220 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 



Beetles are on record. C. B. Williams describes 1 the life- 

 history of Phytodecta (Gonioctena) viminalis as observed in 

 the New Forest. Mature insects and larvae were found in 

 numbers on sallow bushes, and although apparently newly- 

 hatched larvae were observed, there was not the slightest 

 trace of egg-shells. This circumstance aroused the suspicions 

 of the author, who collected numbers of females for closer 

 observation. The Beetles were watched closely and seen 

 to give birth to tiny orange-coloured larvae, quite free from 

 any investing membrane. Upon dissection, the ovaries and 

 oviducts of other females were found to contain several larvae 

 similar to those newly deposited. The life-history of the 

 Beetle is described in full detail, and allusion is made to the 

 fact that in the allied genus Orina, several species are known 

 to be viviparous. 



An account of the abnormal Sea Urchins in the collection 

 of the Royal Scottish Museum, by James Ritchie and J. A. 

 Todd, 2 contains descriptions of some rare and highly peculiar 

 specimens from the Moray Firth and Australian seas. To 

 the general reader, one of the most interesting features of 

 this well-illustrated paper lies in the suggestions made as to 

 the course of events following upon a serious accident to a 

 living Sea Urchin. It is shown that, should any section of 

 the shell cease to grow, the place of the deficient area is 

 taken either by enlargements of ordinary plates of the shell 

 in the neighbourhood, or by the creation of an entirely new 

 series of irregular plates bearing no relationship to the 

 normal plates or to their arrangement. 



1 Entomologist, September 1914, pp. 249-250. 



2 Proc. Roy. Soc, Edinburgh, vol. xxxiv., p. 241, 19 1 4. 



