T^Iav 



[905] 



NATURE 



87 



During the last few days paragraphs have appeared in 

 the newspapers stating that a plague of flies has invaded 

 Cardiff Docks, causing much inconvenience. The flies are 

 said to have made their appearance with a southerly wind 

 on Sunday, May 14. Mr. Ernest E. Austen, of the British 

 Museum (Natural History), informs us that specimens for- 

 warded to the museum show that the trouble has been 

 caused by the fly known as Dilophus fabrilis, Linn., a 

 very common British species of the family Bibionid^, met 

 with from April to September, but especially abundant in 

 May. In colour the flies are black, with a shining thorax, 

 and measure about 5J millimetres, or rather less than a 

 quarter of an inch, in length. As in all Bibionidje, the 

 males are distinguished from the females by the large size 

 of the head, which in the former sex appears from above 

 to be entirely composed of the eyes. Of five specimens 

 sent to the British Museum, all were males. Dilophus 

 fcbrilis breeds in horse and cattle droppings, in which the 

 larva; — white footless grubs measuring half an inch in 

 length, with a dark brown head capsule at the anterior 

 extremity — are found in small masses. This fly is quite 

 incapable of biting, as are also all the other species of 

 the same family, so far as at present known, though the 

 possession of an elongated proboscis by two Mexican 

 representatives of the genus Plecia suggests that there may 

 be forms that suck blood. The occasional occurrence of 

 Bibionida; and other Diptera in immense numbers is well 

 known, and notes on the subject have already appeared 

 in these columns (c/. Nature, vol. xlviii., 1893, pp. 103, 

 127, 176). With regard to Dilophus febrilis, Mr. J. W. 

 Douglas, writing in the Entomologist's Monthly Magazine 

 for 1880 (p. 142), describes a swarm of this species at sea 

 off the Norfolk coast on September 2 of that vear. It is 

 stated that the air was obscured by the flies as by a cloud, 

 and that a schooner sailing at about a cable's length from 

 the shore was so covered with them that for five hours 

 persons were unable to remain on deck ; the air cleared 

 at about 4 p.m. The cause of these phenomenal swarms 

 is still uncertain, but it is probably to be found in ex- 

 ceptionally favourable climatic conditions, which, by 

 accelerating- the growth of the larvae and shortening the 

 pupal stage, cause myriads of flies to appear at practically 

 the same time. 



In the Biological Bulletin (February) Mr. R. S. Lillie 

 discusses the conditions determining the disposition of the 

 chromatic filaments and chromosomes in mitosis, and 

 advances a physicochemical theory, based upon mutual 

 repulsions of the particles of a colloid solution, to explain 

 the sequence of the stages in nuclear division. 



A REVISION by Mr. B. Hayata of the Euphorbiaceas and 

 Buxaceae of Japan, as represented in the herbarium of the 

 University of Tokio, forms article iii. in vol. xx. of the 

 Journal of the College of Science in that university. The 

 number of genera is limited to twenty-four under 

 Euphorbiacese and two under Buxacea;, and seven new 

 species are recorded. The author has provided figures of 

 the flowers for most of the species. 



A BRIEF survey of the progress of the Nilambur Teak 

 Plantations, Madras, from its inception by Mr. ConoUy 

 in 1840 to its present condition, when the receipts more 

 than balance the cost, is contributed by Mr. R. Mcintosh 

 to the Indian Forester (March). The harvest time is still 

 thirty-five years ahead, when the fellings are expected to 

 produce a revenue of 40,000/. a year. The difficulty ex- 

 perienced at first in getting the seed to germinate was 

 overcome by soaking the seeds before planting, and by 

 NO. 1856, VOL. 72] 



keeping the soil thoroughly moist after planting. The 

 teak forests of Burma form the subject of another article, 

 -in which Mr. R. S. Troup comes to the conclusion that 

 useful as fire protection may be in most forests, annual 

 burning in moist mixed forests of teak and bamboos is 

 decidedly efficacious. 



The appearance of a Nature-study Review, edited and 

 published by Mr. M. A. Bigelow in Lancaster, Pennsyl- 

 vania, indicates that the subject is making progress in the 

 United States. A discussion in the first number as to the 

 scope of nature-study has led to a genera! expression of 

 opinion that it differs from natural science in so far as it 

 lacks the characteristic organisation of science, and that it 

 should be confined to elementary schools ; further articles 

 on the subject appear in the March number, which is the 

 second of a bi-monthly issue. Amongst the articles giving 

 the experiences of teachers one by Dr. E. A. Bigelow 

 directs attention to the convenience of putting up the salts 

 required for plant food solutions in tabloid form. 



In Spelunca {Bull, de la Soc. de SpHiologie, tome v., 

 Nos. 39 and 40) there are interesting articles on the 

 caverns and subterranean water-courses of the Mendip 

 Hills, by Mr. H. E. Balch, and on those of the Jura 

 Mountains by M. E. Fournier. 



Mr. E. C. Davey, who in 1874 contributed to the 

 Transactions of the Newbury District Field Club an essay 

 on the sponge-gravel beds near Faringdon, with photo- 

 graphs of some of the fossil sponges, has revised and 

 amplified his article under the title " The Neocomian 

 Sponges, Bryozoa, Foraminifera, and other Fossils of the 

 Sponge-gravel Beds at Little Coxwell, near Faringdon." 

 This is now published by Messrs. Dulau and Co., price 

 5s. net, and it contains five photographic plates of sponges. 

 Echini, and Foraminifera. The nomenclature of the 

 sponges is revised in accordance with the researches of 

 Dr. G. J. Hinde, but the author does not wholly agree 

 with the determinations made by that palaeontologist, and 

 adds other species, one new species being figured and 

 briefly described. Under the heading " Bivalves," the 

 author includes brachiopods and lamellibranchs ; he makes 

 no reference to the occurrence of Belemnites, to which Mr. 

 G. W. Lamplugh directed special attention in 1903 {Geol. 

 Mag., p. 32). 



Basing his conclusions largely on the capacity of the 

 cranium, but also taking into account other characters, 

 Mr. A. da Costa Ferreira has attempted to dissect out, as 

 it were, the probable racial constituents of the Portuguese, 

 and has set forth his results in the Bulletin de la Sociite 

 d'.inthropologie de Paris (se. s^r., tome v., p. 473). He 

 finds a short, mesorhine dolichocephalic type with a 

 small head which he thinks belongs to the Cro-Magnon 

 race, and a tall, leptorhine dolichocephalic type with a 

 large head. The mesaticephals are partly attributed to a 

 brachycephalic mixture ; those of short stature, leptorhine, 

 and with a large head, are thought to belong to the race 

 of Crenelle or to a Celtic invasion. The small headed, 

 leptorhine mesaticephals are probably of Semitic origin, 

 while the mesorhines may be of Berber extraction. 



In order to make more widely known and more easily 

 accessible to American students the results of important 

 researches on the Maya hieroglyphs, printed in the German 

 lano-uage, the Peabody Museum Committee on Central 

 American Research has begun a series of translations of 

 which the first, on the representation of deities of the 

 Maya manuscripts, by Dr. P. Schellhas, has been pub- 

 lished as vol. iv.. No. i, of the Papers of the Peabody 



