Miscellaneous. 429 
is recorded in M. Ch. Morren’s Report on the Exhibition of the pro- 
ducts of Belgian agriculture and horticulture, 1847.—Bibliotheque 
Universelle, Feb. 1850. 
On the Nature of the Gregarine. By Dr. F. Stein. 
The author has raised the number of species of insects in which 
Gregarine occur to 68. Previously it was known only of 29. With 
the addition of the Myriapoda, Crustacea and Annelides (the Lum- 
brici contain some in their male organs ; Henle), the number amounts 
to 80. They are for the majority voracious and carnivorous animals ; 
at all events they never feed upon fresh vegetable matter. This dis- 
tribution of the Gregarine in species whose kind of life is so exclusive 
evidently proves that their germs are introduced with the food. 
The body of the Gregarine is an ovoid, fusiform or cylindrical sac, 
everywhere closed, without any trace of mouth or anus. In some 
species the body is simple, but most frequently it is separated into 
two parts. The anterior portion forms a hemispherical or conical 
segment, separated from the remainder by a strangulation. A verti- 
cal septum corresponds to this constriction, and thus divides the in- 
terior cavity into two portions. This septum had not been previously 
observed. In other species the body is divided into three cavities by 
two strangulations and two corresponding internal septa. 
In accordance with these differences of organization, the author 
separates the Gregarine into three natural families :— 
1. The Monocystidee or simple Gregarine, without strangulation 
and without internal septum. 
2. The Gregarinariee, or ordinary Gregarine with the body di- 
vided into two parts. 
3. The Didimophydee, or Gregarine whose body is divided into 
three portions, as if it resulted from the adhesion of two individuals, 
one from each of the preceding families. 
The envelope of the Gregarine consists of a hyaline, transparent, 
smooth and elastic membrane. Sometimes the outer surface is pro- 
longed into immoveable filaments or into vibratile cilia (Henle found 
the latter to be the case in the Gregarine from the Lumbrici). 
The interior presents not a trace of organization ; it is filled with 
a liquid, probably albuminous, in which a considerable number of 
globules float, which the author considers to be globules of fat. The 
young individuals contain a less number, and are consequently more 
transparent. Dr. Stein confirms the presence of a nucleus placed 
freely in the contents of the Gregarine. It is always simple in the 
Monocystidee and the Gregarinariee; one species of the third 
family exhibited two, another contained but one. Although the re- 
production of these singular organisms is still quite obscure, several 
facts appear to throw some light upon the subject. One of the most 
important is the following observation of Von Siebold. 
The thin intestines of a dipterous larva (Sczara nitidicollis) con- 
tain, along with numerous Gregarine (G. caudata), a large number 
of round vesicles filled with imumerable minute bodies of a turnip 
shape, called Navicellee by Von Siebold. They are composed of a 
soft nucleus, and of a hard and transparent envelope. Henle again 
