ZOOLOGY. 313 



though food be close at hand. A curious blind wood-louse 

 (Platyartlirus Hoffmanseggii) is allowed house-room by the 

 ants. It acts as a kind of scavenger, the ants taking little 

 notice of the wood-lice, and even migrating, leaving them be- 

 hind. Some new species of Diptera, of the family Phoridae, 

 he finds to be parasitic on our house-ants, and Mr. Verral 

 has recently described these interesting forms. 



Herr Donhofl* has been experimenting on the flight of bees. 

 He took some bees from the hive just as they came out of 

 the entrance hole, and placed them under a glass bell, at a 

 temperature of 66 Fahr. First they ran hastily up and 

 down the sides of the glass and flew about in the jar. Later 

 on their movements became less hasty, and after forty-five 

 minutes they all sat quietly together, moved slowly and 

 clumsily. They were no longer able to fly about. He let a 

 few crawl upon a pencil, and, by giving it a jerk, threw them 

 into the air. They fell down perpendicularly, without giv- 

 ing a humming sound i. e.. without moving their wings. 

 He killed and opened one or two, and. found their honey- 

 bags empty. To the others he then gave a solution of sugar, 

 and after they had fed for about three and a half or four 

 minutes he again threw some into the air. They no longer 

 fell down perpendicularly, but a little farther off, and also 

 moved their wings. A minute afterwards they did not fall 

 down at all, but flew to the window. They had become the 

 same lively insects as before. If the temperature be under 

 G6 Fahr., they lose the power of flying even sooner, and a 

 longer period elapses before it returns after they are fed on 

 sugar -water. In higher temperatures the power returns 

 sooner. Herr Donhoff thinks it probable "that the bee 

 loses the power of flying because it does not possess the 

 necessary strength to be converted into muscular action, and 

 that this strength returns to its system because in sugar it 

 finds the necessary vital support." 



The long-expected work of Dr. Saussure, of Geneva, on 

 American wasps has been published by the Smithsonian In- 

 stitution. It refers exclusively to the solitary species of 

 North America, including Mexico and the Antilles. Little 

 is said of the interesting habits of these wasps, the work be- 

 ing confined to their classification. In speaking, however, 

 of the mode of nidification of the genus Montczumia, he re- 



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