292 NATURAL SCIENCE [November 



observations on the koala (Phascolarctos) show its average tempera- 

 ture to be 3 6 "4° C. The range in any one individual at different 

 times is generally proved to be very small. Mr Sutherland, how- 

 ever, observes : — " I have often known healthy specimens (of Phas- 

 colarctos) that had been for a while in the sun stand as high as 

 37'9°, while on a cool day, or in a very shady place, the same indi- 

 viduals would be only 35 - 3°, a range greater than we would find 

 under the same circumstances in any of the higher mammals. The 

 highest register I ever obtained for a thoroughly healthy koala was 

 3 8 '4°, which is a degree and a half above the normal temperature of 

 man; the lowest was 34*9, or nearly two degrees below man's 

 normal. The former temperature would in man imply some con- 

 stitutional derangement, a distinct case of feverishness ; in the 

 koala it denotes only that it has been out in the sun. The lower 

 temperature, though common in the koala, is never met with in man 

 except in rare pathological conditions." 



It is clear, therefore, that there are grades of temperature, and 

 that the mammals which are classed lowest on anatomical grounds 

 are not only of the lowest temperature, but also of the greatest 

 range, and they are likewise, of all mammals, those which are under 

 the strongest and most direct influence of the temperature of the 

 environment. Similar, though more incomplete, connecting links 

 may also be noted in the case of birds. 



In a very general way (concludes Mr Sutherland), and not 

 forgetting numerous limitations and contradictions, it may be said 

 that bodily activity depends on body temperatures, that creatures, 

 such as insects and reptiles, are active only when warmed up from 

 without, but become torpid with decreasing temperature. The type 

 in which activity is generally habitual, maintains its own body 

 temperature. This is seen in the mammals, but more still in the 

 birds. But this warm-blooded active condition was produced by no 

 sudden emergence ; the monotremes and marsupials form a gentle 

 gradation between the reptile and the carnivore or ungulate ; while, 

 so far as indications point, there is reason to believe that the lower 

 birds still are reminiscent of a once existent chain of links which 

 equally joined the cold-blooded lizards to those warmest-blooded of 

 all creatures, the passeriform and fringilliform birds. 



Entomology in Australia 



Mr W. W. Froggatt has published (Proc. Linn. Soc, N.S. Wales, 

 1896, pp. 510-552) the second part of his work on the termites of 

 Australia. A short account of the life-history and social economy 

 of the insects, unfortunately written without reference to Grassi's 

 recent researches, is followed by a revision of the genera, which 



