Miscelhin eous, 1 4 J) 



•are so profoundly modified in Ilydrophilus piceus that we have some 

 difficulty in recognizing them, especially in a rapid examination. 

 The inferior surface is undulated and the outer surface rather short ; 

 the inner surface presents a marked ohUquity and bears a tuberosity 

 which claims our more particular attention, because this arrange- 

 ment, indicated in Olv/otoma Saiindersii &c., tends to become 

 general in many other masticating insects. 



The mandibles, as is well known, play the most active part in 

 the division and mastication of food ; but the masilho also assist in 

 the operation to a variable extent according to the species, and the 

 inferior projection of the inner surface from this point of view 

 acquires particular importance. It did not escape Latreillo, who 

 sometimes mentions it under the name of molar. It is pretty con- 

 stantly met with, but it presents frequent modifications. I confine 

 myself to indicating the following : — 



In Garahus auratas this prominence occupies an intermediate 

 position between the lower and the inner surface ; in Forjicula 

 auricularia it becomes conical and represents a lacerating rather 

 than a grinding tooth ; in Blaps producta it seems to bo wanting, 

 but its absence is compensated by a peculiar arrangement : the 

 submaxillary considerably exceeding the maxillary, especially 

 within, the inner surface of the submaxillary comes to project at 

 the base of the maxillary, and may thus in its entirety fulfil the 

 function generally reserved for the " molar" above indicated. 



Although reduced to their essential points, the preceding descrip- 

 tions suffice to show on the one hand all the interest that attaches 

 to the morphological study of the submaxillary, and on the other 

 the variations presented by this piece, which is too often overlooked, 

 but the correct interpretation of which is indispensable in the com- 

 parative investigation of the appendicular organs in the Arthropoda. 

 — Comptes Rendus, July 7, 1884, p. 51. 



On a new Type of the Glass Hirudinese. 

 By MM. PoiKiER and A. T. de Rochbrttne. 



As the crocodile lives in the water, says Herodotus, the interior 

 of his mouth is covered with Bdellas (Lib. II. Chap. Ixviii. j). 94, 

 cd. MiiUer). The translators of the Greek historian, down to 

 Scaliger, understood the word fjhXXeiov to refer to leeches ; since 

 then several have asserted that these animals were Diptera of the 

 genus Gulex. The scientific researches of one of us during a pretty 

 long sojourn in Seuegambia enable us definitely to settle a still 

 controverted question, and to prove that the BdeUas of Herodotus 

 must be referred to the class Hirudineaj. 



The remarkable type under consideration lives attached not only 

 to the buccal mucous membrane of Crocodilus vidgaris, cataphrac- 

 tus, and leptorhynchus., but also to the lingual papillae of Grjmyio- 

 plax cBgyptiacus and to the interior of the pouch of Pelecanus crispus 

 and onocrotalus. 



In its general form and the presence of branchial tufts on each 

 Ann. di- Ma(j. N. Hist, fter, 5. Vol. xiv. 12 



