408 NATURAL SCIENCE. Jone, 
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 Tvans. Entom. Soc. Lond., 1893, pp. 191-9, 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 inemerging, 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. 
ANinteresting paper onthe Pupe of Moths, by Dr. T. A. Chapman, 
appears in the latest number of the Tvans. 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 pupe, are classed with the higher moths, while the Zyge- 
nid, Sesiide, Cosside, Hepialide, and Limacodide 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 
tesearch will hasten the general acceptance of the new views. 
Ar 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. 
