ol SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



millipede. It has a pungent odour and is certainly poisonous. It is 

 not an albuminoid and it is markedly volatile. 



A subsequent paper by Behal and Phisalix * details the chemical 

 evidence which has led these authors to the conclusion that the poison 

 includes a quinone, and very probably the ordinary quinone. They 

 point out that although the production of analogous substances by other 

 invertebrate animals is unknown, Beyerinck has shown that the sapro- 

 phytic Streptothrix chromogenes found about the roots of various trees 

 produces quinone which has an important role in helping to form humus. 

 It is interesting therefore to recall that lulus feeds on vegetable debris. 

 The penetrating odour of the quinone is probably protective to the 

 . millipede. 



Poison of Scolopendra morsitans.f — Prof. S. Jourdain recalls his 

 observations of thirty years ago, in which he showed that the poison of 

 this centipede is fatal to small mammals and birds, but, as he points out;, 

 this is a very different affair from that which Phisalix has discovered. 



5- Arachnida. 



Koenenia mirabilis in Texas."]: — -Prof. "W. M. Wheeler announces 

 this very interesting discovery. The remarkable animal which he de- 

 scribes is a primitive synthetic form, found by Grassi in Sicily, and 

 established by him as a type of the distinct arachnid order of Micro- 

 thelyphonida. In Europe it was found associated with Iapyx, Cam- 

 podea, Pauropus, and Scolopendrella ; in Texas it was associated with 

 the same series, excepting Pauropus; it perhaps feeds on the eggs of 

 Campodea or Iapyx. It is probably a relict of an ancient widely dis- 

 tributed fauna, analogous to Projapyx stylifer from Liberia and the 

 Argentine Republic. 



Accessory Chromosome in Sperm-cells of Spider.§ — Miss L. B. 

 Wallace notes that the " chromosome nucleolus " or " accessory chromo- 

 some," known to occur in the testicular cells of various insects, is to be 

 seen in the late spermatogonia and in the prophase of the first spermato- 

 cyte in an Agalenid spider. 



Is there Polymorphism and Parthenogenesis in Gamasidse ? || — 

 Dr. Anna Foa has investigated these two questions. There is no poly- 

 morphism, though there is admittedly specific variability. The forms 

 which Berlese regarded as within the species Gamasus coleoptratorum 

 include two other distinct species — G. pusillus Berl. and G. crassus 

 Kr. The same is true of the alleged polymorphism of Holostaspis. 

 Nor is there any definite evidence of parthenogenesis. At the proper 

 seasons the males of all the species are always discoverable. 



€. Crustacea. 



Patagonian Cladocera.1T — Sven Ekman describes a collection of 

 Cladocera obtained in ponds, &c. in Patagonia. The collection includes 

 many new species. In collections made from the end of February 



* Comptes Rendus, cxxxi. (1900) pp. 1004-7. f Tom. cit., pp. 1007-8. 



X Amer. Nat., xxxiv. (l'.)OO) pp. 837-50 (4 figs.). 

 § Anat. Anzeig., xviii. (1900) pp. 327-8 (5 figs.). 



Bull. Soc. Entomol. Ital., xxxii. (1900) pp. 121-49 (13 figs.). 



■j Zool. Jahrb. Abt. Syst.), xiv. (1900) pp. C2-84 (2 pis.). 



