274 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



in the same manner as it affects the wings. He believes that thie> 

 theory also explains the fact that the wings of the new generation 

 showed in some cases more deviation from type than those of the parents. 

 Further, the author finds that in nearly all species of Vanessa the same 

 aberrations which can be produced hy cold, can also be produced by a. 

 high temperature (38° to 40° C.) ; this he regards as clear proof that 

 variations in temperature have no direct or specific action, but only an 

 indirect effect. 



Stridulating Organs in Rhynchota.* — Anton Handlirsch criticises 

 Swinton's (1877) description of the stridulating organs of Naucoris cimi- 

 coides. Swinton figured and described two " limae " on the anterior 

 surface of the mesothorax, but the author finds in this position nothing 

 but grooves clothed with hair. He also sharply criticises other similar 

 observations of Swinton's, whom he characterises as a phantasievolle 

 Euglander, but some other authors fare little better at his hands. He 

 himself finds a stridulating organ in Naucoris on the upper surface of the 

 abdomen in the male, on the posterior border of segment-lines 5 and 6, 

 in the form of deep notches, which overlie specialised areas on tergites 

 6 and 7. Segments 6 and 7 are very freely movable, and by their move- 

 ments probably produce the sounds. These stridulating organs are 

 entirely absent in the female, a fact regarded by the author as of con- 

 siderable importance. 



Collembola from Caves.f — Prof. K. Absolon finds that the post- 

 antennal organ can be studied in subterranean Collembola much better 

 than in surface forms, and that the evidence clearly points to its being 

 an olfactory organ. He describes various new species, notably Aphorura 

 gigantea sp. n., a relatively very large form in which the postantennal 

 organ bears '28-32 tubercles of very characteristic shape. 



New Kerguelen Insect.! — Dr. Giinther Enderlein describes as Mero- 

 pathos chuni g. et sp. n., a member of the Helephorinae taken by Prof 

 Chun's Antarctic expedition. Closely related to Ochthebius, the genus 

 differs in the 8-jointed antennas (segments 3 and 4 being fused), and the 

 4-jointed tarsus (segments 1 and 2 being fused). The antenna? have a 

 remarkable appearance, for the second segment is globose and furnished 

 with two hairs. The elytra are ornamented with nine longitudinal rows 

 of dots. 



Diet of Hydrophilus piceus.§ — Dr. C. Rengel finds that in the 

 neighbourhood of Berlin, whatever it may be elsewhere, the imago of 

 this aquatic beetle is in natural conditions wholly vegetarian. About 

 100 alimentary tracts were examined, without showing any animal food. 

 The carnivorous habit with which Hydrophilus has often been credited, 

 is an artificial result of life in aquaria. 



/3. Myriop oda 



Cell-division in Myriopoda.|| — Fr. Meves and K. v. Korff have studied 

 the division of the spermatocytes of the first order in Lithobius forjicatus, 



• Verh. Zool.-bot. Ges. Wien, 1. 1900 (1901) pp. 555-60 (7 figs.). 



t Zool. Anzeig., xxiv. (1901) pp. 82-90 (10 figs.). 



j Tom. cit., pp. 121-4 (6 figs.). 



§ Biol. Centralbl., xxi. (1901) pp. 173-82. 



II Arch. Mikr. Anat, lvii. (1901) pp. 481-6 (1 pi. and 5 figa). 



