Maech 31, 1922] 



SCIENCE 



351 



William Beebe, is certain to become classical 

 ground. Not only is the station most favor- 

 ably situated for research, but it is securing 

 the interest and cooperation of some of the 

 most brilliant American naturalists. Although 

 much work has already been done, it rep- 

 resents no more than a minute inroad on the 

 resources of the locality. But whatever may be 

 accomplished hereafter, it will not often hap- 

 pen that any more interesting story will be 

 written than that by Dr. W. M. Wheeler on the 

 insects associated with the plant Tacliigalia. 

 This genus of leguminous trees has long been 

 known to harbor ants within the enlarged and 

 hollowed petioles. The very name of the genus 

 was derived by Aublet (1775) from the native 

 name indicating this association. Dr. Wheeler, 

 in the short time at his disposal, was able to 

 detect no less than 50 species of organisms 

 associated primarily with the leaves or terminal 

 shoots of the plant, or secondarily with the 

 organisms thus associated. Twenty-eight of 

 these were ants, half of them representing new 

 species, subspecies or varieties. The others in- 

 cluded various kinds of insects, seven of which 

 proved to be undeseribed, and have been dis- 

 cussed in short supplementary articles by a 

 numbei- of specialists. The regular or normal 

 inhabitants of the petioles are certain ants, 

 beetles and coccids. The ants comprise two 

 species of Pseudomyrma and two of Azteca. 

 The coccids are all of one species, identified 

 as Pseudococeus hroraelice (Bouche)i. The 

 beetles have been described by Messrs. Sehwarz 

 and Barter, of the U. S. National Museum, 

 and are found to represent two species of 

 Silvanidae, one of them so remarkable as to 

 be placed in a new genus. The discussion 

 centers around these beetles, which prove to 

 have very singular habits. Both adults and 

 larvsB feed on the parenchyma of the Tacliigalia 



1 Bouche 's description, quoted by Signoret, is 

 partly inaccurate, and may not refer to a Pseudo- 

 coccus at all. The current identification of the 

 species is traditional, and probably cannot be 

 justified or confirmed. Tlie "P. liromeUce" 

 found on pineapples in Florida (Quarterly Bull. 

 State Plant Board of Florida, October, 1917, p. 

 i7) is almost certainly P. lirevipes (Ckll.), and 

 cannot be Bouche's species. 



petioles, but they also solicit and drink the 

 sugary excrement of the coccids. When a beetle 

 finds a coceid, it proceeds to apply its antennte 

 to the rounded surface of the mealy-bug's back, 

 like "an expert pianist moving his hands from 

 side to side over the key-board, or a masseur 

 with his hands in soft gloves, massaging a 

 patient." The beetle may spend as much as 

 forty or more minutes in this operation. If 

 the eoccid is in the proper condition, it dis- 

 charges a drop of liquid, which the beetle at 

 once greedUy swallows. The beetles do not 

 seem to be able to judge whether the coceid 

 is capable of responding, and will work for long 

 periods without getting any results. Not only 

 do the adult beetles behave in this manner, but 

 the larvae also solicit food from the coccids. 

 Dr. Wheeler not only describes the interrela- 

 tionships of the various insects in considerable 

 detail, but gives a most interesting discussion 

 of the general problems of instinct and habit 

 involved; a discussion which has the advantage 

 of being based on a minute knowledge of actual 

 facts, rather than general presumptions as to 

 what ought to be true. This discussion ends 

 with a speculative passage which can not fail 

 to attract the reader's attention. 



"Fouillee believes that every appetition in- 

 volves a rudimentary cognition and that auto- 

 matic behavior like that of the habits and re- 

 flexes is merely lapsed appetition. If it could 

 be shown that the latter really can have this 

 derivation and that such ontogenetic mechan- 

 isms as habits can acquire representation in 

 the germ-plasm and hereditary transmission, we 

 might be in a position to give a consistent ac- 

 count of all animal behavior, and one which 

 would lead us to regard the reflexes and the 

 tropisms as ultimaie, highly specialized end- 

 stages instead of primitive, elemental com- 

 ponents of behavior" (p. 118). 



Charles 0. Farquharson was trained in the 

 University of Aberdeen, and went out to Nigeria 

 as government mycologist. Through Dr. W. A. 

 Lamborn, entomologist at the same station, he 

 became interested in insects, and both men were 

 greatly stimulated by Professor E. B. Poulton 

 of Oxford, with whom they constantlj' cor- 

 responded. Owing to conditions arising out of 

 the war, Farquharson was obliged to spend 



