ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 695 



like hexagonal alveoli open to the surface. There is no evidence 

 that it is an odoriferous or luminiferous organ, and it is certainly not 

 stridulatory. 



Habits of Striped Meadow-Cricket.* — Joseph L. Hancock gives an 

 interesting account of the habits of Oecanthus fasciatus Fitch. The 

 protective resemblance is exquisite. The shrill notes are not unlike a 

 sparrow's heard at a distance, or the croaking of a frog. In courtship 

 the male uses his modified tegmina as an alluring instrument, and an 

 alluring gland in the centre of the metanotum of the thorax, from which 

 the female obtains a much appreciated " plasmatic drink." The structure 

 of this " loving cup " is described. There is also a singular eversible 

 sacculated structure on the dorsum of the abdomen between the third 

 and fourth tergites. possibly " repugnatorial." The oviposition is care- 

 fully described. 



Notes on Arboreal Insects.f — A. T. Gillanders has some interesting 

 notes on timber-beetles, e.g. species of Hylesinus, Hylastes, Phlmophorus 

 rhododactylus, Polygraphia pubescens, Trypodendron lineatum, Orchestes 

 fagi. He gives some fine photographs of their burrowing work. 



Injurious Insects in Ireland.! — G. H. Carpenter reports on a 

 number of injurious insects and other animals observed in Ireland in 

 1904. He deals with the gout-fly, the mangold-fly, the pea-beetle, the 

 celery-fly, the pear-midge, the willow-bud gall-midge {Khabdophaga 

 heterobia Loew), and other forms. The report also deals with the black- 

 currant mite (Eriophyes ribis), and a new Oribatid mite, Lohmannia 

 insignis, recently described by A. Berlese, and now recorded for the first 

 time from Britain. 



8. Arachnida. 



Geographical Distribution of Scorpions.§ — K. Kraepelin discusses 

 this subject. He gives a detailed account of the actual distribution of 

 the several families, and reviews the facts in relation to the six zoo- 

 geographical regions of "Wallace. One or two of his general conclusions 

 may be given. The scorpion fauna of today has probably arisen from 

 two stocks already distinct in the Silurian epoch, one of which gave rise 

 to recent Buthidae, and the other to the rest of the families of scorpions. 

 The chief types as they are represented by the present family charac- 

 teristics have lived for long periods all over the earth, and are all re- 

 presented even today in the Old and New Worlds. In the New AVorld the 

 older types of the Carboniferous race of scorpions (Chactidre, Vegovidae, 

 Bothriuridae, Diplocentridas) have been preserved (unequally) more 

 numerously than in the Old World, where their place is chiefly occupied 

 by the greatly developed Scorpionidas. The Buthida? stem, which 

 springs from the Silurian scorpions, has been developed almost equally 

 in both hemispheres ; in the Eastern as the sub-family Buthinae, and in 

 the long-separated continents of the Western hemisphere in the two 

 distinct sub-families Tityinaa and Centrurinae. 



* Amer. Nat , xxxix. (1905) pp. 1-11 (3 figs.). 



t Trans. Manchester Micr. Soc, 1904, pp. 58-66 (2 pis.). 



X Econ. Proc. Ii. Dublin Soc. i. (1905) pp. 281-305 (4 pis. and 6 figO 



§ Zool. Jahrb. Abt. Syst., xxii. (1905) pp. 321-64. 



