ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 405 



trachea?. The view that the photogenic process is an oxidation is borne 

 out by the structure of the photogenic organs. 



Life-history of Schlechtendalia chinensis.*— C. Sasaki has cleared 

 up most of the life-history of this Aphis, which produces galls in Japan 

 and China on Rhus semi-alata. The galls are used for dyeing and 

 tanning, and the powder of the dried galls was formerly employed by 

 Japanese women for blackening the teeth. Sasaki has succeeded in find- 

 ing the wingless mother insect (the fundatrix), which produces numerous 

 young ones parthenogenetically and viviparously. These produce galls of 

 various shapes, and after more viviparous wingless females have come and 

 gone, there are winged females wdiich lay eggs containing well-advanced 

 embryos that soon hatch out. No males have been met with. 



Degenerate Cockroach. f— F. II. Gravely describes Alluaiidella hima- 

 layensis sp. n., a new degenerate Umbia-like cockroach with very simple 

 venation. The only other species known is A. cavernicola from German 

 East Africa, and Gardax willeyi is a related form with similar simplicity 

 of venation. Only males of the three forms have been found. 



Mallophaga from Southern Birds. J — L. G. Neumann records from 

 albatroses of the Southern Ocean — Lipeurus hyalinus sp. n. and two 

 other species, and Taschenbergius brevis (Dufour). From Maccormick's 

 Skua, Megahstris maccormicJci, there was obtained Lipeurus concinnus 

 Kellogg and Chapman, not previously recorded from this bird nor in the 

 Antarctic. It was the only representative of the bird-lice actually found 

 in the Antarctic region, wdiere they seem to be exceedingly rare, but 

 another was seen alive on the Emperor Penguin. 



Larva of Mantispa.§ — R. T. Lewis contrasts the larva of Mantispa 

 (Neuroptera) with the young stages of Mantis (Orthoptera). The latter 

 are, in some cases at least, like miniatures of the adult except in the 

 absence of wings. But the larvae of Mantispa bear no resemblance to 

 the perfect insect and illustrate hyper-metamorphosis. The first larval 

 stage is described. 



Monograph on Embidse.||— H. A. Krauss deals with these somewhat 

 earwig-like insects, with two-jointed cerci instead of forceps. They 

 represent an old stock among the more primitive insects. The author 

 attaches them to the Orthoptera, but they are as independent an order as 

 earwigs or as termites. Four families and eleven genera are now recog- 

 nized. An account is given of the structure, habits, and distribution. 



Blattidae in Amber.H" — R. Shelford reports on R. Klebs's fine 

 collection of Blattidae in amber (Lower Oligocene). He deals with 

 twenty-four species in nine genera, but they present no details of 

 structure or form which can be regarded as peculiarly primitive and 

 archaic. A comparison of the amber-enclosed Blattidae with the paucity 

 of species occurring in Northern Europe at the present day is sufficiently 



* Festschrift Richard Hertwig, ii. (1910) pp. 241-52 (2 pis.), 

 t Records Indian Museum, v. (1910) pp. 307-1 L (1 pi. and 1 fig.). 

 X Rep. British Antarctic Exped., 1907-9, ii. (1911) pt. 3, pp. 19-22 (1 pi.). 

 § Journ. Quekett Micr. Club, xi. (1911) pp. 213-16. 

 || Zoologica, xxiii. (1911) Heft 60, pp. 1-78 (5 pis. and 7 figs.). 

 «f Journ. Linn. Soc. (Zool.) xxx. (1910) pp. 336-55 (2 pis.). 



