ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 349 



excretory function of the Malpighian tubules is admitted, but they 

 undergo degeneration, and one of the main points of the paper is to 

 show that the fat cells (in which there are crystals like those in the vasa 

 Malpighii), have a definite excretory role. 



Thaumatoxena.* — Ivar Tragardh discusses the position of the re- 

 markable termitophilous insect known as Thaumatoxena ivasmanni 

 Breddin and Bonier. The structure of the foot with its two claws, 

 two pulvilli, and the empodium is certainly that of a typical Dipteron. 

 It is interesting to find the same kind of shape — an unassailable shape 

 — in Tr Hob it idem, which is a beetle. The convergence is " amazing." 



Tumbu-fly.f — F. Smith, A. P. Blenkiusop, and E. E. Austen 

 contribute notes on the tumbu-fly (Cordylobia anthropophaga Grunt).), 

 in Sierra Leone. The larva burrows in the skin of man (and of various 

 Mammals). A swelling forms with a fine opening to the exterior. 

 Round about there is usually a deposit of black excrement. In the case 

 of children and helpless patients who are unable to remove the parasite, 

 the larva may work its way out. It pupates in or on the earth. The 

 mode of infection is uncertain. There is considerable resemblance 

 between the tumbu-fly and the floor maggot-fly (Auchmeromyia Juteola). 



Whitefly Studies. J — E. W. Berger gives a lucid account of Aleyrodes 

 ritri and A. nubifera sp. n., which infest orange trees in Florida. He 

 explains how the larvas may be infected with parasitic fungi by spraying 

 on the sponges at the proper time. 



White Wax of China. § — E. Bugnion and N. Popoff had in a 

 previous paper referred this product to Flata nigricornis which lives on 

 Stillingia sebifera, but they now correct this by saying that while some 

 of the wax may have this origin, most is due, as various travellers and 

 entomologists have pointed out, to the male of Coccus ceriferus, which 

 lives on Ligustrum glabrum, L. lucidum, Fraxinus sinensis, Rhus 

 succedanus, Hibiscus syriacus, etc. The remarkable sexual dimorphism 

 is described. The secretion of wax is increased when the insects are 

 taken to mountainous regions and put on to Fraxinus sinensis. A great 

 waxy mass is secreted by a crowd of males on the branches. The 

 chemical composition of the wax is discussed. 



Autotomy of Hemelytra in certain Halobatina3.|| — J. R. de la 

 Torre Bueno has observed in Trepobates pictus and in Rheumatobates an 

 interesting self -mutilation. It occurs in both sexes, and consists in 

 actively breaking off the membrane of the hemelytra along a definite 

 suture. It is suggested that the meaning of the autotomy is to facilitate 

 copulation. 



* Arkiv Zool. iv. (1908) No. 10, pp. 1-12 (7 figs.). 



+ Journ. Roy. Army Med. Corps, 1908, pp. 14-24. See also Zool. Centralbl., xv. 

 (190S) cp. 632-3". 



t Florida Agric. Exp. Stat., Bull. No. 97 (1909) pp. 1-71 (19 figs.). 

 § Bull. Soc. Vaud. Sci. Nat., xliv. (1908) pp. 273-83 (1 pi.). 

 || Ohio Nat., ix. (1908) pp. 389-92 (4 figs.). 



