582 Chronicles of Science. [ Oct., 
three in the thorax, and ten in the abdomen. We may observe, 
however, that Professor Huxley, taking the moveable appendages 
as the test of the number of rings, came to the conclusion that 
“never more than six, and never fewer than four, somites enter 
into the composition of the head” in the Arthropoda generally, 
while in insects he limits them to five. In a masterly article, 
however, in a former volume of the same series,* from which we 
have just quoted, the late Dr. Schaum throws considerable doubt 
on the hypothesis of a separate cephalic segmentation. We have 
not space here to enter into his arguments, which we believe have 
not hitherto been answered. Perhaps one of the strongest is that 
there is never more than one ganglion in the head, while in the 
larvee with homonomous segments the ganglia correspond to the 
segments. 
The Mountain Silk of North China is likely to become an 
article of commerce. Mr. Consul Meadows reports that there are 
two crops in the year—a spring crop of greatly superior quality, 
and an autumn crop much more abundant than the former. The 
autumn cocoons intended for the spring crop are exposed nearly all 
the winter to a temperature considerably below the freezing point, 
notwithstanding which the moth comes forth in the first warm 
days of spring; eggs are produced in four or five days, and in a 
few days more the caterpillars are hatched. These are soon 
transferred to the oaks on the hill-sides, and when they have 
acquired their full size they commence forming their cocoons. The 
chrysalids which are not kept for breeding are used by the 
Chinese as an article of food. 
A new work, entitled.‘ Rhopalocera Africee Australis,’ has just 
been received in London. It is an account of the butterflies of the 
Cape Colony, by Mr. Roland Trimen, an accomplished entomologist, 
well known for the years of study which he has bestowed on the 
African diurnal Lepidoptera. Although a colonial publication, it is 
quite equal in its “getting up” to the average of English works 
of the same class. 
ENTOMOLOGICAL SocrEeTy. 
June.—Professor Brayley communicated an extract from the 
report of Mr. Consul Zohrab, respecting the occurrence of a 
venomous spider in the corn-fields of Berdiansk, from the bite of 
which many persons had suffered severely. Mr. Pascoe exhibited 
a small collection of Coleoptera from Western Australia, made by 
the Rev. George Bostock, of Freemantle. They were found 
principally in ants’ nests. Among them was a remarkably isolated 
* Vol. xi, p. 173 (1863). 
