248 RECORD OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



French Academy cTesci'ibing an ejjidemic of Diptera [Si/rpJius melliniis), 

 thousands of which they had found killed by sj)ecies of Entomophthora, 

 and in some observations on this paper one of the Perpetual Secre- 

 taries recalled the recommendation made some years previously by 

 M. Pasteur to the Phylloxera Commission, viz. to find a means of 

 destroying the Phylloxera by inoculation with a microscopic fungus, 

 and urged the subject on the attention of naturalists. 



y. Arachnida. 



New Arachnid.* — Under the name of Splicerobotliria Dr. Karsch 

 describes a new Avicularid, which appears to be allied to Eurypelma 

 (Koch). This genus, from Costa Rica, is remarkable for the presence 

 of a circular dorsal pit on the cephalothorax, from which there arises a 

 hemispherical or less markedly conical and larger body. The speci- 

 mens are grey on their dorsal, and more brown on their ventral 

 surface. Only females are in the possession of the Berlin Museum, 

 and of these there are three examples. The specific name of Hoffmann 

 is j)roposed for it. 



Poison Glands of Solpuga.f — Herr Croneberg describes the 

 structure of these debated organs, which api)ear to form a pair of 

 thoracic glands placed at the sides of the stomach. They are con- 

 nected by a groove-like process with a depression, infundibular in 

 form, and developed from the integument ; at the bottom of this 

 funnel there is a chitinous conical process, which is traversed by a 

 narrow canal leading directly into the glandular tube. Surrounding 

 the chitinous process, but not connected with the gland, are a number 

 of muscular fibres. The gland itself forms a greatly coiled tube, has 

 a wide himen, and a membrana propn-ia formed of cells of cylindi'ical 

 epithelium. Closely attached in its anterior jDortion to the walls of 

 the stomach, the gland divides at this point into two branches, which 

 are each beset with a number of saccules ; there is no opening into 

 the stomach, and the secretion of the gland seems to be pressed oiit hy 

 the contraction of the muscles, and to be carried outwards by the 

 funnels in the integument. 



Generative Organs of the Phalangida.J — M. de Graaf finds that 

 the male is sometimes converted into a hermaphrodite by the conver- 

 sion of the testes into an ovary, when the ovarian cells are developed 

 on the surface of the testis ; the spermatozooids are flattened cor- 

 puscles, ovate in form, with a dark oval nucleus. The female is not 

 provided with receptacula seminis; the ovipositor is made up of a 

 large number of chitinous rings, and is bifurcated at its termination ; 

 it is surrounded by three distinct sheaths; the innermost of these is 

 chitinous, and its free surface is covered by a large number of fine 

 undulating folds, each of which has a sharp spinule. The second is 

 similar in structure, but has no spinules ; the third is muscular in 

 character. The penis has only one sheath of chitin, and this invests 



* 'Zeitschr. gesammt. Naturwiss." (Giebel), lii. (1879) p. 534. 

 t 'Zool. Anzeiger,' ii. (1879) p. 450. 

 X Ibid., iii. (1880) p. 42. 



