484 Miscelldneoiis. 



As soon as the false brfinchite appear (that is to say, eiglit or ten 

 days after hatching), the blood-corpuscles may be seen oscillating in 

 the dorsal vessel, then vaguely indicated. Eight days later the cir- 

 culation is Avell established, and is effected in the manner indicated 

 in the well-known and often-cited memoirs of Cams and Yerlorey. 



The buccal and locomotive organs undergo analogous changes, 

 although less strongly marked than those of the branchitio, always 

 excepting the mandibles, which become more robust and more 

 villous, and acquire a form rather difllerent from that of the mandi- 

 bular booklets of the larva when only a few days old. 



When it has attained the age of six mouths, and a length of from 

 7 to 8 millims., which corresponds to that age, the larva of Palln- 

 genia viryo is no longer subject to changes of any importance, until 

 the time of nymphosis ; but those which it has already undergone 

 authorize us in saying that it presents a new and striking example 

 of hypermetamorphosis, analogoxis to those which we have made 

 known in the larvoe of the (Estridte {(Estrus eqni). Von Sieboldhas 

 indicated similar phenomena in the Strepsiptera, and Fabro, of 

 Avignon, in Mcloe. 



We have fully ascertained the precise duration of the incubation 

 of the Q^^ of PaUayenia viryo. By care, patieiice, and pei'severanee, 

 after frctpient checks, I have succeeded in ascertaining that the time 

 necessary for the hatching of the egg is six months at least, and 

 seven months at the most. None of the naturalists who have pre- 

 ceded me w^ere able, I believe, to arrive at this result. Swam- 

 merdam himself therefore would no longer have the right to repeat 

 now-a-days what he said when he wrote his admirable memoir on the 

 Ejihemerce — namely, that the period of the incubation of their eggs 

 is very difficidt to say, and known of God alone, who gave them 

 form and life *. 



Lastly, from the observations that we have made during many 

 consecutive years (from 1862 to 1874), and the principal results of 

 which are contained in the note which we have the honour to lay 

 before the Academy, the illustrious author of the ' Biblia JSTaturoe ' 

 would be no more authorized to maintain that the larvae of the Eplie- 

 merce at their escape from the egg do not differ from the adult larvae 

 either in form or organization : — "A vermibus adultioribus nee figura, 

 nee fabrica discrepant." — Comptes Rendas, May 1, 1876, p. 1030. 



Protection of Herbaria and Entomoloyical Collections from Insects hy 

 means of Sulphide of Carhon. By M. J. B. Scni^fETZLER. 



M. Schnetzler of Lausanne states that the collection of Swiss 

 flowering plants belonging to the iXcademy of Lausanne having been 

 attacked by Anohium paniceum, he was led to try the effect of sul- 

 phide of carbon in destroying those insects and their larvae. He had 

 a wooden box made large enough to contain five fasciculi of the her- 

 barium, each composed of about 200 plants. Four ounces of sulphide 



* " Diotu sane qiiam dilHcillimuin est, nee nisi soli Deo iiotu-.n. iis qui 

 funuam vitamqiic dfdit " ( Bibliu N;Uar;e. tome i. p. 2M>). 



