1898] NOTES AND COMMENTS 7 



" It is obvious that complete success in carrying out the above 

 scheme will depend on the willingness of entomologists and museums 

 to send specimens of described species which are not available in 

 London, and the authorities of the British Museum (Natural History) 

 hope that as much help in this way, as possible, may be given when 

 application is made for the loan of specimens, which, when examined 

 and figured, will be carefully packed and returned, the Museum pay- 

 ing the carriage going and coming." 



(Signed) " W. H. Flower, Director." 



The chief points to be noted in the above scheme are the 

 publication of both text and plates in octavo, a much more handy 

 form than quarto ; the promise to figure unligured forms, a 

 promise of inestimable value ; and the inclusion of a proper index 

 in each volume. We trust the bait held out to foreigners, the 

 figuring of their unfigured species, will induce those who wish to 

 further the science of entomology to heap coals of fire on an institu- 

 tion which cannot itself (and in our opinion quite properly cannot) 

 allow types to leave its walls. 



A Parasite on Cockroach Eggs 



Mr E. Bordage, director of the Natural History Museum of the island 

 of Eeunion, has been able to throw some light on the life-history of 

 the obscure hymenopterous genus Evania {C. R. Acad. Sci., 1896). 

 The insects of this genus were known to pass the larval stage para- 

 sitically at the expense of cockroaches. By breeding a specimen of 

 E. desjardinsli from a cockroach's egg-capsule, Mr Bordage has con- 

 firmed the opinion that the evaniid grub feeds on the eggs, and not 

 in the body of its host. He has observed a female Evania pursuing 

 a female Periplaneta americana in the act of extruding her egg-cap- 

 sule. As this Evania is presumably a Mascarene insect, while the 

 cockroach is an introduced American species, it appears that the 

 parasitic grub can be reared in any blattid egg-capsule which affords 

 it enough food and room, and that each species of Evania is not con- 

 fined to a particular cockroach as its host. 



Leg-casting among Stick-insects 



Some interesting observations on the limb-casting of two species of 

 Stick-insect (Phasmidae) are also due to Mr Bordage (C. E. Acad, 

 Sci., 1897). These insects occasionally threw ofi* a leg that had 

 been seized or bitten by an ant, or held or irritated by the experi- 

 menter. It was found that larvae parted with their limbs much 

 more readily than adults. The insects have the power of replacing 

 the lost leg, but, as might be expected, the newly-formed limb is 

 shorter than its fellow which has not been thrown off. An interest- 

 ing point is, that the foot of a regenerated leg has only four tarsal 



