324 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



The mode of moulting of the integument and lining of the 

 crop and proventriculus, or fore-stomach, of the Ortlioptera 

 lias been studied by Wilde. On the histological processes in 

 the moulting of animals in general we have the previous 

 works of Cartier, Braun, and Kerbert. In the reptiles as 

 well as in the Astacus, or crawfish, moulting of the skin is 

 effected by its being pushed off, in the first place, by fine cu- 

 ticular hairs, which afterwards disappear. Exceptions to 

 this mode only occur in the reptiles on certain parts of the 

 body, as, for example, on the underside of the scales and the 

 capsular skin of the eyes of reptiles; in the Astacus, the 

 faceted cornea, the eye-stalk, and the inner lamella? of the 

 fold of the carapace over the gill-opening. In the locusts 

 and grasshoppers the teeth arming the crop and fore stom- 

 ach, though primarily of use in triturating the food, especial- 

 ly in the crop, are secondarily useful in loosening the cuticle 

 lining those parts of the digestive canal. As soon in the 

 Orthoptera as the old cuticle is loosened and stripped off, 

 there is the new cuticle completely formed under it. It is 

 at first completely transparent, but takes on, after a few 

 days probably through the influence of the air, which passes 

 through very fine tracheal twigs under the layers of epithe- 

 lium the characteristic yellow-brown color of the chit inc. 

 The secretion of the new cuticle must follow with great ra- 

 pidity. It does not take more than one or at least two days 

 in developing. 





