10 



KNOWLEDGE. 



[Januaby 1, 1901. 



Afrieaa jiliiiil with distiiictlf alternate leaves. To this 

 genus Messrs. Iiurkill and Wright have now added three 

 more species, eaeh possessing the same ])eeuUarity of leaf 

 arrangement. Further, they include in their ])aper a 

 description of a new alternate-leaved Plectranthns, thus 

 making a total of five species of African Lahiatte 

 characterised by alternation of leaves. 



The recent enumeration of Chinese oaks, piublished in 

 the Journal of the Liiinean Socicti/, includes nearly sixty 

 species, many of ■which exhihit some remarkable deviations 

 in habit, leaves, and particularlv in fruits, from the British 

 representative of the genus. Qiterciis cornea, one of the 

 most interesting in the structure of the acorn, is the 

 subject of a plate in the last part of Hooker's Irones 

 Plantariim. The woody involucre envelops . all but the 

 broad top oi the curiously shaped acorn, to which it 

 remains firmly attached even when the fruit is -quite 

 mature. In comnion with a few other East Asiatic species, 

 the e.xtremely hard pericarp forms ingrowths into the cell- 

 cavity, incompletely dividing it into four or five cells, and 

 causing the cotyledons to become lobed, as in the walnut. 

 Its acorn, known to the Chinese as "Shi-li" (Stony 

 Chestnut) or " King-li" (Peking Chestnut), is sold in the 

 markets of South China as an article of food. — S. A. S. 



Entomolooical. — Everyone knows the care for 

 their young displayed by ants, wasps, and bees, but 

 parental affection in beetles is not so familiar, though 

 several instances are known to naturalists. A recent 

 observation on this subject is due to 'Or. J. E. V. Boas, 

 •who, in a pajier " Ueber einen Fall von Brutjjflege bei 

 einem BockkJifer " (Zoolog. Jahrb. (Ahth. f. Syst. u.s.ic), 

 xiii., 1900, pp. 247-257, taf. .\xii.), has given an account 

 of the operations of the willow longhorn beetle (Saperda 

 jKiiniliiea) when egg-laying. The female makes a horse- 

 shoe-shaped cut in the bark of a twig, afterwards forming- 

 transverse furrows across the enclosed area. The egg is 

 laid at the central jioint of the arch of the horseshoe 

 marking. This work of the mother, beetle induces a 

 pathological condition in the wood, which leads to the 

 formation of a gall-like growth, affording a suitable food 

 suj)])ly for the growing grub. 



Musical Beetles. — The last issued part of the 

 Transactions of the Entomoloijical Societij (1900, ]>p. 433- 

 462, pi. vii.) contains an interesting paper on " Stridulating 

 Organs in Coleoptera," by Mr. C. J. Gahan. His re- 

 searches confirm Darwin's observations in the "Descent 

 of Man," that these organs are "wonderfully diversified 

 in position," though their structure is usually simj>le, 

 consisting of a series of fine striations over which- a file- 

 like area or a rasping edge, formed by some neighbouring 

 part of the exoskeleton, plays. In many cases the striated 

 area is divided into a coarser or finer portion, whence it 

 appears that notes of varying jiitch can be produced. The 

 J*;^ best known of " musical beetles " are probably the long- 

 horns, which rub the movable prothorax over a striated 

 area on the mesonotum ; but stridulating organs may 

 occur on the head, legs, wing-cases, and hind-body. It is 

 remarkable that a sinjilar organ may be developed in 

 widely different families in exactly the same position on 

 the beetle's body. Although these organs ai-e often 

 equally developed in both sexes, Mr. Gahan inclines to 

 the theory of sexual selection as their probable explanation. 

 But the presence of " musical boxes " on the grubs of 

 beetles is much more puzzling, especially as they occur in 

 groups that live underground (as the chafers and dor- 

 beetles), or burrowing in wood (like the stag-beetles and 

 passalids). In these grubs the roughened areas are on 

 the haunches of the middle legs, and the scrapers on the 

 hind-legs ; in the passalid grubs the hind-legs are so 



reduced that they are useless for anything else than sound- 

 producing. It has been suggested that '' with a number 

 of larvie living close together in the way described, it 

 would be an advantage to each to lie left in undisturbed 

 possession of its barrow. . . . Stridulation acting as a 

 sort of declaration of each individual's rights would tend 



to jsromote general harmony." — G. H. C. 

 — I < I — 



ZooLOi'.icAL. — The discovery by Major A. Gibbons of the 

 white, or Burchell's.rhmoeeros (li.sijriiis) to the north of the 

 equator, near Lado, removes one species from the list of 

 animals threatened with impending extermination. Pre- 

 viously, this animal was considered to be practically 

 confined to the region bounded by the Zambesi and 

 Orange Eivers. Among other African animals bordering 

 on extiuctiou is the mountain zebra (Eqiius zebra) of Cape 

 Colony ; it is therefore fortunate that a nearly allied form 

 has been discovered in Angola and the adjacent districts, 

 of which specimens have recently been sent to this country 

 by Mr. W. Penrice. 



Several of the West African mammals are of archaic 

 types, and it is now urged by Miss A. Carlsson that the 

 two-spotted paradoxure {Naiidiuia hinotata) is nearly 

 related to Antphictis, of the Oligocene of France. Nan- 

 dinia is also peculiar in possessing a kind of rudimentary 

 abdominal pouch, the presence of which has led one writer 

 to suggest that the creature is a marsupial instead of a 

 civet. 



A paUeontological contribution of much interest is one 

 by Prof. H. F. Osborn in the October number of the 

 American Naturalist, dealing with the question of the 

 relationship of birds to the extinct dinosaurian reptiles. 

 Although it is Considered that many of the resemblances 

 between these groujis are due to adaptation for the upright 

 posture, the author comes to the conclusion that birds are 

 probably an early offshoot from the diu^saiu'ian stock 

 lief ore that ]iosture had been attained by any of its 

 members. 



It is interesting to find that, according to a paper con- 

 tributed byProf.E.Fraas to the Fnndherichte aus Schwaben, 

 the ancient Romans were well acquainted with the difference 

 between the bison and the wild ox, or aurochs; characteristic 

 statuettes of both species having been discovered. Dr. 

 Fraas refers the bison thus represented to the extinct 

 Bos priicus, although we should have thought it more 

 likely to be identical with the living B. bonassus. 



The worm-like Balanoejlossus and its kindred form are 

 one of the most interesting groups of invertebrates on 

 account of their relationship to the vertebrates ; therefore 

 every new fact connected with them is of importance. In 

 the Transactions of the New Zealand Institute tor 1899, 

 Prof. Benham records the presence of the above-named 

 genus in New Zealand waters ; while in the Proceedini/s of 

 the Washington Academy for August Mr. W. E. Kitter 

 describes the new genus Harriinania from the Alaskan 

 coast. 



For the first time in its long career the Zoological 

 Society's menagerie in the Regent's Park has received 

 living examples of the tenrecs {Cerdetida-) of Madagascar, 

 most or all of which have been received on deposit from 

 the Hon. Walter Rothschild. The tenrecs are some of the 

 most curious and jsrimitiveof the insectivorous mammals, 

 and are entirely restricted to Madagascar. Their spiny 

 covering gives them a superficial resemblance to hedgehogs, 

 from which, however, they differ markedly in the form of 

 their teeth, as well as in many other charaeters. Several 

 specimens belong to the common tenrec {Cenfdes ecati- 

 datns), but one indicates a different type.' I'he former 

 show that the stuffed specimens in museums give no 

 adequate idea of the form of these strange animals, whose 



