June 2 i, 1906] 



NA TURE 



Till! fourth part of vol. xxvi. of Notes from the Lcyden 

 Museum is devoted to invertebrates, more especially crus- 

 taceans and insects, Dr. van der Weele contributing three 

 papers on Neuroptera, Mr. C. Ritzema one on a new 

 Sumatran beetle, while Dr. de Man discusses and figures 

 •certain crustaceans of the genus Pal.Tcmon. 



llrNTi-n for four months in the year over a great part 

 of ICngland, and almost everywhere shot and trapped on 

 every possible occasion, the otter, observes Mr. J. C. 

 Trcgarthen in a delightful article in the June number of 

 I he Monthly Review, yet manages to survive in the British 

 Isles in a manner and in numbers which are truly sur- 

 prising. The !ox, were he not rigorou.sly protected, would 

 disappear from the greater part of England in a very few 

 years, and yet the otter, without the aid of any protection 

 and despite unremitting persecution, continues to flourish 

 in our midst, and this, too, in face of the fact that the 

 female breeds only once a year, and then gives birth to 

 but three or four cubs. The fact that he is here to-day 

 and gone to-morrow — maybe a score of miles away — is, in 

 the author's opinion, the reason of the otter's success in 

 life. It will be news to many of our readers that there 

 are no less than twenty packs of otter-hounds in England 

 and Wales ; and now that most of the " methods of 

 barbarism " have been abolished, the author enters a 

 vigorous protest against the attempts of " grandmotherly 

 legislation " to abolish an ancient and exciting sport. 



Extracts from two letters written by Mr. T. R. Bell 

 in 1003 and 1904 from India concerning certain butter- 

 flies in that country form the most generally interesting 

 portion of the contents of the June number of the 

 Entomologist's Monthly Magazine. Special stress is laid 

 by the writer on dimorphism in these insects due to the 

 time of year at which they were developed, the dry-season 

 imagos, owing to what may be described as practical 

 starvation, differing in many cases very markedly from the 

 well-fed wet-season forms. On such differences several 

 nominal species have been founded. Very noteworthy is 

 the fact that in species of the same genus the differences 

 between the dry and the wet forms frequently take quite 

 different lines. " Ocellation " on the under-side of the 

 ■wings appears, however, to be a distinct character of the 

 ■wet forms. In breeding certain butterflies, such as some 

 of the "blues," at Kanara it was noticed that males and 

 females came out in equal numbers, whereas in a state 

 of nature the latter are scarce'y ever seen, or if observed 

 are found in thick underwood, while the males bask in 

 the open sunshine. 



The Museums Journal for May contains the report on 

 the discussion following the papers on the relation of pro- 

 vincial museums to national institutions read at the 

 Museums Association Conference at Worcester last year. 

 The points for discussion ranged themselves under two 

 main headings : — (i) that museums should be taken over 

 by Government, and " run " practically without local 

 assistance ; and (2) that all important specimens should go 

 to a national collection. The first proposition met with a 

 direct traverse in one of the papers read, the author of 

 which urged that museums get on much better in pro- 

 portion as they are independent of Government aid. As 

 regards the second point, which, in the case of zoological 

 museums, related mainly to type-specimens, the question 

 ■K'as raised as to the proper places of deposition for such 

 specimens. Should, for example, Indian types go to 

 Calcutta and .American to New York, or, on the other 

 hand, should types described in England be placed in the 

 NO. I 91 2, VOL. 74] 



British Museum and those named in America be trans- 

 ferred to New York or Chicago, and so on? Incidentally, 

 it was mentioned that if a national collection received 

 such a valuable augmentation it ought to do something 

 in return, and it was accordingly suggested that the British 

 Museum should start a zoological loan collection. No 

 definite motion was agreed to on any one of these points. 



A NEW salamander from North Carolina, remarkable 

 for its brick-red legs, which contrast with the leaden hue 

 of the body, is described in No. 1457 of the Proceedings 

 of the U.S. National Museum by Dr. Stejneger under the 

 name of Plethodon shermani. New crickets and leaf- 

 winged grasshoppers, or " katydids," from Costa Rica 

 form the subject of No. 1459 of the same serial, the author 

 being Mr. J. A. G. Rehn. A species of Mimetica has the 



of type. 



" teomina," or front wings, of the usual dried-leaf type, 

 and of a form which defies description, although well 

 shown in the accompanying illustration. In part 1458 of 

 the same serial Mr. C. D. Walcott resumes his account 

 of the Cambrian faunas of China, basing his observations 

 on new material. It is anticipated that a fully illustrated 

 report on the subject will be published before the close 

 of the present year. 



The June number of the Popular Science Monthly con- 

 tains several articles of great interest to biologists and 

 geologists. Dr. D. S. Jordan has some suggestive observ- 

 ations on variation in animals and plants. He points out, 

 for instance, that in many cases adaptive characters are 

 older than non-adaptive, as exemplified by the fact that 

 flying-fish flew before the differentiation of the existing 

 genera. Mutation — or saltation, as he prefers to call it — • 

 is regarded as only an extreme development of individual 

 fluctuation, the author adding that " while saltation remains 

 as one of the probable sources of specific difference, its 

 actual relation to the process of species-forming in nature 

 remains to be proved." Prof. Carl Eigenmann's article on 

 the fresh-water fishes of South and Centr<al {" Middle ") 

 .America is worthy of the best attention of all interested 

 in zoological distribution. The leading features brought 

 to notice are : — (i) the variety of the fish-life in tropical 

 South America; (2) the paucity of family-types contributing 

 to this variety ; (3) the poverty of the Central .American 

 fish-fauna and its essential South American character, 

 e.xcept for (4) the isolation of the fauna of the Mexican 

 plateau ; (5) the poverty of the Pacific slope fish-fauna and 

 its essentially .Atlantic type ; (6) the " marine " character 

 of the fishes of Lake Titicaca ; (7) the poverty of the 

 Patagonian fauna and its essential distinctness from that 

 of Brazil ; and (8) the similarity between the fish-fauna 

 of tropical .America and that of tropical Africa. As regards 

 the latter point, the author observes that " a land-connec- 

 tion, whether a land-bridge, intermediate continent, or 

 land-wave, between the two continents is imperative. This 

 land-connection must have existed before the origin of 

 existing genera and before many of the existing families." 



