298 NATURAL SCIENCE [November 



opaque layers and network being due to the formation of slime or 

 jelly by the bacteria themselves, or (2) that it is due to symbiosis 

 between the bacteria and some gigantic rhizopod, the protoplasm of 

 which is seen in the flocculent layers and network. After discuss- 

 ing these two views, Dr Dendy calls attention to the marvellously 

 close resemblance of Pontobolbos to the enigmatical fossils Stromato- 

 poridae. The paper appeared in the Linnean Society's Journal, 

 volume twenty-six. 



• Bugs ' as Food 



Mr G. W. Kirkaldy, who has been devoting his attention for some 

 time to the systematic description of the Ehynchota, has written a 

 short note to the Entomologists Monthly Magazine (p. 173) on 

 arrangements which have been made for the importation into this 

 country both of imagines and ova of Notonccta and Corixa in large 

 quantities for the food of insectivorous birds, game, fish, and others 

 with peculiar tastes. It has long been known that the natives 

 of parts of Mexico eat the perfect insects with relish, and that the 

 sale of cakes made of the ova is fairly extensive. The species to 

 be imported, according to Mr Kirkaldy, are Notonccta americana, 

 Fabr., and Corixa mercenaria, Say. The ova are called by the 

 Mexicans ' Axayacatl ' or ' waterface,' and are made into cakes 

 with the addition of meal. These are eaten an naturel or with 

 green chilies. If cooked without meal they are called ' ahuanhtli ' 

 or ' water wheat,' have the appearance of fish roe, have a delicate 

 flavour, and are not disdained at fashionable tables. Virlet d'Aoust 

 indeed compared them to caviare. Mr Kirkaldy, however, cannot 

 speak highly of them as a relish, his were stale and tasted of 

 sulphuretted hydrogen and decayed animal substances. The perfect 

 insects, moreover, had a distinct ' buggy ' flavour. Still one can 

 educate one's palate, and there are some who revel in the pope's 

 nose of a goose despite its taste of cockroach. The C. mercenaria 

 are imported by the ton, and each ton is imputed to contain 250 

 millions of insects. We will not dine with Mr Kirkaldy. 



The Relationships of Butterflies 



PtEADEFvS of Natural Science will recall Mr A. Radcliffe Grote's 

 papers at the beginning of the present year (vol. xii. pp. 15-26, 

 87-99) on the classification of butterflies according to the wing- 

 neuration. His main contention was the separation of the Papil- 

 ionidae from all the other butterflies on account of the presence of 

 a short vein (ix.) next to the inner margin of the forewing, this 

 vein being absent in all the other families. In a recent paper 

 entitled " Specialisations of the Lepidopterous Wing ; the Pieri- 

 Nymphalidae," in the Proe. Amer. Phil. Soc. (vol. xxxvii. pp. 17- 



