186 PERIPATUS, MYRIAPODS, AND INSECTS. 



species ; there is never a true royal pair. He says that during a 

 period of six years he has examined thousands of nests without 

 ever finding such a pair. In place thereof there are a consider- 

 able number of complementary queens — that is, females which 

 have not gone through the full development to perfect insects, but 

 have been arrested in various stages of development. Nos. 4 and 

 5, Fig. 15, show two of these abnormal royalties. No. 4 is com- 

 paratively juvenile in form, while No. 5 is an individual that has 

 been substituted in an orphaned nest, and is nearer to the natural 

 condition of perfect development. We have no information as to 

 whether any development goes on in these individuals after the 

 state of royalty is assumed, or whether the difference between 

 these neoteinic queens is due to the state of development they 

 may happen to be in when adopted as royalties. Kings are not 

 usually present in these Sicilian nests. 



In reference to the above volume, we state with confidence 

 that each author has carried out his share of the work in a very 

 thorough and masterly manner. The remainder of the Insects 

 will be completed in Vol. VI. The illustrations, as will be seen 

 from those kindly lent to us by the publishers, are first-class, as are 

 also the letter-press and general get-up of the work. Our best 

 thanks are due to Messrs. Macmillan and Co. for the use of the 

 blocks and for permission to make the above extracts. 



Proteids of Wheat. — Miss M. O'Brien has an exhaustive 

 paper in the Annals of Botany (Vol. IX., 1895, p. 171) on the 

 distribution of the functions of the aleurone grains in wheat. She 

 supports the theory of Weyl that glutin is formed by the action of 

 a ferment on the myosin, which is the chief proteid of wheat. 

 The aleurone-grains do not, in the GraminecB, present that degree 

 of differentiation in which the mineral matters are sharply sepa- 

 rated off as a globoid from the proteid constituents of the grain, 

 only the membrane is here differentiated. The theoretical view is 

 advocated of there being in flour one mother-substance which 

 readily undergoes hydration, giving rise to gluten. — Pharm. Journ. 



