452 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



" It was simply a caecal-like shell with slight dorsal flexure, and minutely 

 granulated without lines of growth." This primitive condition of the 

 embryo shell " is certainly a low character, and is correlated with many 

 low characters of the order." In early Cambrian forms a very close 

 resemblance is seen to the very early shell-stage in the modern Acmsea. 



Arthropoda. 



Guide to Crustacea, Arachnida, Onychophora, and Myriopoda of 

 the British Museum.*— W. T. Caiman deals with the Crustacea, A. S. 

 Hirst with the Arachnids and Myriopods, F. Jeffrey Bell with the Ony- 

 chophora and Pentastomida, in this lucid guide to the British Museum 

 collections. 



a. Insecta- 



Ants and Plants.f— K. Escherich discusses critically the inter- 

 relations of ants and plants. Ants wound the buds of foliage trees ; 

 they help the green flies (notably the root-aphides ; they cut off leaves ; 

 they do harm with their nests ; they drive off other insects from the 

 floral nectaries ; they sometimes destroy flowers ; and so on. In the case 

 of Gamponotus ligniperdus the tunnels weaken the tree, and Grematogaster 

 scutellaris injures the bark of the cork-oak. On the other hand, they 

 have a protective value, and they distribute certain seeds. 



Cave Beetles.! — &• Jeannel proposes a new classification of the 

 cavernicolous Silphidae, for he finds that the tribe Bathyscire is apparently 

 polyphyletic, and that the genus Bathyscia Schiodte must be broken up. 

 He proceeds to do this, establishing four groups— Euryscapiti, Gyno- 

 morphi, Brachyscapiti, Antroherpona— and leaving a number of un- 

 certain species. 



Larvae of Megatoma undata.§— A. Popovici-Baznosanu describes 

 the moult in these larva?, which devour the contents of the cells in the 

 nests of various wild bees. The cuticle is most delicate along the dorso- 

 median line, and in moulting the split occurs along this line of least 

 resistance. The number of moults is not always in relation to the growth 

 of the larva. It may moult several times when it is not feeding or 

 growing. The change of seta? on the surface seems to be a condition 

 of ecdysis. 



New Tipulidae.|j— Charles W. Johnson describes a number of new 

 or little known North American Tipulids, including Aeschnasoma river- 

 tonmsis g. etsp. n., an interesting form with antennas like those of Lon- 

 gurio, but with a venation and genitalia that will not permit of its being 

 placed in that genus nor in Tipula. 



Structure of Nucleus in Cells of Salivary Glands of Chironomus 

 Larvae. f— M. A. van Herwerden gives a fresh account of the structure 



* Guide to the Crustacea, Arachnida. Onychophora, and Myriopoda exhibited 

 in the Department of Zoology, British Museum (Natural History) (1910) 133 pp. 

 ('JO figs.). f Tharandt. Forstl. Jahrb., lx. (1909) pp. 66-9G (2 figs.). 



X Arch. Zool. Exp6r,j v. (1910) pp. 1-48 (23 figs). 

 § C.R. Soc. Biol. Paris, lxviii. (1910) pp. 628-30 (1 fig.). 

 || Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., xxxiv. (1909) pp. 115-33 (2 pis.). 

 Tf Anat. Anzeig., xxxvi. (1910) pp. 193-207 (1 pi.). 



