o 



02 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



tinctorise Wild and by Cynips pohjcera Giraud ; and also the galls 

 produced on Rhus semialata in China and Japan by Aphis chinensis Bell. 

 Notes on South American Termites and their Termitophilous 

 Associates.* — Dr. F. Silvestri communicates descriptive notes on a 

 large collection. The termitophilous forms include Acari, Diplopoda, 

 Thysanura, Hemiptera, Diptera, Hymenoptera, and Coleoptera, which 

 may be arranged according to habit in seven groups proposed by Janet 

 for myrmecophilous forms. The terms are repellent : — alloicoxeni, 

 parassitoxeni, phoresoxeni, cleptoxeni, syneccroxeni, synoicoxeni, and 

 euxeni. 



Colours of Butterflies not due to Diffraction.f — W. B. Croft 

 points out that while all scales have fine diffraction rulings, consisting 

 of rows of small points, it is a mistake to attribute the colours to diffrac- 

 tion, such as is familiar on the finely marked feathers of a humming- 

 bird. True diffraction colours are many-coloured iridescent lights vary- 

 ing as they glance off at different angles, but no illustration of this was 

 found in a collection of British Lepidoptera. No doubt some insects 

 show interference colours, but these seem usually to arise from the 

 2>henonienon caused by thin plates. 



Odoriferous Organ of the Male Hepialus hectus. % — Dr. P. 

 Deegener gives a careful account of this highly developed scent-gland 

 which lies in the swollen tibia. The excessive development of the tibia 

 has been associated with the great reduction of the tarsus, but it is 

 present in rudimentary form. Each glandular cell has two large nuclei 

 rich in chromatin. The secretion probably diffuses out in gaseous form 

 through the delicate walls of the scales which become tense and are 

 erected by internal pressure. It seems likely that the secretion was 

 originally a sexual excitant, and that it now helps the females to find 

 the males. We cannot do more than indicate the general scope of the 

 memoir. 



Dermaptera and the Microthorax.§ — Dr. K. W. Verhoeff proposes 

 a new and natural system of the Dermaptera, suggests a phylogenetic 

 scheme of the families, and describes twelve new genera. He also 

 devotes particular attention to the microthorax or neck-segment, which 

 he regards as a trace of Chilopod ancestry, more and more comjdetely 

 suppressed in Insecta. It is still well developed in Dermaptera, and 

 fairly distinct in the lower Orthoptera. In Neuroptera it is strongest 

 on the dorsal surface, in Hymenoptera and Coleoptera on the pleural 

 surfaces. 



Structure and Classification of Collembola. || — Carl Bonier has 

 investigated in considerable detail the antennal sense-organs of Collem- 

 bola. As in other Insects, these consist essentially of pore-canals in the 

 cuticle, the orifice being closed externally by a sensory appendage of 

 some kind. There is much variation as regards the number and cha- 

 racter of these sensory appendages, and the author has studied those 

 especially of " antennal organ iii." in a number of forms. In Collembola 



* Boll. Mus. Zool. Univ. Torino, xvii. No. 419 (1902) 29 pp. 



+ Nature, lxv. (1902) p. 198. 



t Zeitschr. f. wisa. Zool., lxxi. (1902) pp. 27G-93 (1 pi.). 



^ Zool. Anzeip;., xxv. (1902) pp. 181-20S. 



|[ Tom. cit., pp. 92-116 (18 figs.). 



