May— July 1889. 



PSYCHE. 



205 



pressed together. From the external 

 and anterior border of the hand-shaped 

 dilatation a large number of more or less 

 isolated, white, hyaline filaments .ooS 

 mm. in thickness, reach farther up to 

 the dorsal vessel. These filaments are 

 empty within, very small nuclei are at- 

 tached to it externally, and a number of 

 epithelial cells of different size, the 

 largest .01 mm. in diameter, lay near by 

 or around them. I believe that the hya- 

 line filaments are parts of the external 

 coat of the dorsal vessel, torn oft' by the 

 dissection. Indeed, one or two are iso- 

 lated, but the larger pait form flattened 

 slips. These parts are always very dif- 

 ficult to dissect, particularly in alcoholic 

 specimens. In a large queen dissected 

 by me many years ago, I was fortunate 

 enough to prepare the dorsal vessel 

 without separating the attachment of the 

 ovaria, forming a thicker fatty ring 

 around the whole dorsal vessel, and the 

 same fact was stated to be true with the 

 queen of the honey bee by Dr. Knoch of 

 St. Petersburg. 



In another queen of E. rippertii the 

 insertion of the ovaria to the dorsal ves- 

 sel was carefully prepared. 



Shortly before the dorsal vessel is in- 

 flated to the metathorax to send down 

 the smaller aorta, the filaments of both 

 ovaries are attached to the under side. 

 The attachment is very firm and covered 

 above and below with muscles ; there- 

 fore, torn-off' parts of the dorsal vessel 

 and muscles are retained, forming a 

 somewhat hand-shaped process. 



Both filaments are united in a semi- 

 circular curve, so that as far as I can ob- 



serve the two ovaria are fused together. 

 At least I was not able to see any end of 

 the filaments. The winged muscles \\\ 

 which the side vessels are laying (W, 

 Peters Reise nach Mozambique, 1S63,. 

 Vol. 5, Neuroptera by H. A. Hagen^ 

 p. 75, pi. 4 fig. 3) send a triangular bunch 

 above the filament and another below, 

 both inserting partly on the dorsal ves- 

 sel partly on the filament, originating 

 on each side of the dorsal vessel 

 in an elongated bundle of fat and epi- 

 thelial cells. I tried polarization to see 

 better the difference between the mus- 

 cles and filaments without success, the 

 number of the muscular fibres being toO' 

 large, and strongly mixed by their inser- 

 tion of the filaments, even lamning along 

 their interior curved border. 



The ovarium seen from the side is near 

 the thorax only half as thick as near the 

 end of the abdomen ; it is gradually en- 

 larged, the basis rounded, globular. The 

 internal side of the ovarium is straight 

 and flattened, as both ovaria are very 

 near each other. The yellowish cylinder 

 of the apex of the ovarium is prolonged' 

 alongthe internal side in a yellow flattened' 

 band i mm. broad, running in a straight 

 line a little below the upper border of 

 the ovarium, which is convex and formed! 

 b}' the beginning of the braids. There- 

 fore when the bands of both ovaria are 

 laying close together, there is always 

 left above them a small groove for the 

 dorsal vessel. The inferior border of 

 the band is straight, very sharp and sep- 

 arated somewhat from the ovarium. 

 The band has entirely the shape and the 

 appearance of a tendon, which towards 



