180 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



features of the locality are clearly presented, and the relation of the 

 different forms described to their natural surroundings and to other 

 species formed an important part of the investigation. While, from the 

 nature of the case, an abstract is impossible, attention should be called 

 to the report as the kind of work so much needed at present. 



Hindering Pupation.* — J. Dewitz finds that maggots of flies ready 

 to pupate may be inhibited when there is lack of air (in a securely closed 

 glass vessel) ; some pupate immediately, but others do not. After four- 

 teen days the maggots which had not pupated but had remained sluggish, 

 were still alive. On the entrance of air they recovered activity and 

 began to pupate. Similar experiments were made with the larvae of 

 Lucilia csesar and Pieris brnssicse. The Ichneumon-larvae (Microgaster 

 glomeratus) in the caterpillars were hindered from pupating by an atmo- 

 sphere saturated with moisture. 



Coloration of British. Beetles. f — Horace St. John K. Donisthorpe 

 has gone through a collection of Coleoptera with a view to the discovery 

 of cases of protective coloration, mimicry, and so on. Few of the cases 

 adduced are convincing, and many are qualified with a " probably " or 

 " perhaps." 



Sexual Dimorphism in Buprestis sanguinea. J — G. C. Champion 

 studied this species in Aragon, and found very marked dissimilarity in 

 the colours of the two sexes. It seems almost certain that the males 

 correspond to B. margaripicta of Marseul, and the females to B. san- 

 guined Fabr. = levaillanti Lucas. This is the first record of sexual 

 dimorphism in Buprestid beetles. 



Life-history of Tephroclystia virgaureata.§ — Eudolf Klos notes the 

 interesting discovery that in this butterfly there are spring and summer 

 broods of caterpillars, feeding on entirely different plants. At the end 

 of June and beginning of July he took caterpillars which seemed to 

 him to generally resemble those of this species, on hawthorn and Primus 

 spinosa. To his astonishment the butterflies — which proved to be 

 T. virgaureata- emerged at the end of July and throughout August, 

 proving that the caterpillars were a second brood. The imagines were 

 smaller than the spring form, and differed in colour. The spring cater- 

 pillars fed only on species of Solidago and Senecio, and the spring broods 

 of butterflies emerge at the end of March or in April. 



Stigmata of Sericaria mori.|| — Dr. L. Petri give3 an intimate de- 

 scription of the tracheal vestibule, the chitinous armature, and the three 

 muscles of a stigma, and shows how well adapted the mechanism is. 



Life-history of Hive Bse.f — Ferd. Dickel describes in deUil a 

 number of experiments which he has made in attempting to decide the 

 question whether it is true that the fertilised queen can " voluntarily *' 

 withold spermatozoa from certain eggs, and that such eggs give rise to 

 the drones, which have thus a " mother, but no father." He grauts that 



* Arch. Entwickmcch., xi. (1901) pp. 690-9 (1 fig.). See Zool. Centralbl., viii. 

 (1901) pp. 863-4. t Trans. Entomol. Soc. London, 1901, pp. 345-77. 



t Tom. cit., pp. 379-84 (1 pi). 



§ Verhandl. k. k. Zool.-bot. Gesell. Wien, li. (1901) p. 785. 

 || Bull. Soc. Entom. Ital., xxxiii. (1901) pp. 8J-101 (5 fig*, and 1 pi.). 

 If Zool. Anzeig., xxv. (1901) pp. 39-56. 



