748 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



Moulting in Silkworms.* — E. Verson returns to a study of the 

 exuvial glands of the silkworm, which he described in 1889, and adds in 

 detail to his previous account. He devotes much attention to the 

 nucleus which seems to play a chief part in the secretory process. Very 

 remarkable and interesting is what Verson calls the "flow" and ,- ebb" 

 of the glands (especially in the posterior segments) before and after each 

 moult. 



New Stag-beetles. f — Arthur M. Lea discusses the genus Lissotes, 

 stag-beetles almost confined to Tasmania, and describes a number of new 

 species. His collection included an hermaphrodite, L. punctatus, having 

 the left side male and the right female, and a specimen of L. curvicornis 

 with seven legs, the extra one jutting out from the left front coxa. 



Alimentary Canal of Dytiscus.J — H. Rungius has made an elaborate 

 study of the alimentary tract both in the larval and adult water-beetle. 

 He describes the macroscopic features of the various parts, the minute 

 structure of the wall, e.g. the intima, epithelium, basal membrane, and 

 muscularis of the fore-gut, the epithelium, crypts, supporting lamella, and 

 muscularis of the mid-gut, and so on. 



Large Egg Laid by a Beetle.§ — F. H. Gravely reports that a 

 Buprestid beetle, Sternocera dasypleura Koll., laid an egg 8 ■ 5 mm. long 

 by 5" 5 mm. broad, the beetle itself being 43 mm. by 16 '5 mm. The 

 superficial covering of this large egg was somewhat leathery and whitish. 



Fluorescence in Luminous Insects. |j — R. Dubois points out that he 

 discovered animal fluorescence in 1909, having demonstrated it not 

 only in Lampyrids and luminous Elaterids, but in some animals which 

 are not luminescent. In luminous insects the fluorescence is accessory 

 and an embellishment. The author refers to recent reports on animal 

 fluorescence by McDermott % and by Ives and Coblentz.** 



Gametogenesis of Gall-fly. ft — L. Doncaster continues his study of 

 the gametogenesis of Neuroterus lenticularis. There are two kinds of 

 parthenogenetic females in the spring generation, which lay eggs 

 differing in their behaviour as regards maturation. In the eggs laid by 

 the one class there is no maturation division, and the early segmentation 

 divisions show the diploid number (20) of chromosomes. No polar 

 chromosomes are ever found. In the eggs laid by the second class 

 of female, the nucleus divides at the surface of the egg, forming an 

 irregular outer group of chromosomes (first polar nucleus) and an inner 

 group of parallel rod-like chromosomes. The latter divide immediately, 

 apparently transversely, into an inner group which forms the egg-nucleus, 

 and an outer or second polar group. The first polar group may divide 



* Zeitschr. wiss. Zool., xcvi. (1911) pp. 457-80 (2 pis.). 



t Proc. R. Soc. Tasmania (1910) pp. 346-66 (2 pis.). 



X Zeitschr. wiss. Zool., xcviii. (1911) pp. 179-287 (74 figs.). 



§ Records Indian Mus., vi. (1911) pp. 45-6. 

 || Comptes Rendus, cliii. (1911) pp. 208-10. 



^ Journ. Amer. Cherh. Soc, xxxiii. (March, 1911). 

 ** Bull. Bureau of Standards, Washington, vi. (1910) pp. 321-36. 

 ft Proc. Roy. Soc, Series B, lxxxiii. pp. 476-89 (1 pi.). 



