October — December TSS4. 



psrciiE. 



•235 



campa Rotatoria, -Awd his article appears in 

 the December niiniero of tlie same period- 

 ical. G: D. 



Miss Mary H. Hinckley, in her -'Notes 

 on the peeping tVog, Hyla pickcringii, Le- 

 conte" (Mem. Bost. soc. nat. hi.st., May 1SS4, 

 V. 3, no. 10), p. 317, writes in regard to 

 enemies of this species that the tadpoles ''are 

 constantlj being lessened in number by their 

 enemies, the newts, water beetles, and the 

 larvae of the beetles and dragon flies. On 

 two occasions I have seen a spider ( Doloinc- 

 dcs sexpunciaius) run along the surface of 

 the water, suddenly dive, seize, and drag out 

 on land a full-grown tadpole of this species; 

 the spider coming out dry. CA'identh- as much 

 at home in as out of water." 



In the new Hungarian entomological peri- 

 odical, Rozmrtijni Ittpok (v. i, p. 171 ; 

 Resume, p. 2), Dr. O. Tomosvdry records 

 his observations ''that two niyriapods in cap- 

 ti\ity. a Litkobius forjicatiis and a Geophilus 

 toveohittt^. attacked each other with violence 

 but soon withdrew. The latter species, 

 during the attack and retreat, emitted from 

 the extremity of its abdomen a light of bluish 

 violet color, feeble, but nevertheless very 

 perceptible in obscure light. This lumi- 

 nosity was visible scarceh" a minute because 

 the shining animal hid itself beneath the 

 leaves at the bottom ot' it< prison." 



At the October meeting of the Natural 

 science association of Staten Island. Mr. 

 Davis exhibited a specimen of oiie of our 

 green grasshoppers, Conoccphaln^ if/ss/'w/h's, 

 which he had found without any head, and 

 stridulating while perched upon a blade of 

 grass. When touched by the finger, the 

 insect did not close its wings tightly, as 

 usual, but let them remain far apart. It had 

 evidently not been long decapitated: for, 

 when captured, the muscles in the thorax 

 had their normal appearance. But gradually 

 the tissues dried, and on the third day of its 

 captivity it died without having stridulated 

 again, though every means tlujught of \^■as 



employed to induce it. — Science, 7 Nov. 1SS4, 

 y. 4, p. 44S. 



The investig.xtions of M. Carlet enable 

 him to affirm that the poison-apparatus of 

 the hymenoptera is always composed of two 

 distinct glandular systems, the one with a 

 strongly acid, the other with a feebly alkaline 

 secretion. These two systems unite at the 

 sheath of the sting. The resultant venom 

 is always acid. The action of this venom 

 upon some animals, as rabbits, frogs and cer- 

 tain beetles, is slight, but the domestic fly 

 and the flesh fly are killed immediately by it. 

 The inoculation of a fly with the secretion of 

 one of the glands does not produce death 

 until after a considerable time, but death 

 tbilows very quickly if the same fly is subjec- 

 ted to a second inoculation, this time with 

 the secretion of the other gland. — Aiiur. 

 nat., Dec. 1S84. v. 18. p. 1270. 



AfCORDiXG TO J. Murie's report of the 

 meeting of the Liunean society of London, 7 

 Feb. 1884, printed in the Zoologhcher anzei- 

 ger for 3 March 18S4. "Mr. B. J. Lowne gave 

 an interesting communication embodying his 

 researches on the compound vision of insects* 

 He compares the structures of the simple 

 ocellus with those of the compound ocellus 

 (common in larval insects) and with those of 

 the compound eye. The compound eye ac- 

 cording to him is but composed of aggrega- 

 ted compound ocelli, or the latter in the 

 larval insect is merel\ equi\alent to a single 

 segment of a compound eye. He refers to 

 the development of the compound eye and 

 points out that in many larvae during molt- 

 ing stages the ''segregate" retina is finally 

 replaced by another. He describes a deep 

 spindle-like layer in intimate connection with 

 the nervous structures and which he regards 

 as playing an important part in the phenom- 

 ena of compound vision, rather than that 

 this kind of vision is soleU' dependent on the 

 number of corneal facets." 



Mr. Wood Mason of the Calcutta Indian 

 museum has recently drawri up a report on 



