228 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



to students of morphology. Among physiological papers, 

 J. H. Bodine (Journ. Exp. ZooL, 35, 47-55) has studied the 

 effect of light on CO2 using certain Orthoptera in the experi- 

 ments. Loeb considers that the primary effect of light is to 

 cause an alteration in the tension of muscles. Bodine's ex- 

 periments indicate that the effect of light on the eyes, in 

 changing the muscle tension, is associated with a decrease in 

 the rate of the COg output of the organism. T. J. Headlee 

 {Journ. Econ. Entom., 14, 264-8) has observed the responses 

 of Bruchus obtedus to varying percentages of atmospheric 

 moisture. The air was led through H2SO4 to free it of mois- 

 ture, and passed into a chamber which was maintained at 

 26-6° C. where the air was conducted through saturated solu- 

 tions of various salts, which gave up to it the required 

 moisture. In air containing 7-1 per cent, or less moisture 

 few or no beetles attained maturity. If it contained 25-9 per 

 cent, comparatively few matured, while between 89-7 and 100 

 per cent, growths of fungi on the food inhibited the emergence 

 of the beetles. The optimum atmospheric moisture was found 

 to lie between 80 and 89 per cent. Bouvier's Psychic Life of 

 Insects, translated by L. O. Howard, has lately appeared and 

 is of general biological interest. Although essentially ele- 

 mentary in its treatment of the subject, it co-ordinates a large 

 number of scattered observations drawn very largely from 

 recent work. 



Psocoptera. — G. Enderlein {Ent. Month. Mag., May 1922) 

 has published the description of a new genus and species of 

 scaly-winged Psocids, specimens of which came from Crow- 

 borough, Sussex. The insect is designated Pteroxaniuni 

 squamosum and belongs to a subfamily only previously known 

 from New Guinea and Ceylon. The occurrence of a repre- 

 sentative in Europe is, therefore, very remarkable, and suggests 

 the possibility that it is not indigenous but has been imported 

 by some means or other. 



Anopleura. — All students of this group will be interested 

 in the very thorough anatomical and biological account of 

 Hcematopinus suis given by L. Florence (Mem. 51, Cornell 

 Univ. Agr. Exp. Sta.). The general similarity of structure in 

 the Anopleura and Mallophaga is borne out in this work, which 

 thus affords support to the conclusions of Mjoberg and of 

 Harrison. The second part of G. F. Ferris's contributions 

 towards a monograph of the sucking lice has recently appeared 

 [Stanford Univ. Ser. Biol., 2, (2)] and deals with the genus 

 Hoplopleura. Nuttall and Keilin {Parasitology, 13, 184-92) 

 have made a careful study of the nephrocytes of Pediculus. 

 The excretory function of these cells is demonstrated by the 

 fact that granules of ammonia-carmine are taken up by them 



