INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1872. \[ 



ity, and that the eggs are developed and impregnated in the 

 same individual. This is a remarkable fact, if it be true, and 

 will doubtless be critically inquired into. 



The Insects have received a fair share of attention during 

 the year, especially in the United States, where two very im- 

 portant descriptive works have been published ; namely, one 

 by Mr. Edwards on the North American Butterflies, and that 

 by Mr. Glover on the Orthoptera, the latter forming the be- 

 ginning of a series of illustrated monographs of our more 

 conspicuous insects in general. Mr. G. R. Crotch, an accom- 

 plished English entomologist, has commenced the publication 

 in the United States of a catalogue of North American Cole- 

 optera. 



A curious variety of insect is described by Dr. Le Conte as 

 Platypsylla castor is, which, although in his opinion belong- 

 ing to the Coleoptera, is yet so modified in form as to render 

 it extremely difficult of assignment to its proper position. 

 The ravages of the Phylloxera, or grape-vine louse, in various 

 parts of Europe, especially in France, continue to excite the 

 gravest apprehension ; and it is feared that the result will be 

 the entire destruction of the vineyards in that part of the 

 world, excepting where the roots can be covered during win- 

 ter with water, so as to kill the terrestrial form of the a'nimal. 



According to Professor A. Milne-Edwards, the king-crab 

 (Limulus) is neither a crustacean nor an arachnid, but con- 

 stitutes a distinct class of animals, which Professor Edwards 

 proposes to call the Merostomata. 



A paper by Professor Smith, upon the embryology and 

 early stages of the American Lobster, has added to our knowl- 

 edge of the peculiarities of this species, the work having been 

 prosecuted by him in the summer of 18V 1 on the New En- 

 gland coast, and the result published during the past year. 



The inquiry as to whether Trilobites are in the possession 

 of legs or not has also been continued, Professor Dana and 

 Professor Verrill insisting that they must have been desti- 

 tute of these appendages, in view of certain peculiarities of 

 their structure. 



Perhaps the most important fact in reference to the Anne- 

 lids is the demonstration that the form known as Tomaria 

 is the embryo form of the singular worm called Balanoglos- 

 sus, it having previously been supposed to be the embryo of 



