552 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



odours, perceived through the three distal segments of her antennae : — 

 (a) There is a scent deposited by her feet, forming an individual trail, 

 whereby she traces her own steps, discerned through her tenth seg- 

 ment, (b) There is an inherent and inherited odour, manifested over 

 her whole body, identical in quality for queens and workers of the 

 same lineage. It forms a means for the recognition of blood-relations, 

 and is discerned by contact of the eleventh segment, (c) There is a 

 nest-smell, consisting of the commingled odours of all animate members 

 of the colony, diffused by them in air or ether, constituting an aura 

 whereby they distinguish their nest from those of aliens. Jt is dis- 

 •cerned through the twelfth, the distal, segment. 



The behaviour of the ant is influenced by a sensory memory. With- 

 out experience or instruction, she capably constructs the dwellings of 

 her species and tends the young. Her criterion of a nest-aura is estab- 

 lished solely by association, and may be changed many times during her 

 life. Her care of the young is a reflex from the eighth and ninth seg- 

 ments of ber antennae, and she receives an immediate reward for her 

 labour in the sustenance thereby obtained. The gregarious habit of 

 the ant is the ennjoint result of the reflexes from the five distal seg- 

 ments of the antennae. 



Sense of Taste in an Ant.* — K. Oobelli has experimented with 

 specimens of Lasius emarginatus Oliv., and finds the sense of taste 

 slightly developed. The ants refused solutions of bisulphate of quinine 

 and sulphuric acid, whether by themselves or when mixed with equal 

 parts of honey. On the other hand, they partook indifferently of pure 

 lioney, and of honey mixed with equal parts of sulphate of magnesia, 

 tincture of gentian, quassia, salt, naphthaline, &c. &c. These substances 

 were refused by themselves when not disguised by honey. 



Morphology of Labial Parts in Hydrocoridse. f — N. Leon dis- 

 tinguishes two types of labium, one with three joints (e.g. Appasus), 

 the other with four joints, e.g. Halobates, and discusses the morpho- 

 logical significance of the parts. 



Life-History of Ulula hyalina Latreille.J — J' F. McClendon has 

 had an opportunity of observing the life-history of this interesting 

 member of the family Ascalaphidae. The eggs hatch after nine to ten 

 days ; the young larva remains quiet for a day or two, after which it 

 seeks the ground and behaves very much like an ant-lion. The larval 

 life lasts about 62 days, with two moults. There is a third moult 

 inside of the cocoon, when the larva changes to the pupa. When full 

 grown, the larva seeks some hidden place where it spins a web, covering 

 it with sand and other small objects. It then gets inside the web and 

 spins a cocoon during three successive nights. McClendon describes 

 the eggs which are fixed in tiers on a branch, the "repagula" (abortive 

 eggs placed in circles below the tiers of eggs), the larva, the pupa, and 

 the cocoon. In an interesting paragraph he compares the habits of 

 Ulula-l&rva, with those of the not very remotely related ant-lions 

 ( Myrmeleonidae). 



* Verb. Zool.-Bot. Ges. Wien, Hi. (1902) pp. 254-7. 



t Jassy, 1901, 13 pp. and 4 figs, 



J Amur. Nat., xxxvi. (1902) pp. 421-9 (15 figs.). 



