300 SUMMAKY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



egg of the insect takes the place of a seed within the ovary ; it develops 

 slowly and digests the albumen ; there is parasitic castration. The 

 albumen is formed parthenogenetically, the egg of the Blastophaga 

 having the same stimulating effect as the pollen, and not only does it 

 provoke the internal development of albumen, but it induces an, external 

 increase of the ovule. 



Genital Appendages of Diptera.* — AV. Wesche gives a detailed 

 account of the genital appendages in representative Diptera, and comes 

 to the conclusion that the external appendages of both extremities in 

 Insecta are derived from two organs of the character of maxillas, and 

 that all the variations of the parts are adaptations of these organs. 



The male genital appendages and the mouth-armature are on the 

 same general plan, of a central perforated organ surrounded by aculeate 

 and sensory (or possibly sensory) appendages. They coincide in many 

 details of structure and arrangement. The male and female genital 

 appendages are homologous. The male armature, the ovipositor, and 

 the mouth-parts have a central mechanism (double apodemes, apodeme 

 of ovipositor, fulcrum or submentum) which guides or governs the 

 whole, or traces or remains of such a part. 



We do not know why the author is not satisfied with the general 

 conclusion that the external genital appendages have an appendicular, 

 i.e., limb-like, nature, and are therefore serially homologous with oral 

 appendages, or why he weakens his case by dragging in the intimate 

 connection known to exist between the male genitalia and the throat, 

 voice, and the hairy appendages of the mouth in the Mammalia. 



Philippine CulicidaB.f — C. S. Banks gives an account of eighty-three 

 species, sub-species, and varieties, including seven new species or 

 varieties. These represent thirty genera in six sub-families. Of par- 

 ticular interest is the new sub-species, Stpgomyia fasciata persistajis, 

 which differs from S.fasciata, Fabr. in the ornamentation of the meso- 

 thorax. The significance of the distinction, in view of the fact that 

 S.fasciata, Fabr. is not certainly known in the islands, will be very great 

 if it can be shown that the new sub-species is unable to convey the germs 

 of yellow fever. The study of a series of bred specimens of S. scutellaris 

 samarensis, Ludl., which exhibits many variations, has suggested a close 

 relationship between tS. scutellaris Walk, and >S. fasciata Fabr., and 

 that their true zoogeographical boundary line lies in the vicinity of the 

 Phihppines. A fuller discussion of this point is reserved for a future 

 paper. 



Notes on African (Estridse.J — K. Griinberg describes a new genus, 

 Tachincestrus, with a single species, T.fenestratus, from Sierra Leone. 

 Only the imago is known ; it may possibly belong to Brauer's larva, 

 Derinat(£strus streps iceront is. It is to be regarded as a synthetic type of 

 the Tachinidee, Muscidae, and OEstridfe. From the skin of an African 

 elephant is described a larva which forms the type of another genus, 



* Trans. Linn. Soc. (Zool.), ix. (1906) pp. 339-86 (8 pis.), 

 t Philippine Journ. Sci., i. (1906) pp. 977 -1005. 



i SB. Ges. Nat. Freunde, Berlin, 1906, pp. 37-49 (7 figs.). See also Centralbl. 

 Bakt. Parasitenk. Ref., xxxviii. Nos. 21-3 (1906) p. 704. 



