298 Miscellaneous. 



area, there was a Madreporarian fauna there which was singnlarly 

 like unto that which followed it, both as regards the shape of the 

 forms and their geuera. Still earlier, during the slow subsidence of 

 the great Upper Cretaceous deep-sea area, there was a coral-fauna 

 in the north and west of Europe, of which the existing is very re- 

 presentative. The simple forms predominate in both faunas. Caryo- 

 2)7iiiUia is a dominant genus in either; and a branching Sj/nhelia of 

 the old fauna is replaced in the present state of things by a branching 

 LophoJielia. The similarity of deep-sea coral-faunas might be carried 

 still further back in the world's history ; but it must be enough for 

 my purpose to assert the representative character and the homotaxis 

 of the Upper Cretaceous, the Tertiary, and the existing deep-sea 

 coral-faunas. This character is enhanced by the persistence of types ; 

 but sttU the representative faunas are separable by vast intervals of 

 time. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



On Parthenogeiiesis in PoListes gallica. By Prof. C. T. vox Slebold. 



As long ago as 1S5S, Leuckart ascertained that the workers in 

 societies of humble bees and wasps lay eggs, and that these eggs are 

 capable of development. Yon Siebold has resumed these experiments 

 upon PoUstes gallica. This wasp is peculiarly suitable for such in- 

 vestigations, because its nest consists of a single comb entirely 

 exposed. The comparative imperfectness of this nest allows the 

 observer to follow all the actions of its inhabitants and all the 

 phenomena which take place in its cells. Ton Siebold succeeded 

 in fix;ing great nimibers of colonies of Polistes in places selected by 

 him. He even succeeded in making these nests moveable for the 

 purpose of experiment, without causing their inhabitants to abandon 

 them. In this way he was able to observe hundreds of colonies of 

 Polistes from their origin to their extinction. 



One nest of Polistes suffices for an entire summer for a colony, 

 which it serves as a habitation and nursery. In the autumn all the 

 colonies perish, however numerous they may be. Every spring 

 isolated females give origin, each for itself, to new colonies. These 

 females were produced diiring the previous summer, which they 

 passed in a virgin state, and were fecundated by copidation in the 

 autumn before falling into their winter sleep. The sperm atozoids 

 stored in the seminal receptacle are preserved in good condition 

 throughout the winter, and in spring fertilise the eggs as the de- 

 position of the latter goes on. Each of these females constructs for 

 itself a nest composed of a small number of cells, and busies itself at 

 first with oviposition, and then with the bringing up of the new 

 generation. The new individuals thus engendered are, up to the 

 middle of summer, exclusively females. The first of these individuals, 

 reared by isolated mothers, are females of very small size. Their 

 smallness is no doubt due to the circumstance that the mother, being 



