74 H. J. HANSEN, 
lamelle overlapping each other. But Leichmann has made 
the important discovery that the eggs are enclosed and de- 
veloped, not in the marsupium itself, but in four pairs of 
pouches; the openings to these pouches are rather large 
transverse slits found on the lower surface of thorax at some 
distance from the mesial line between the sternites, the first 
pair of slits between the second and third, the last pair be- 
tween the fifth and sixth sternites. According to Leichmann 
these pouches are large, elongated, two-branched invaginations 
of the ventral skin of the animal; they proceed upwards and 
a little inwards, terminating beneath the tergites near the 
mesial line. The eggs are laid in the usual way; from the 
marsupium they must instantly be transported into the internal 
pouches, because it is impossible to find any specimen with 
egos in the marsupium. The eggs are proportionately large, 
their diameter being ‘44 mm., but the young ready for leaving 
the pouches are exceedingly large, measuring 1°44 mm. in 
length, ‘65 mm. in breadth, and ‘22 mm. in depth; the volume 
of such a young one is therefore between four and five times 
(Leichmann thinks five times) larger than that of an egg; 
the mother measures only 5°2 mm. in length and 2°9 mm. in 
breadth. Leichmann states that the larve perform lively 
movements within the pouches a long time before they leave 
them, which takes place through the eight slits. He has ob- 
served that generally two larve slip out, not simultaneously, 
but shortly after each other ; they remain a short time, rarely 
more than an hour, in the marsupium. But frequently a con- 
siderably longer time passes away before the birth of the two 
next larve, so that the entire act takes up some days. This 
abstract may be sufficient; the question as to the nutrition 
of eggs and larvee is omitted in this preliminary paper. 
In nearly one third of the genera of the family adult females 
are unknown to me; ofa few genera I have seen only a single 
female with the marsupium well developed; but, at least with- 
out dissection, no brood could be detected. Marsupial plates 
I have seen in representatives of the two small sub-families, 
and in all sections of the large sub-family Sphzromine but 
