ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY. ETC. 589 



before the secondary sexual characters are developed, has no effect on 

 the normal course of development of these characteristics. 



Regeneration in Larval Legs of Caterpillars.* — Vernon L. Kellogg 

 finds that the larva of the silk-moth, Bombyx mori, has the capacity of 

 regenerating its thoracic and abdominal legs from stumps of these legs, 

 but not from the trunk. That is to say each leg has the capacity to re- 

 generate any distal part from any proximal part, but the body cannot 

 produce a wholly new leg. The regeneration described shows externally 

 not after the first moulting after the mutilation, but after the second 

 moulting, and the regenerative processes are completed with the ap- 

 pearance of the new parts after this second moulting succeeding the 

 mutilation. The small, non-segmented, but movable caudal horn, which 

 has no known function, is not regenerated. It was excised from many 

 silkworms of various ages, and in no case was there the slightest re- 

 generation. This favours the theory of the natural selectionists con- 

 cerning regeneration, but the regeneration of the legs in an animal 

 which has been domesticated for approximately 5000 years under such 

 conditions as to make the natural loss of legs almost an impossible 

 occurrence, does not favour the selectionist interpretation. " The silk- 

 worm offers little aid and comfort to those who would explain regenera- 

 tion wholly as a phenomenon fostered and maintained by natural 

 selection on a basis of utility." 



Urate Cells in Hymenoptera.j — L. Semichon has studied the urate- 

 containing cells which Fabre discovered in 1856. They seem to occur 

 in all Hymenoptera, and the author has investigated them in solitary 

 bees. They appear early in larval life, and increase during the period of 

 activity ; they seem to be inactive during the period of quiescence ; they 

 increase rapidly when the animal is starved ; they are decreasing in the 

 immature adults ; their appearance is independent of any animal food. 



Luminosity of Luciola italica.| — N. Passerini has studied the 

 physical nature of the light produced by this insect. The radiations 

 are chiefly orange, yellow, and green rays. Their spectroscopic and 

 other characters are discussed. 



Aquatic Glow-Worm.§— Nelson Annandale notes that until recently 

 the Lampyridge were regarded as purely terrestrial and aerial beetles. 

 He has been led to doubt this, and has found an aquatic larval form 

 twice in Lower Siam, and a second in a tank in the suburbs of Calcutta. 



Spermatogenesis of Syromastes marginatus.|| — J. Gross has studied 

 the spermatogenesis of this Hemipteron, and gives a detailed account of 

 it, with critical discussion of the results of other workers. He brings 

 out a remarkable fact, that the small chromosomes in the spermatids are 

 not identical with those of the spermatogonia. They arise from the two 

 originally large chromosomes which are formed during the growth period 



* Journ. Exp. Zool. i. (1904) pp. 593-9 (10 figs.). 



+ Comptes Rendus, cxl. (1905) pp. 1715-17. 



t Bull. Soc. Entom. Ital., xxxvi. (1904) pp. 181-3. 



§ Proc. Asiatic Soc. Bengal, x. (1904) pp. 82-3. 



'|| Zool. Jahrb., xx. (1905) pp. 439-98 (2 pis. and 3 figs.). 



Oct. 18th, 1905 2 r 



