ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 49 



storing large quantities of liquid food in the crop. In L. unicolor, 

 Trhich has not this habit, the proventriculus is much smaller, its valves 

 are proportionally shorter, and the layer of musculature is much thinner. 

 The venation of the fore-wing in the male is unlike that of any known 

 ant. Another peculiarity is the absence of a queen or female caste in 

 any of the known species. The nests are in the ground or in great 

 rotten logs, but the large size of the nests, and the very slender and frail 

 stature of the ants, suggest that the insects take possession of cavities 

 made and abandoned by lizards or small marsupials. When walking or 

 running they carry the gaster bent up at right angles to the long thorax, 

 hence the name " motor-car ants." They forage singly, and are highly 

 carnivorous, sucking the juices of their victims, which are usually 

 insects. Except in L. loiicolor, all colonies showed a certain percentage 

 of " repletes " with the gaster distended with fluid ; they are able to run 

 about, but they devote themselves very sedulously to the larvae or pupae. 

 The larvae are very peculiar, with vestigial mandibles ; they imbibe liquid 

 food. The adults have a rancid-butter odour. The probability is that 

 one or more fertile workers in each nest supply the eggs. J. A. T. 



Myrmecophily in Uncaria. — E. de Wildeman {C. R. Soc. Biol. 

 1919, 82, 1076-8). In a species of this Rubiaceous genus the lower 

 internodes of the lateral branches show a hollow swelling tenanted by 

 ants. The cavity is continued at its base into a cavity of the adjacent 

 internode of the main stem. There are numerous regularly arranged 

 rounded apertures leading into the myrmecodomatia. It is suggested 

 that the frequency of myrmecodomatia in plants growing in marshy 

 places or by the sides of rivers has to do with the unsuitability of the 

 soil for underground nests. J. A. T. 



Immunity of Caterpillars of Galleria melonella.— S. Metal- 

 NIKOFF (C. R. Soc. Biol, 1920, 83, 119-21). These beehive cater- 

 pillars were injected with various pathogenic microbes fatal to higher 

 animals, but seemed quite refractory. This applies to microbes like 

 those of tetanus, tubercle, diphtheria, plague, and yet the caterpillars are 

 very susceptible to saprophytic and slightly pathogenic microbes. 



J.A. T. 



Adjustments of Lymantria dispar. — Arnold Victet {MT.Schiveiz. 

 Entomol. Ges., 1919, 13, 20-54). An account is given of the Hfe-history 

 of this moth and of its adjustments to unusual conditions. For three 

 consecutive generations the caterpillars were fed on leaves of Conifers. 

 They ate the leaves, but the result was an enfeebling of the race, as 

 regards growth, reproductive success, and resistance to disease. In 

 many cases reproduction became impossible. The low temperature of 

 the environment is partly responsible, but the diet is also prejudicial. 

 Lasting adjustments to poplar, horse-chestnut, and Mespilus germanica, 

 and also the dandelion and Onohrycliis saliva, seem to be quite practic- 

 able. J. A. T. 



Chromosomes in Tiger-beetles. — W. M. Goldsmith {Journ. 

 Morphol, 1919, 32, 437-87, 10 pis.). The early spermatogonia occur in 



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