Miscellaneous. 317 



Grampus Stearnsii, n.sp. 



Colours dark, but variable ; the anterior portion of the body white, 

 and the sides of the body more or less mottled with grey. Dorsal 

 high and slightly falcate. Animal 12 or 15 feet loug ; teeth ^ or ^. 



Coast of California. 



Two lower jaws of this animal are in my hands for examination ; 

 and, but that no Grampus has been described from the Pacific, I 

 should hesitate about applying a specific name to them. Gray has, 

 indeed, catalogued a Grampus (?) sakamata (!) from Japan, based on 

 a Japanese account quoted by Schlegel ; but the genus is by 

 no means certain, the descriptions are conflicting, and the species 

 rests on no scientific basis. The jaws referred to are attributed by 

 Captain Scammon to his " white-headed grampus," and measure 

 from the end of the beak to the condyles 17"5 in., ditto to coronoid 

 process 16*2 in. ; height of ramus at coronoid process 5 in. ; length 

 of symphysis 2 in. ; height of gonys 2 in. ; width between outer 

 corners of condyles 14 in., ditto at inferior dental foramen 7 in. 

 Teeth in one specimen three, and in the 'other^four on each side 

 near the tip, pointed, solid, shaped like an orange-seed, and extending 

 forward and outward. 



Fuller descriptions of this and the last species will be given in .the 

 work referred to. The present species is dedicated, by Capt. Scam- 

 mon's wish, to Mr. R. E. C. Stearns of San Francisco, well known 

 for his researches in natural history. — Proceedings of the California 

 Academy of Sciences, Jan. 29, 1873. 



On Hypermetamorphosis in Palingenia virgo, and on the Analoyies 

 of its Larva with the Crustacea. By M. N. Jolt. 



M. Joly has ascertained that the larva of Palingenia virgo, when 

 just hatched, has no visible nervous system, no circulatory apparatus, 

 and no organs of respiration. The antennae and the caudal setse 

 have not yet the number of joints or the viUosity which they wiU 

 afterwards acquire. The branchiae appear at a subsequent period in 

 the form of little tubular caeca placed at the posterior angles of the 

 first six segments of the abdomen. These tubular branchiae after- 

 wards become converted into membranous expansions, which act 

 not only as organs of respiration, but also as very powerful locomo- 

 tive organs. The circulation, which had at first manifested itself as. 

 a simple oscillation of the blood, becomes perfected, and the contrac- 

 tions of the dorsal vessel become very visible. 



These facts have probably the merit of novelty as regards the spe- 

 cies under investigation ; but the author is mistaken in supposing 

 them to be new in the history of insects. M. Joly seems to be igno- 

 rant of the memoirs on the development of insects which have been 

 published out of France during the last ten years. Especially he 

 was unacquainted with the remarkable observations of Sir John 

 Lubbock on Chloeon dimidiatum, an Ephemeride nearly allied to 

 Palingenia virgo. The English naturalist has described in the 

 greatest detail the numerous moults of the larva, the increase in 



