Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society of Edinburgh (Volume 4)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1878 Excerpt: ... III. Note of a Small Lizard, Psammadromus Hispanicus; also a large species of Sirex; both recently taken alive at Kinleith, near Currie. By John Alexander Smith, M.D. (The specimens were exhibited.) My friend Mr William Bruce, one of our members, brought me these interesting specimens; they were got this summer, at Kinleith Paper Mills, and as this pretty little lizard, with its two parallel light-coloured stripes along each side of its greyish back, turns out to be a Spanish species, we may naturally conclude that both the lizard and the fly were brought to this country among the esparto grass, great quantities of which are imported, both from Spain and Africa, by Mr Bruce, to be used in paper-making. The workman who first noticed the little lizard running about, and captured it, being familiar only with our common water-newts, concluded that the best way to keep the fragile little creature alive was to get a bottle, fill it with water, and put the lizard into it, and was rather astonished to find that instead of prolonging its life, he had actually drowned the poor little land lizard. Sirex sp.--Mr R. F. Logan informs me this insect belongs to this genus, but he does not know the species. It is a large hymenopterous insect which has a long ovipositor, well seen in this pretty black and yellow ichneumon-like fly, with which it deposits its eggs in holes in old trees, etc. Both the lizard and the fly are therefore in all probability simply species accidentally brought to this country, like many others, by man in the course of ordinary commerce; few of which meet with circumstances sufficiently favourable to prolong their existence here, and in this case, as they were introduced from a warmer climate, in all probability the cold of winter would soon have kil...