133 



game-laws for the protection of such animals. On the other hand it is urged that every 

 excuse is taken for assaults on the game-laws, that the scientific indictment is far 

 from complete, and that if the extermination of large ruminants were carried to its 

 logical conclusion, it would be even more necessary to kill off the domesticated animals 

 as these come into more immediate contact with man. 



Social Termites. 



.Karl Escherich has published an unusually interesting volume on the habits of the 

 social " white ants " or termites (see E. B. xxvi, 643 et seq.), based on studies made 

 in Ceylon. He confirms the extraordinary fact that some of these insects cultivate 

 fungi which they use as food, and, in the case of four Ceylonese species, describes 

 and illustrates the fungus gardens in the termitaria. He found that two species of 

 termites, or a species of termites.and a species of ant, frequently inhabited the same nest. 

 In every case, however, the relations appeared to be unfriendly; the actual chambers 

 and fungus gardens of the different species wre separated by walls, and if accidental 

 breaches were made, the rivals fought bitterly. He confirms Holmgren's " exudate " 

 theory, according to which the queen termite exudes from the surface of- her body a 

 substance that is eagerly sought by the workers. They lick her, not to keep her clean, 

 but to obtain the coveted food, and they even distribute to other workers regurgitated 

 morsels of it. Termites are one of the chief pests in tropical countries, all wooden 

 structures, papers, books and cloth being attacked by them. Escherich describes a 

 German apparatus, made for locating these insects and so marking them down for 

 extermination. It consists of a microphone protected by a funnel-shaped guard 

 and connected with a telephone receiver. The microphone is inserted in the earth, 

 or in soft tree-stumps, and the crawling termites can be heard, even if they are at a 

 considerable distance. When a termitarium has been discovered, it can be attacked 

 in various ways. All apertures but one may be plugged with clay, and a stopping of 

 tow soaked with carbon-bisulphide may be placed in the last opening. Still better 

 is a device by which the f times of arsenic and sulphur heated on glowing charcoal are 

 blown through the nest by a small hand-pump. 



General Morphology of Mollusca. 



A. Naef has published the first of what is intended to be an elaborate set of investi- 

 gations into the morphology of molluscs (see E. B. xviii, 669 et seq., and allied articles). 

 He rejects any idea of a relationship between flat-worms (Platyhelminthes) and mol- 

 luscs, holding the latter to be intimately connected with annelid worms both by descent 

 and by structure. He states that there is a sharp division between the Chitons, which 

 he regards as not having reached the true molluscan grade, and the Eumollusca. The 

 typical forms of the latter are the Gastropods and Cephalopods. In these the body 

 is divided into two segments, the head-foot region and the visceral region, the two 

 being joined by a rudimentary neck. The hind region shows traces of a primitive 

 metamerism, and a retroflexion of the hind-gut with the mantle and shell is character- 

 istic of it. The gastropods had primitively either a planospiral or a turbospiral shell, 

 and it was only when swimming habits were replaced by creeping habits that the 

 spiral was corrected by a torsion. In embryological development the appearance of 

 the torsion has been pushed further and further back, until it appears even in the 

 embryo. He recognises four stages in the phylogeny of gastropods: Planospira 

 stage (e.g. Bellerophon) , Turbospira stage (Pleurotomaria) , Prototrochus stage (Trochus 

 and Patella), Metatrochus stage (Paludina, Atlanta, Actaeon, Limacina). He places 

 Helicina and Nerita (on the morphology of which G. C. Bourne has also written an 

 important memoir, regarding them as highly modified derivatives of a primitive type) 

 between the last two groups. 



The Relations and Phylogeny of Mammals. 



W. K. Gregory has written (Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History) 

 a broadly-based study of the relations and phylogeny of the orders of Mammals (see 



