484 Miscellaneous. 



As soon as the false branchiae appear (that is to say, eight or ten 

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

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

 ciJation is well established, and is eifected 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 branchiae, always 

 excepting the mandibles, which become more robust and more 

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

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



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

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

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

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

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

 of hypermetamorpliosis^ analogous to those which we have made 

 known iu the larvae of the (Estridae ((Estrus eqni). Von Sieboldhas 

 indicated similar phenomena in the Strepsiptera, and Fabre, of 

 Avignon, in Meloe. 



We have full}'^ ascertained the precise duration of the incubation 

 of the egg of Palingenia virgo. By care, patience, and perseverance, 

 after frequent 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 were able, I believe, to arrive at this result. Swam- 

 merdam himself therefore would no longer have the right to repeat 

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

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

 is very difhcult 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 Naturae ' 

 would be no more authorized to maintain that the larvos of the Ejphe- 

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

 either in form or organization : — "A verraibus adultioribus nee tigura, 

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



Protection of Herbaria and Entomological Collections from Insects by 

 means of Sidphide of Carbon. By M. J. B. Schnetzler. 



M. Schnetzler of Lausanne states that the collection of Swiss 

 flowering plants belonging to the Academy of Lausanne having been 

 attacked by Anohium panicenm, 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 



* " Dictu sane qiiaiu difficillimiini est, uec nisi soli Deo nutum, iis qui 

 formam vilamqiip derlit " ( Biblin N;itiirie, tome i. p. 2o()). 



