Bibliographical Notices. 13^ 



under surface of the body dusky brown. L. rufa, Briss. The entire 

 under surface of the body duski/ red. 



Summer clothing of the old female. — L. Meyeri, Leisl. Neck and 

 gape tinted with bright dusky brown, with numerous blackish brown 

 cross bands and longitudinal stripes ; breast white, with large dusky 

 brown spots ; the sides blotched with blackish brown cross bands and 

 spots ; belly white, towards the front spotted with dusky brown, 



7. Dr. C. Th, Siebold on the female generative organs of the Ta- 

 chince. From observations made on the following species which oc- 

 cur in the neighbourhood of Dantzic, 1. T.fera; 2. T. tessellata; 3. 

 T. grossa; 4. T. hecmorrhoidalis ; 5. T. vulpina; 6. T.nov. spec; 8. 

 T.flavescens; 9. T.flavescens} 10. T, larvarum; 11. T. larvarum} 12. 

 T. tristis; — it appears that the female generative organs of the Tachince 

 are not organized after a common type, but present very remarkable 

 differences of structure ; those from No. 1 to 7 bringing forth living 

 maggots. The vagina is the part subjected to the greatest change 

 in the various species, its peculiar forms at times curiously character- 

 izing the female generative organs of certain Tachince, In this re- 

 spect they may be properly divided into two groups : in the first is 

 enumerated all those having a long vagina, while the second group 

 contains those possessing a sac-like vagina. I. Group. The eggs col- 

 lect in immense quantities in the long vagina of this group, and here 

 are developed into maggots, which leave their egg-shell before they 

 are deposited by the female. The development of the eggs takes 

 place only in the vagina, therefore after they have slid by the mouth 

 of the seminal capsules, which are situated at the posterior end of 

 the vagina. Those eggs, quite perfectly formed, which were met 

 with above the mouth of the seminal capsules in the ovaries or ovi- 

 ducts, never exhibited any incipient development of the maggot. 

 The number of eggs which the vagina contains is immense. "As I 

 had taken the pains," says Dr. Siebold, " to count the brood in T. tes- 

 sellata, which I found in the vagina, and brought out by an exact 

 enumeration 2386 maggots and eggs, I could not bring myself to 

 enumerate those which were housed in the vagina of T". /era, as I was 

 convinced on a general view that I should have to count a brood three 

 times greater than in T. tessellata. When therefore Reaumur, in his 

 * Memoires pour servir a I'Histoire des Insectes,' t. iv. p. 417, calcu- 

 lated the almost incredible number of 20,000 larvae in the vagina of a 

 female Tachina, this in the end might not be much overrated." II, 

 Group. The female Tachina of this group produce fewer eggs than 

 those belonging to the first. " I discovered in their short wide 

 sheath generally but one large egg, in which the development of the 



