4o8 Ge?icral Notes. [May, 



ited a large Guinea worm taken from a pony, in Madras. Only 

 one previous instance of the occurrence of this parasite in the 

 horse has been mentioned, and its authenticity has been doubted. 



Kossman in Zoologischer Anzeiger states that the Entoniscus, 



a parasite Isopod, is an endoparasite ; these Isopods are usually 



external parasites. C. P. Sluiter in thesame journal describes the 



segmental organs in certain Sipunculidae from Malaysia. Far- 

 ther additions to our knowledge of the fishes of Lower California 

 and the Gulf of California are recorded in the Proceedings of the 



U. S. National Museum by Messrs. Jordan and Gilbert. 



Another paper of value in the same serial is that of Mr. Dall on 

 the genera of Chitons, especially the fossil forms. An elabor- 

 ate account of the structure and development of the gar pike by 

 Messrs. Balfour and Parker, read before the Royal Society, is re- 

 ported in Nature. As regards the skull the authors say that its 

 morphology cannot be understood " unless it be seen in the light 

 derived from that of the Elasmobranchs, the sturgeon, and the anur- 

 ous larva on one hand, and that of Amia calva and the Teleostei 

 on the other. P. Geddes gives in Nature an abstract of an im- 

 portant paper on animals containing chlorophyll, such as Spon- 

 gilla, Hydra, and certain Planarians, while others as Actinia, &c., 

 contain chlorophyll originating from minute algae which he calls 

 Philozoon, which inhabit these animals. The same discovery was 

 recently published by Dr. Brandt, so that both observers inde- 

 pendently arrive at nearly the same conclusions, M. Geddes, how- 

 ever, differing in some important particulars. 



ENTOMOLOGY.! 



Carnivorous Habits of Microcentrus retinervis. — I noted 

 a circumstance on Sunday, October 23, which to me was very in- 

 teresting. On what is called Mill island, in the Mississippi, two 

 miles above Burlington, there are a number of burr oaks clus- 

 tered on the extreme point of the island. The trunks were cov- 

 ered with thousands o{ Megilla maeulata Deg. A large number 

 of Locustidae, I think Microcentrus retinervis (as near as I can 

 determine them), were apparently feeding upon the beetles. It 

 was so much aside from the habits of the Locustidae, as I 

 thought them to be strictly herbivorous, that I watched them 

 very closely. • They seized the beetles with their front legs, 

 holding them in the same manner as a squirrel its food, and kept 

 biting until the wing covers were broken through, then masticated 

 the abdomen. I took a number of fragments of the beetles as 

 they were cast off, so I could not be deceived. — H. G. Griffith, 

 Burlington, loiua. 



Note on the First Insect from Wrangell Island. — Dr. I. 

 C. Rosse, of the Corivin, has given me a small spider and a dried 



iThis department is edited by Prof. C. V. Riley, W;ishington, D. C, to whom 

 communications, boolis for notice, etc., should be sent. 



