ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 303 



chloroleucites, and very minute granular filaments. The blood has some- 

 times a marked oxydase reaction, but this is very variable. 

 .• .'- In another paper {G.R. Soc. Biol, 1918, 81, 197-9) Gautier notes 

 that as many as fifteen to eighty larvaB of the Braconid Apanteles 

 glomeratus may emerge from a single caterpillar of Pieris brassicse, 

 and fifty to sixty often appear. They form cocoons below the moribund 

 •caterpillar, but this position is not indispensable. The rough-and- 

 ready method of crushing the caterpillars against the leaf is apt to 

 kill their Braconid parasites as well. J. A. T. 



Maritime Coleoptera. — James H. Keys (Jonrn. Marine Biol. 

 Assoc, 1918, 11, -197-513) has done an interesting piece of work in 

 recording from South Devon and South Cornwall, with especial reference 

 to the Plymouth district, the beetles whose habitats are covered by the 

 sea for a considerable time during the ebb and flow of the tide. The 

 maritime beetles in the list comprise eight species, the sub-maritime 

 fifty-four, and the coast species eighty-nine. J. A. T. 



Spiracles of Hypoderma Maggot. — George H. Carpenter and 

 F. J. S. Pollard {Proc. R. Irish Acad., 1918, 34, 73-84, 6 pis.) have 

 demonstrated the presence of a paired series of (six) minute lateral 

 spiracles, and of solidified air-tubes connecting them with the branches of 

 the main longitudinal tracheal trunks. The vestigial structures are 

 present in the fourth stage of larvse of Hijpoderma Jomand H. lineatum, 

 and also in the larvse of (Edemagena tarandi, the Reindeer Warble-fly. 

 They occur from the second to the seventh abdominal segments. Pantel 

 observed vestigial lateral spiracles in Tachinine larvae ; the authors have 

 not been able to find them in any other Muscoid larvse. As Hijpoderma 

 is highly specialized, and yet has remains of the lateral spiracles, it is 

 suggested that it must have diverged very early from the Muscoid stock 

 before the larval lateral spiracles had been lost. J. A. T. 



Temperature and Crossing-over in Drosophila. — Harold H. 

 Plough {Journ. Exper. Zool, 1917, 24, 147-209, 9 figs.) finds that 

 the percentage of what is called " crossing-over " among the offspring 

 of this fly is increased in the first brood, but not in the second, by 

 alterations of temperature, which probably affects the structural make-up 

 of the nuclear mechanism. The percentage is not affected by wet and 

 dry food, starvation, and increased fermentation of the food. The high 

 temperature influences appear to act at one stage in the oogenesis — in 

 very early oocytes. J- A. T. 



Reactions of Drosophila to Light and Gravity.— R. S. McEwen 

 {Journ. Exper. Zool, 1918, 25, 49-106, 3 figs.) finds that females of 

 Drosophila ampelophila react to light somewhat more readily than do the 

 males, but the difference decreases with age, and has almost vanished at 

 €ight or nine days. The removal of the wings involves a loss of most 

 of the phototropism, but has little or no effect as regards response to 

 gravity. The effect as regards phototropism is roughly proportional to 

 the amount of wing cut off, but is not the result of the operation as 

 such. Operations on the antenna3 may produce a weakening of the 



