536 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



belt round the anterior portion. When the pupae were taken out of the 

 cocoons before emerging from the pupal skin they never showed spicules 

 in the anal tuft. Male imagines immediately crawled out of the cocoon 

 and assumed a position suitable for expanding the wings, but females 

 only crawled half out and then went through a curious series of con- 

 tortions of the abdomen, so that the anal tuft, opening and shutting 

 continually, described a succession of circles where the spicules were 

 thickest. The female moth, by thus collecting her own larval spicules, 

 materially adds to the protective qualities of the tuft of hair with which 

 she ultimately covers her eggs. 



Tenth Abdominal Segment of Beetle Larvae.* — P. Brass has made 

 a study of the tenth abdominal segment of beetle larvse— its differences 

 in different groups, its use as an auxiliary to locomotion, and its 

 manifold adaptations to the different conditions of larval life. As to 

 the origin of the " seventh foot," he finds that it is not a devagina- 

 tiou of a portion of the hind-gut, as some observers have stated, but is 

 a secondarily invaginated modified portion of the integument, which in 

 some forms' can be clearly recognized as belonging to a typical ab- 

 dominal segment. The stages of development in various types are 

 described. 



New Termitophilous Beetle from Formosa.!— Sanji Hozawa de- 

 scribes Ziaelas formosanus sp. n. from the nest of Odontotomies (Cyclo- 

 termes) formosanus. It appears to be closely related to Z. insolitus 

 Fairmaire, which Wasmann referred to his family Rhysopaussidas, a 

 remarkable series of termitophilous beetles. The new form was about 

 8 mm. in length, reddish-brown above, somewhat lighter below, and was 

 capable of but very sluggish movements. It showed some peculiarities 

 which may be associated with its life in the nest of the termite, as, for 

 instance, the elongated eyes and the degenerate hind wings. 



Irregular Cyclical Parthenogenesis in a Weevil. J — Guido Grandi 

 calls attention to what looks like cyclical parthenogenesis in Otiorhynchus 

 cribricollis which he studied both in captivity and in the field. He 

 never found a male, nor any trace of spermatozoa in the somewhat 

 reduced spermotheca of the females. The ovarioles showed abundant 

 ova at different stages. Parthenogenesis has been recorded in 0. turca 

 by Ssilantjew and in 0. ligustici by Wassiliew. 



Structure of Water-heetle.§ — II. S. Cheavin publishes a number of 

 excellent photographs illustrating the structure of TJ/jtiscus marginalis, 

 and gives an outline of the life-history and structure. The female lays 

 one egg at a time in incisions made by the ovipositor in the leaves and 

 stems of water-plants. The larvae emerge in about three weeks and 



* Zool. Jahrb. Abth. Syst., xxxvii. (1914) pp. 67-122 (4 pis. and 7 figs.), 

 t Annot. Zool. Japon, viii. (1914) pp. 483-8 (1 pi.). 

 X Boll. Lab. Zool. Agric. Portici, vii. (1913) pp. 17-18. 

 § Knowledge, xxxvii. (1914) pp. 222-6 (14 figs.). 



