TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION D. 727 



of oaks have been without a leaf, hare like -wiuter, and now they are only just 

 coining into leaf again. The damage to the oaks has extended for miles round 

 here. Amongst destructive slugs the greatest increase has been iu Helix aspersa, 

 H. rufesceiis, H. hispida, Zonites alliarius, Z. cellaria, Vitrina pellucida, 

 Limax maximus, L. agrestis, Arion ater, A. empiricorum, and Amalia marginata. 

 There has also been an increase in Testacella haliotidea and T. Maugei. 



Earwigs, woodlice, ants, and butterflies and beetles of numerous species have 

 been unusually abundant, but there are no wasps and very few moles. Snakes 

 and adders have also been numerous. 



Toads and frogs deposited vast quantities of eggs, as usual, in the sheet of 

 water in Shirenewton Park, but not a single tadpole resulted, nor did the eggs swell. 

 The water-newt has also been much less abundant. 



Early sown peas were twenty-one weeks before they were fit for the table, 

 and all fruit has been very late, many gooseberries are not yet ripe, and currants 

 are still abundant. Pears are scarcely swelling. Nuts are, however, an enormous 

 crop. The hay crop has been the latest ever known, and much (September 3) has 

 yet to be harvested. 



The above, together with the great snow in February and early drought, fol- 

 lowed by heavy continuous rains, that from May 1 to August 31 yielded here 

 16:i inches of water, and also the long continuance of cold weather, has made this 

 an exceptional year so far, and a great contrast to the warm summer of 1887. 



6. The Odoriferous A-pparatus of the Blaps mortisaga (Coleoptera). 

 By Professor Gdstave Gilson. 



It is well known that many insects of the Pimelids family give out a charac- 

 teristic odour. I remarked that this odour is much stronger in the Blaps than in 

 other genera of the same family, as, for instance, the Pimelia and the Apis that I 

 had observed in Italy. I tried to discover what might be the cause of this differ- 

 ence, and I am now able to state that there exists a special highly developed appa- 

 ratus. 



This apparatus is composed of two cylinders, which unite to form, under the 

 genital organs, a very short tube opening at tlie lower part of the last interseg- 

 mental space of the abdomen. Each cylinder is a sac, the walls of which are 

 covered with a great number of whitish lobes. 



This sac is a receptacle where the secretion produced by the lobes is accumulated. 



This secretion is an oil in which swims a considerable number of crystalline 

 yellow needles. 



I have not yet been able to get a sufficient quantity of this substance to make a 

 chemical analysis. 



The lobes are constituted by large cells, arranged as a sort of epithelium within 

 a bag, formed of a very thin membrane. 



These lobes are by no means real glandular tubes, because each secretory cell 

 communicates directly with the surface of the common receptacle by a tiny canal. 

 They are simple agglomerations of unicellular glands, analogous to those we find 

 in the inner surface of the shell of many insects, especially in the vicinity of the 

 genital organs. Since Leydig first described this kind of cell, many wi-iters have 

 remarked them in various species. I may mention Claus, Nussbaum, Forel, and 

 Schiemenz. The latter found these elements grouped in lobes rather similar to 

 those I speak of, in certain salivary glands of bees. 



However, as the descriptions are not sufficiently detailed, I made a closer exami- 

 nation of them in the Blaps, where they present several peculiarities hitherto 

 unmentioned so far as I have been able to learn. 



Each cell contains an apparatus producing the odorous oil. 



This apparatus itself is made up of four distinct parts : — 



1. A radiating vesicle. 2. A central ampulla. 3. An excretory canal. 4. A 

 eheath for the canal. 



