138 William A. Kepner. 



has become a reticular mesliwork supporting many yolk spherules 

 and the egg nucleus. 



The migrated nuclei finally disintegrate to form part of the food 

 supply of the ovum. About the ovum the follicle epithelium builds 

 a complete chorion. These phenomena mark the end of the second 

 phase of nutrition. 



The final disintegration of the nurse cells takes place wholly 

 within the nurse follicle. De Bruyne, '98, observed in Dytiscus 

 that after the cytoplasm of the nurse cells had disintegrated the nuclei 

 of these same cells were taken in toto into the cytoplasm of the ovum 

 to be consumed by it. Paulcke, '01, discovered a like fate of the 

 nurse cell nuclei in the ovaries of Apis mellifica. In these cases 

 the disintegration of the nurse cell nuclei is similar to that of the 

 migrated follicle nuclei of Scolia dubia. 



With this the second phase of nutrition is completed and the ovum 

 with its cytoplasm completely charged with yolk is delivered into 

 the oviduct. 



The insect ovary has been a subject of so much scientific investiga- 

 tion during recent years, that except for his observations confirming 

 Giardina's interesting observation, the writer would not be justified 

 in adding to the extensive bibliography. Giardina, '01, was the 

 first to clearly define two phases of nutrition in the ovum of an 

 insect. His observations on Dytiscus has hitherto stood without 

 confirmation. Concerning his priority in this observation he says: 

 "E giustizia notare che, gia nel 1880, Tichomiroff descrisse nel- 

 Bombyx mori un' aperture centrale di communicazione nella parete 

 divisoria tra I'uova e la camera nutrice, e che da questa apertura 

 vedeva penetrare nell' uova sostanza granulosa, simile alia sostanza 

 delle cellule vitellogene. Quantunque la descrizione non sia per- 

 fettamente corrispondente alia realta, pure non vi puo esserdubbio 

 che essa si riferisca alle communicazioni protoplasmatiche ova 

 descritte. Anche il Korschelt (1889) non dubitava che delle 

 communicazione tra I'oocite e le cellule nutrici dovessero esistere, ma 

 gli argomenti da lui adotti non erano molto convincenti." 



''Simili connessione attivamente alia nutrizione dell' uovo, e reii- 

 dono poco verosimile 1' opinione del De Bruyne (1898), che esse vi 



