Miscellaneous. 271 



filled with the vitellus, the author saw the abdominal iuteguraenta 

 of the larvae formed, completely enveloping the vitelline mass ; and 

 he then saw the hard parts of the skeleton thicken and become 

 darker in colour, the abdomen, which was at first spheroidal, become 

 flattened and regularly festooned behind, and the stomach and its 

 symmetrical caeca formed, circumscribing the vitelline matter, which 

 was gradually retracted, furnishing the material for new organs. 

 That the business of nutrition went on actively in the bodies of 

 these larvae was shown by their depositing upon the glass much 

 white matter, which proved to consist of alkaline urates. The 

 mother had also produced a largo quantity of similar excrement. 

 The author states that these larvae lived and digested for three 

 months without his being able to induce them to take any nourish- 

 ment ; they lived on the provision derived from their mother, which 

 was contained in the stomach. 



These larvae undergo their metamorphoses and become adult, 

 when the males seek the females, fecundate them, and die without 

 taking any food, which, indeed, the conversion of their rostrum 

 into an accessory organ of copulation would prevent their doing ; 

 the females, either during or after fecundation, attach themselves to 

 animals, from which they absorb the quantity of blood which ena- 

 bles them to acquire sometimes ten times their original size, and 

 provides the materials for their numerous progeny, even throughout 

 life in the case of the males. 



The mouthless Acarina, which have been formed into the 

 genera Hypopus, Homopus, Trlchodacttjlus, Astoma, &c., but which 

 the author has shown to be nymphs, also live without food in 

 an analogous manner. Their bodies are filled with a granular 

 amorphous matter, a sort of highly vitalized sarcode, produced by 

 the liquefaction of the internal organs, and especially the muscles 

 of the larvae ; life is sustained without loss, since there are no eva- 

 cuations, in consequence of the complete absence of anal, respiratory, 

 or other apertures, during the whole of this phase of their existence. 

 The adult form which succeeds this phase is remarkable (especially 

 in the case of the adult female) for great voracity ; but many of the 

 males, like those of Ixodes, eat very little or not at all, and the 

 author believes that the males of Sarcoptes belong to the latter 

 category. 



M. Megnin remarks that this fact is by no means without a 

 parallel, and mentions the Ephemerae and the (Estridffi as furnishing 

 cases in point. He also refers to the same category the astomatous 

 and fertile form of the Phylloxera of the oak observed by M. Lich- 

 tenstein (Bull. Soc. Ent. Fr. 1876, p. 164). — Comptes Rendus, 

 Nov. 20, 1876, p. 993. 



Note on the Nidijication of the Aye-Aye. 

 By MM. 'K. Milne-Edwards and A. Grandidiee. 



Any facts that may contribute towards a more complete know- 

 ledge of the aye-aye {Chiromys madagaseariensis) deserve the 



