26 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 



question of flies as carriers of infection. The latest one 

 published, dated November 1914, contains three papers by 

 various experts. These are on (i) the hibernation of House- 

 flies, a subject about which little is really definitely known ; 

 (2) the destruction of flies by means of bacterial cultures ; 

 and (3) the supposed relationship of Einpusa innsoB, a 

 parasitic fungus very fatal to flies in the autumn, with the 

 species of mould known as M2icor raceniosiis. On the first 

 of these points, viz. whether the common House-fly actually 

 hibernates in sufficient numbers to justify the consideration 

 of this phenomenon as important from an economic point 

 of view, it was found that the results afforded no support 

 to the belief that the insect hibernates in this country in the 

 adult state. This is in direct opposition to the opinion of 

 many equally competent authorities, and the problem as to 

 the manner in which the various generations of flies in any 

 particular summer are linked up during the winter season 

 with those of the following summer is thus still unsolved. 

 How strange it is, and how often it happens, that apparently 

 simple questions such as this one, which concerns one of our 

 most familiar insects (if not the most familar), continue to 

 baffle the skill of our scientific investigators! In this 

 particular case, however, we do not believe the point will 

 long remain undecided. Probably the responsibility for our 

 ignorance on the subject lies in the proverbial contempt 

 induced by the insect's too familiar presence in our homes. 

 Had we fully realised in the past the role played by Musca 

 domestica in the spread of disease, this puzzle would have 

 been solved long ago. 



A further instalment (the 37th of the series) of Professor 

 M'Intosh's valuable " Notes from the Gatty Marine Labora- 

 tory," St Andrews,^ affords a good deal of information 

 regarding the structure, distribution, and affinities of many 

 species of British marine worms. The article is divided into 

 six sections, two of which are of special interest. The first of 

 these deals with the family Terebellida^, 25 species of 

 which are described in detail, and their distribution indicated. 

 The other is devoted to an account of the occurrence of 



1 Ami. and Mag. Nat. Hist., January 191 5, pp. 1-38, plates i.-iii, 



