4o8 NATURAL SCIENCE. June, 



Sandstone ; the vivifying influence of the water hatches out the 

 spawn, and hence the appearance of fish. The paragraph is gravely 

 worded, and there is not the least indication that it is "writ 

 sarcastic." 



In the Trans. Entom. Soc. Loud., 1893, PP- i9i~9> Dr. D. Sharp 

 describes the very remarkable eggs of a Reduviid bug from the 

 Amazon valley. The eggs were closely arranged on a leaf, and a 

 wasp, supposed to have been killed by the mother bug to furnish food 

 for her young, was entangled in the mass by the wings. Each egg 

 is cylindrical, the upper part containing a conical, crown-shaped 

 structure, composed of a system of network and tubes believed to 

 afford entrance to spermatozoa. This cone is pushed upwards by the 

 young bug in emerging, and the upper part of the egg-capsule, which 

 has kept it in place, is ruptured. Numerous parasitic Hymenoptera 

 were bred from the two outer rows of eggs, the cones of* which had 

 not been lifted. It seems that the habit of laying the eggs in a 

 serried mass secures the safety of the majority within by the sacrifice 

 of these outermost rows, beyond which the ovipositor of the 

 ichneumon-fly cannot penetrate. 



An interesting paper on the Pupae of Moths,by Dr.T. A, Chapman, 

 appears in the latest number of the Trans. Entom. Soc. Lond. (1893, 

 pp. 97-119). He distinguishes two principal types : — the obtected 

 pupa, which has a hard, even surface, with the skin of the appen- 

 dages closely attached to that of the body, and with the fifth and 

 sixth abdominal segments alone capable of movement ; and the 

 incomplete pupa in which the appendages are more or less free, 

 maxillary palpi are present, and three, four, or five abdominal 

 segments can be moved. The obtected pupa, also, has no power of 

 progression, but the incomplete generally emerges from its cocoon 

 before transformation into the moth. The division of the moths by 

 means of these pupal characters roughly corresponds with the old 

 division into Macro- and Micro-lepidoptera, but the Pyraloids, having 

 obtected pupae, are classed with the higher moths, while the Zygae- 

 nidae, Sesiidae, Cossidae, Hepialidae, and Limacodidae are placed with 

 the Tineids, Tortricids, and Micropterygids. Most of these changes 

 have been suggested by naturalists working mainly by the neuration 

 of the wings ; the confirmation afforded by this distinct line of 

 research will hasten the general acceptance of the new views. 



At the meeting of the Entomological Society of London on 

 March 8, Dr. Sharp read a paper on Stridulating Ants. He said that 

 examination revealed the existence in ants of the most perfect stridu- 

 lating or sound-producing organs yet discovered in insects. We have 

 only received the abstract of this paper, and must wait fuller details 

 before commenting on it. 



