107 



abdomen of tli6se moths are covered with a pubescence composed of 

 innumerable minute spines that become detached very easily. Experi- 

 ments have shown that the eruption is due to the irritation caused 

 by these spines penetrating the skin, and that their action is not 

 purelv mechanical, as they contain an irritant poison. The inflam- 

 mation generally lasts about a week. 



Bequaert (J). Parasitic Muscid Larvae collected from the African 

 Elephant and the White Rhinoceros by the Congo Expedition.— 



Btdl. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., New York, xxxv, 1916, pp. 377-387. 



Dipterous parasites of the African elephant include the larva of 

 Neocuterebra squamosa, (xriinb. , parasitic m the sole of the foot. As 

 the imago is still unknown, it is not possible definitely to fix the 

 systematic position of this fly. In the stomach occur the larvae of 

 Cobboldia loxodontis, Brauer, and C. chrysidiformis, R. & B., which, 

 in some districts, live together in the stomach of the same individual. 



From the stomach of the white rhinoceros {Rhinoceros simus cottoni) 

 the larva of Gyrostigma (Spathicera) pavesii, Corti, has been obtained. 



Taylor (M). The Chromosome Complex of Culex pipiens. Part II. 

 Fertilisation. — Qrtly. Jl. Micros. Sci., London, no. 247 (Ixii, no. 3), 

 August 1917, pp. 287-301, 1 plate. 



Cidex pipiens is essentially the British mosquito that has a partiality 

 for avian blood. After the summer female has fed once on the blood 

 of a living bird, the eggs attain their normal size and are ready for 

 fertilisation. They are laid almost immediately after the second 

 feed, fertilisation having taken place in the interval between the t^v'o 

 meals. This probably accounts for the fact that females reared in 

 captivity and fed on fruit appear never to be fertilised. 



Experiments on artificial rearing seem to show that \vild birds, such 

 as sparrows, thrushes and blackbirds are not so easily attacked as 

 domestic ones. Egg-rafts were twice fovmd in a wooden tub that had 

 been stocked with larvae and placed in a small garden, a young pigeon 

 being caged in the near neighbourhood. In previous years, only 

 infertile eggs had been laid in the absence of this pigeon, the other 

 conditions having been the same. 



In order to obtain material in sufficient quantities for the investiga- 

 tion of the fertilisation processes, ponds were prepared near a farmyard 

 in which was a stock of poultry. These ponds were four in number, 

 one (A) being a large circular iron trough 30 inches in diameter and 

 24 inches deep, while another (B) was a wooden tub, 25 inches in dia- 

 meter and 16 inches deep, these being placed side by side, protected 

 on the north by shrubs, and on the east by a w^all. A was exposed 

 to all the sunshine of morning, afternoon and evening, but B was 

 nearer the wall and more shaded, though neither was hidden by 

 vegetation. The third (C) was an elliptical tinned iron bath, measuring 

 36 by 26 by 11| inches, surrounded on three sides by glass houses 

 but exposed on the south side, and the fourth (D) was a rectangular 

 porcelain sink, 20 by 14 by 10 inches, placed in the uncut grass of an 

 open space. 



(C473) a2 



