OCTOBEB 30, 1908] 



SCIENCE 



613 



moutli parts in all of the principal genera of 

 bees. There are chapters on the function of 

 the tongue, and on the adaptation of the 

 mouth parts to the flowers visited by the bees. 

 There are many text-figures, and two fine 

 double plates. 



Thk British Museum (Nat. Hist.) has 

 issued an illustrated guide to the insects ex- 

 hibited in its halls; evidently prepared by Mr. 

 Waterhouse." There is a general account of 

 insects, and full treatment of the lower orders. 

 The Coleoptera and Hemiptera are barely 

 mentioned, as the series is not completed in 

 these groups; and of the Diptera only the 

 blood-sucking forms receive attention. A 

 number of the illustrations are photographs of 

 nests of wasps, ants and termites. 



Mr. M. T. Swenk has given a revision of 

 our species of a part of the large genus of bees 

 — CoUetes.'' He treats of the species which 

 have black hair on the thorax of the female; 

 these are 26 in number. Besides the technical 

 descriptions, which appear very complete, 

 there is much matter on the distribution, 

 flower-habits, etc., of the various species. The 

 three plates illustrate the seventh ventral 

 segment of the male. It is unfortunate that 

 the reprint bears no indication of the journal 

 of which it forms a part. 



Nathan Banks 



SPECIAL ARTICLES 



ON A COMMUNICATION BETWEEN THE AIR-BLADDER 



AND THE EAR IN CERTAIN SPINY-EAYED 



FISHES 



A CONNECTION between the air-bladder and 

 the ear in spiny-rayed fishes has been touched 

 upon from time to time since Weber described 

 the elaborate connection between these organs 

 in the Osteriophysi (cat-fishes, minnows, etc.) 

 brought about by the chain of ossicles which 

 bears his name. In the spiny-rayed fishes, 

 however, this connection has usually been 

 through the apposition of the air-bladder to a 



""A Guide to the Exhibited Series of Insects," 

 with 62 illustrations, 57 pages, London, 1908. 



' " Specific Characters in the Bee Genus, Col- 

 letes," pp. 43-102, 3 pis., 1908; University of 

 Nebraska, Contrib. Dept. Entom., No. 1. 



cartilaginous wall where certain of the lateral 

 cranial bones have failed to come together to 

 complete the bony wall of the lower part of 

 the pterotic capsule. The perilymph which 

 bathes the inner surface of the cartilaginous 

 wall and the auditory organs completes the 

 communication. Such is the case in Lotella' 

 and in Myripristis. 



Recently I have found in Nematistius pec- 

 toralis sl more highly specialized connection 

 between the ear and the air-bladder than has 

 been noticed before among the spiny-rayed 

 fishes; the connection in this case being 

 brought about through a long tunnel actually 

 penetrating the basioccipital bone and be- 

 ing confined to that bone at its lower end. 



In Myripristis {M. occidentalis) the lower 

 part of the pterotic capsule is separated off as 

 a special sacculus or otolith chamber in the 

 outer wall of which is a large cartilaginous 

 area between the prootic in front, the basi- 

 occipital below and the exoccipital above and 

 behind. To this cartilage a large prolonga- 

 tion from the air-bladder is broadly attached. 



In Holocentrus (H. ascensionis) this condi- 

 tion is somewhat modified. On the side of the 

 cranium the otolith chamber forms an 

 elongate and tube-like prominence, which is 

 extended backwards to the side of the occipital 

 condyle, where it opens widely through a sym- 

 metrical, round, smooth aperture. The side of 

 the otolith chamber is mostly formed by the 

 prootic prolonged backwards, though the exoc- 

 cipital above and the basioccipital below as- 

 sist materially.^ The length of the chamber 

 is nearly filled by a very large otolith. This 

 posterior opening, though obviously of a more 

 highly specialized character than in Myri- 

 pristis, still occurs between the same bones. 

 It apparently has no cartilaginous covering 

 homologous with the cartilaginous lateral area 

 in Myripristis, but the thin inner membrane 

 of the air-bladder forms a sort of a loose 



'■ Reported on by T. J. Parker, Trans. N. Zeal. 

 Inst., 1882, Vol. 15, p. 234. 



- For a picture of the cranium of Eolocentrus 

 ascensionis showing the exterior of the otolith 

 chamber see " The Osteology of Some Beryeoid 

 Fishes," Starks, Proc. U. 8. Nat. Mus., Vol. 

 XXVIL, p. 611. 



