302 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



inches ; the ring around the neck measured ten and a half 

 inches, and the fish would probably weigh about fifty pounds. 

 What the facts may really be in regard to the fish in ques- 

 tion, it is, of course, impossible to state ; although it may be 

 reasonably doubted whether any thing like fhe age mentioned 

 could have been attained, and the length of nineteen feet 

 must evidently be an exaggerated statement. 2 A, July 6, 

 1872,6. 



RILEY ON THE BARK-LOUSE OF THE APPLE-TREE. 



At the meeting of the St. Louis Academy of Sciences on the 

 17th of June last, Mr. Charles V. Riley announced the inter- 

 esting discovery of the male of the mussel-shaped bark-louse 

 of the apple-tree (Mytilaspis co?ichiformis), and exhibited 

 specimens and drawings. This is the insect that produces 

 the so-called " scurvy" on apple-trees, and in the more North- 

 ern and Western States has been one of the most injurious 

 of our orchard pests for many years past. Yet, common and 

 injurious as it is, entomologists have been endeavoring in 

 vain for a quarter of a century to discover the male. Re- 

 cently in the Northwestern States, which have suffered most 

 from this insect, it has suddenly become harmless, and is fast 

 dying out and being exterminated by its natural enemies, 

 while in that part of Missouri where the male has been dis- 

 covered it is increasing rapidly. Mr. Riley concludes that 

 organic reproduction is the more normal with this insect, but 

 that, as with the closely-allied plant-lice (aphidse), the male 

 element is occasionally required to prevent degeneracy. 

 Pr. St. Louis Academy. 



NATURE OF THE BLUE COLORING MATTER OF FISHES. 



Pouchet has been investigating the cause of the blue color 

 of certain fishes, which, as is well known, is extremely bril- 

 liant in certain species. In confining his attention to the 

 French species exhibiting this color, he refers the character- 

 istic in question to a constant anatomical cause. Beneath 

 the skin of the portion of the fish so colored there is always 

 a layer, more or less thick, of small ovoid or irregularly cir- 

 cular minute bodies, yellow by transmitted light, which are 

 the product of the complementary blue color in diffused light. 

 These he calls iridescent bodies, from certain analogies with 



