338 M. Treviranus on the Organized Bodies in 



their filiform attachments like whorls on their peduncles. The 

 minute vesicles above mentioned can be regarded only as the 

 contents of the discs, part of which have burst. They lie be- 

 tween the discs, and seem to be the contents of those which have 

 emptied themselves. 



" In females of this species of cantharis, which I killed du- 

 ring copulation, a large quantity of clear fluid gushed out when 

 the abdomen was opened. This fluid coagulated into a gela- 

 tinous mass in water. From the vagina I obtained a whitish 

 secretion, which contained the same vesicles found in the vicinity 

 of the discs in the seminal fluid of the male, but no discs. On 

 mixing this secretion with water, weak currents were observed, 

 which appeared to be independent of any mechanical cause. 



" I have found much larger discs, and bearing a closer resem- 

 blance to those observed in snails, about the end of May, in the 

 secretion of the seminal vessels of the May beetle, although not 

 caught during the time of pairing. Some of them were sur- 

 rounded by a small annulus like those of the snail, and full of 

 dark molecules in the anterior. Some of them had a vesicular 

 nucleus in the centre. Between them lay scattered particles, 

 which appeared to be fragments of the lining membrane of the 

 secreting vessels, and from which short straight, filaments pro- 

 jected. 



" I also found, on the 9th of August, in the round testicle of 

 the Papilio Brassicae, which is covered with a brown pellicle, tufts 

 of hair-like filaments, and discs exactly resembling those ob- 

 served in the secretion of the testicle in snails. The filaments, 

 however, were finer, and the discs somewhat smaller than those 

 of the latter. No trace of motion could be seen in them. The 

 testicle of a Papilio lo, which I opened on the 6th of August, 

 contained a greyish secretion, in which I found discs, and vesi- 

 cles exhibiting a slow motion like the molecules of Brown. Mos 

 of the discs had discharged their contents, and contained only a 

 small nucleus, which in many of them appeared like a mere 

 point. The vesicles also looked only like dark points when mag- 

 nified three hundred times. 



" If these observations of mine be compared with the descrip- 

 tion and plates which Von Gleichen, the most accurate of modern 

 observers in this department, has given of the organized parts of 



