Febrvarv 1, 1001.] 



KNOWLEDGE. 



33 



sex of the same species ! The female Ecitoii lias a 

 swollen hind-body like that of a young '" queen " termite, 

 and lays a vast number of eggs. She is ofton covered 

 with a multitude of parasitic mites. Prof. Wheeler 

 gives some interesting details of rove-beetles found in 

 the nests of Eciton. His observations confimi the results 

 obtained by Wasmann who noticed tliat the " guest "- 

 beetles in the nests of these ants resemble their hosts 

 closely in form and sculpture, but often differ in colour. 

 The ants being blind, the " mimicry " of the beetles 

 is thought to deceive their sense of touch, it being need- 

 less to deceive a non-existent colour-sense. — G. H. C. 



Zoological. — At a recent meeting of the Zoological 

 Society the secretary exhibited two strips of the skin 

 of a zebra, sent by Sir Harry Johnston, from the Semleki 

 River, near the border of the Uganda Protectorate. 

 These appear to indicate an entirely unknown repre- 

 sentative of the group. 



Judging from the report of Mr. W. Gai-stang, pub- 

 lished in the November issue of the Journal of the 

 Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 

 the swarms of octopus which have recently appeared 

 on both sides of the British Channel ai-e inflicting untold 

 harm on the crab, lobster, and oyster fisheries. The 

 increase in the numbei-s of this comparatively scai-ce 

 cephalopod was first noticed in the spring of 1899, since 

 which date the creatures have appeared in such hosts 

 as to justify the application of the term "plague" to 

 the visitation. The quantity of shell-fish destroyed by 

 these voracious ccphalopods is almost incredible. For- 

 tunately the octopus itself is not difficult to capture, 

 and a fisherman can easily account for more than half 

 a hundred per week in the couise of his work. On the 

 French coast they are taken and sold for food ; and 

 the quantities caught on the two sides of the Channel 

 ought to have some appreciable effect on the numbers of 

 the pest. 



The third series of reports to the Malaria Committee 

 of the EoyaJ Society has just been issued, and contains 

 the results of observations made by Di-s. Stephens and 

 Christophei-s on the west coast of Africa, and 

 by Dr. Daniels in East Africa. The two 

 foiTuer writers urge that it cannot be too clearly realised 

 by Europeans living in the large towns of West Afi-ica 

 that they are dwelling amidst thousands of cases of 

 malaria none the less dangerous from the fact that the 

 native children .suffering from the disease do not exhibit 

 the usual signs of fever. " Malaria is essentially a 

 contagious disease, the contagion being conveyed by the 

 mosquito ; the laity must appreciate this fact and refu.se 

 to dwell in the midst of contagion, they must recognise 

 that malarial fever is a contagious disease contracted 

 (through the medium of the mosquito) from the native 

 child. Malarial fever, we are convinced, can bo avoided 

 most readily by avoiding the cause of contagion, and 

 living as far removed as possible from native huts. . . . 

 The adult native possesses an active immunity against 

 malaria, and though living under the same condition as 

 the children, constantly subject to the bites of infected 

 Anojjheleg, yet examination of his blood shows that 

 parasites are always absent.' 



The latest issue (jf the Geographiral Journal contains a 

 most interesting account of the results of Mr, Moore's 

 recent exjiedition to Lake Tangauyika and the regions to 

 the northward. Mr. Moore brings forward additional 

 arguments in favour of the marine origin of the fauna of 

 this lake Cwhich includes shells of a marine type and a 

 jeilv fish) ; and from the absence of a similar assemblage 

 of animals in the more northern lake.s, he is led to conclude 



that Tanganyika conimunioatcd with the ocean by way of 

 the Congo basin, and not through I he Nile valley. 



In the November issue of the Cninmnnicatioux of 

 the Millport Marino Biological Station, Dr. Gemmill 

 endeavours to ascertain wheiher limpets and mussels living 

 in the higher tidal zones support the theory that inferior 

 nutrition tends to the development of a prepoudercnce of 

 females. In these molluscs the sexes are not differentiated 

 until some time after the frec-swiininiug stage has been 

 abandoned ; and since the individuals left dry only at 

 very low tide are, owing to longer opjiortuuities fur feeding, 

 generally superior in size to those living in a higher zone, 

 they ought to confirm the theory, if it be true in all classes 

 of animals. No prejionderance of males was, however, 

 observable in the low-tide individuals. 



CONSTELLATION STUDIES. 



By E. Walter Maunder, f.r.a.s. 



No. II.— THE REGION OF LEO. 

 The February nights bring to the meridian the most 

 famous of all the constellations of the Zodiac; the con- 

 stellation, that is to say, of the Lion. Its primacy is 

 beyond question due to the fact that the place of the 

 sun at the summer solstice was in this constellation at 

 the time when they were first devised, and no doubt it« 

 brightest star derived its name, Regulus, or " little 

 king," as being the chief star of the paramount sign. 

 Both names ai-o traditional in many different countries ; 

 the constellatiou is the Latin Leo, the Helli'iiic i\£a.'v, 

 the Pei-sian Shir, the Hebrew Aryeh, and the Baby- 

 lonian Aru, all alike meaning " Lion " ; whilst our 

 present name for the star is the variant, proposed by 

 Copernicus, for the older Latin Rex. Ptolemy calls it 

 13'jciMa-KO^, the Arabs give it Malikiyy, the "kingly" 

 star, and the cuneifonn inscriptions of the Euphratean 

 valley refer to it as the " star of the king," whilst in 

 ancient Persia it was the chief of the four " royal stars." 

 It is its place, however, and not its brilliance?, which 

 has gained for ReguliLs this distinction, for almost all 

 the first magniiAidc star.s aro its .superiors in brigh(> 

 ness. 



The constellation of tlic Lion is very easily found 

 when the Great Bear is known. 



" IS'catli her liiiul foet, .as ru.sliiii<; on lii.s prey 

 Tlio lordly Lion griH'ts tlie loril of day. " 



The Grc<xt Bear at this season at midnight is at its 

 greatest elevation, and below it towards the south, we 

 find the Lion. The stai-s in it are formed into two 

 principal groups. The Sickle, six bright stars marking 

 the animal's head and breast, whilst a Rectangle 

 indicates its hiudcrquartcrs. A line from Alpha in the 

 Great Bear througli the third foot, that marked by 

 Lambda and Mu, and- prolonged beyond the foot to an 

 equal distance, brings us to the centre of the blade of 

 the Sickle, whilst another line from Gamma througii 

 the fourth foot leads to the Rectangle. 



The stars of the Sickle, beginning with the most 

 westerly, run in the following order, Epsilon, Mu, 

 Zota, Gamma, Eta, Alpha. In the veiy centre of the 

 trapezium made by the first four of these, is the place 

 of the radiant of the celebrated Leonid shower of 

 meteors, the showers which gave us such splendid dis- 

 plays in 1833 and 1866, and to which in truth we owe 

 our knowledge of meteoric astronomy, since they first 

 drew real scientific attiention to the subject of meteors 

 and afforded the means of solving many of the problems 

 which thev present. 



The fourth star Gamma is but little inferior to Regulus , 

 in brightness, and in a telescope it is an extremely 



