516 Mr. R. Shelford’s Studies of the Blattidex. 
of the sub-family Corydiine (= Heterogamiine). Bolivar 
(l.c.) is much impressed by the structure of the antennz 
in Attaphila, the increasing lengths of the joints in pro- 
portion to their breadth particularly attracting his atten- 
tion, and he states that in all other Blattide the joints of 
the antennz, with the exception of the first, are short and 
transverse. This as a matter of fact is scarcely accurate ; 
in cockroaches of normal type the first joint of the antennze 
is longer than broad, the second usually broader than long, 
and the third much longer than broad; the succeeding 
joints are short and transverse but gradually increasing 
in length until they are longer than broad, and the apical 
joints are usually sub-moniliform. Adtaphila is peculiar in 
that the third joint of the antennee is short and transverse 
and the increase in length of the succeeding joints is not 
gradual but sudden. Unfortunately in all the specimens 
of Attaphila that have been examined, the antenne are 
mutilated, so we know nothing of the terminal ends of 
these organs. Wheeler examined forty-five examples of 
A. fungicola, and found that in seventeen specimens the 
mutilation of the antennee was symmetrical, in twenty-one 
specimens almost symmetrical, the difference being not 
more than one joint; in only seven specimens were the 
antennze very asymetrically mutilated. He concludes that 
the ants, with which this cockroach lives, crop the antennz 
of their guests and suggests that the peculiar structure of 
the antenne is a result of continual clipping. Without 
subscribing to this opinion, it may be pointed out that 
a modification of the antennz of an insect living in the 
dark and under very peculiar circumstances is rather to be 
expected; indeed, it might be expected that profound 
modifications of the antennze would invariably accompany 
a marked reduction of the other sense-organs, the eyes, if 
Sphecophila was not a standing proof to the contrary. 
Attaphila, as shown by an examination of the contents of 
the alimentary canal, feeds on the fungus cultivated by the 
leaf-cutting ants; Sphecophila is nourished otherwise. The 
wasps of the genus Polybia construct small paper nests 
pendant from the under surface of leaves or twigs; in 
some species the nest is made up of a number of cells 
without any outer common covering; every cell containing 
a larva is open at the lower end, and it is only the cells 
containing nymphs that are closed, each with a paper cap. 
Polybia pygmea however constructs a nest composed of a 
