166 Miscellaneous. 
against the walls of the cell, the larva travels towards the operculum 
in the same way that an ear of rye, by the aid of its spiny beards, 
can travel over a piece of cloth which is set in vibration.” The 
comparison employed by M. de Saussure is quite correct; but the 
spines are not, properly speaking, upon the abdomen; they are 
situated on the cerci, which have the form of two large mamille. 
Moreover the legs are covered with strong spines, which likewise 
assist the young larvee to travel in their alveolus. The larve of the 
upper part of the case are the first to issue, although these eggs were 
the last laid. Sometimes the lid of the cell closes again before the 
larva has completely issued and it perishes. Those which succeed 
in quitting the ootheca, instead of falling to the ground, are sustained 
in the air by the aid of two very long and very slender silky threads, 
fixed on the one hand to the extremity of each of the cerci, and on 
the other adherent to the inner and posterior wall of the shell of the 
ege. Very soon all the little larvee thus suspended from the ootheca 
form asort of bunch. They remain for some daysin this state; and 
when the first moult has taken place, their cast skins remain suspended 
from the ootheca. 
If these young larve were to fall to the ground in such a feeble 
state, they would become the prey of their enemies. After the moult 
they manifest their voracity by falling upon the small insects they 
meet with, and they are very active. 
The silky threads which sustain these young larve have been 
regarded as the representatives of the cerci; but in the larvee con- 
tdined within the egg the cerci already aris and are formed, as I 
have already indicated, by two short rods covered with spines. 
It often happens that, in order to change the skin, the larve of 
these insects are obliged to attach themselves to the branches by 
means of filaments. These long silky threads seem to have no other 
purpose but to enable the larva to effect its first moult secure from 
all dangers.—Comptes Rendus, July 11, 1881, p. 94. 
Observations on Cladocoryne LOGO 
By M. Dupressts. 
M. Duplessis’s memoir on Cladocoryne floccosa (Bull. Soc. Vaud. 
des Sci. Nat. 2° sér. tome xvii. pp. 108-118) furnishes us with 
complete information upon a curious type of Hydroids which is the 
sole representative of a distinct family. The distribution of the 
tentacles, their dichotomous branching, and their knobbed termina- 
tions would seem to bring Cladocoryne into the family Cladonemidee 
or into that of the Clavatellide. But in both these families the 
polypes produce Medusz, while the genus Cladocoryne is larvipa- 
rous. It approaches the family Corynide by the constitution of its 
genital capsules and by the arrangement and form of its tentacles ; 
but it is the only larviparous genus in which the latter organs are 
branched. Unless we were to modify the diagnosis of the Corynide 
we must therefore form a family Cladocorynidx, including the 
