of taking in a fresh supply of
air, moved slowly down, bearing the snail with him. He held it by his
fore-feet, turning round the coil until the aperture of the shell was
opposite his mandibles, then he began nibbling away at the animal. In
vain did the poor mollusc try to withdraw within its shelly fortress,
for the beetle picked off the edges of the shell bit by bit, so as to
expose the body as fast as it was withdrawn. All the way down to the
bottom of the tank was this process continued, air-bubbles rising to
the top, and bits of broken shell falling, till the beetle with his
burden reached a stone near the bottom, where I left him still busy at
his work.’
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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