48 Bibliographical Notices. 



EXPLANATION OF PLATE IV. 



Fig. 1 . Eupyrgus hispidus : a, natural size ; b, X 66, 



Fig. 2. Eupyrgus scaber, Lutken : a ^ b, X 66. 



Fig. 3. Astropecten Lutkeni : a, twice the natural size ; b 8c c, magnified 



portions of the upper and lower surface of a ray. 

 Fig. 4. Astrogonium aculeatum : a, upper, and &, lower side, twice the 



natural size. 

 Fig. 5. Astrogonium boreale : a, upper, and 6, lower side, magnified twice. 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 



On a True Parthenogenesis in Moths and Bees ; a Contribution to 

 the History of Reproduction in Animals. By C. T. E. Von 

 SiEBOLD. Translated by W. S. Dallas. 8vo. London : Van 

 Voorst, 1857. 



In this remarkable little work, the learned Professor of Zoology 

 at Munich has called the attention of physiologists to a series of 

 phsenomena which threaten to produce a considerable disturbance, 

 at all events for a time, in the generally received opinions regarding 

 the laws of generation. It is usually supposed that in order to the 

 production of fertile eggs the concourse of male and female elements 

 is necessary, but it appears from the observations of Von Siebold, 

 as here recorded, that in some cases the eggs of virgin female insects 

 are capable of giving birth to a progeny which passes through all its 

 stages of development in the same way as if it had been produced 

 from fecundated eggs. To this pheenomenon, occurring in some 

 species as a regular condition of specific existence, in others under 

 exceptional and at present inexplicable circumstances, our author 

 gives the name of Parthenogenesis, originally made use of by Pro- 

 fessor Owen to indicate the alternation of generations. 



Although numerous instances of a lucina sine concubitu in insects 

 and spiders had already been described by different authors, and some 

 curious questions were started by the constant occurrence of females 

 only in certain Crustacea, all these cases were looked upon by phy- 

 siologists in general as of a very doubtful nature, and no one certainly 

 anticipated that such apparently exceptional phsenomena would have 

 led to the development of a theory of the constitution of the so- 

 cieties of social insects, such as is given by Von Siebold in the work 

 before us. In fact, most of the recorded cases of the production of 

 fertile eggs by virgin moths are so destitute of all those elements of 

 exactitude which alone could render them conclusive, that our author, 

 after a careful critical examination, rejects them all as untenable, at 

 all events on the evidence furnished by their describers. The views 

 put forward by Von Siebold himself are, however, so heterodox, 

 according to the present physiological faith, that we have no doubt 

 they will be received with considerable incredulity by many, and al- 

 though we must confess that we cannot see any flaw in the evidence, 

 one distinguished authority at least has already stated that he con- 



