NOVEMUKH ;lo, IS80.I 



SCIEACl-J. 



'i-2\ 



been ;»scnbed to their pollinia or stamens (e.g., Kirby 

 and Sponce, 'Entomology,' 7lh ed., 107; Willdenow, 

 ' Principles of botany,'_ 321 ; Potts, Proc. I'hilad. 

 acad., IS7S, 293). In reality the insects are captined 

 by a purely mechanical action of the fine V-cleft in 

 the saddle of the pollen-mass, which seems especially 

 adapted to hohi the tarsal hairs of insects, especially 

 certain Hynienoptera. 



The pollinia have been frequently noticed on in- 

 sects. Bee-keepers often complain that their bees 

 become so weighted with them as to be unable to re- 

 gain the hive. Potts {Proc. Philad. acad., 1S79, 207) 

 mentions one bee which bore the remains of thirty 

 pollinia; and Bennett {Pop. sc. reriew, 1S7:1, Zi?,) 

 speaks of a butterfly which had eight entire masses, 

 and the bases of eleven others, on one of its feet. Cu- 

 rious mistakes have also been made in descriptive 

 entomology through a failure to recognize these bodies 

 when they have been met with on insects. Savigny, 

 in his great work on Egyptian insects ( ' riymenoptera," 

 pi. 11), figures one as an appendage of the ma.xlllary 

 palpus of a Larrid ; and his figure is copied by West- 

 wood ('Modern classif.,' ii. 107), wlio says (p. 2(U) that 

 'it may possibly be the effect of disease.' Beakirt 

 (Proc. ent. sac. Philad., ii. .3.57) described them as 

 natural appendages of the tarsi of a butterfly, giving 

 tlicni the name of eupronychia. If I am not mis- 

 taken, a species of Mantispa has also been character- 

 ized by the presence of these pollen-masses; but I am 

 unable lo refer to the description. 



Among the numerous modern accounts of the pol- 

 lination of the genus, none is more thorough than 

 that given by Delpino, in his ' Fecondazione nelle 

 piante antocarpee,' 1867. — w. t. [427 



ZOOLOGY. 

 Rare forms of microscopic life. — Dr. A. C 



Stokes recently described and exhibited specimens of 

 a new species of Acineta, a stalked, loricate infuso- 

 rium. At the sanje time he called attention to an 

 example of the blue Stentor (Stentor ceruleus Ehren- 

 berg) which he thought had not been mentioned 

 heretofore as found in America. He also announced 

 that he had recently collected the beautiful rotifer, 

 Stepanoceros Eichhornii, which, though abundant 

 in Europe, appears not to have been previously found 

 in this country. Specimens of Salpingoeca urceolata 

 were also shown, which in no way differed from 

 marine specimens. All the above forms of minute 

 life were found in Watson's Creek, a small fresh-water 

 stream in Mercer county, N.J. — {Trenton nat. hist. 

 soc; .Vovember tneetin;/, 1S8:i.) [428 



Mollnska. 

 Pulmonata of central Asia. — K. von Martins 

 publishes a valuable contribution to our knowledge 

 of central Asiatic Mollusca. The region treated of 

 is between the frontiers of China and the Caspian, 

 for which material has been gathered by Prjevalski, 

 Potanin, and Begel. Besides descriptions of new 

 forms, it contains a review of the fauna, with a 

 tabular exhibit of the distribution of the different 

 species. The central Asiatic Helices are broadly 

 divisible into two groups: the one, characterized by 



reddish and yellowish tints of coloration, and related 

 to the Fruticicola of Europe, is more northern in its 

 distribution; the other, allied to Xerophila, inhabits 

 the Thian-Shan region, and is distinguished in 

 general by .sharper sculpture and a whitish color. 

 Several forms common to the pleistocene and to the 

 boreal region arc found here, while several sections 

 of the Helices not found in the pleistocene are also 

 absent from central Asia. The fauna is more nearly 

 related to that of the post-tertiary, or northern 

 American, than to the existing fauna of middle Eu- 

 rope. The f re.sh-water snails are European, but Unio 

 is conspicuous by its absence. A supplement by 

 Schacko gives anatomical details of several species. 

 — {Mem. acad. St. Peterbourr/, (7), xxx. no. 11.) 

 w. H. i>. [429 



Mediterranean oysters. — The Marquis de Gre- 

 gorio has undertaken a special study of the Mediter- 

 ranean oysters, recent and fossil. Two short papers 

 printed at Palermo give some preliminary results; 

 among other things determining the existence in a 

 living state, on branches of red coral, of the true 

 Ostrea cochlear of Poll, believed to have become ex- 

 tinct. We recall, however, the identification of this 

 species some tiyie since, by Dr. Jeffreys and others, 

 from specimens attached to a telegraph-cable which 

 bad been recovered from great depths for repairs. — 

 W. H. D. [430 



Mollusks at the fisheries exhibition. — Dr. J. 

 Gwyu Jeffreys prints some notes on the Mollusca 

 (>xhibited. Leaving out oysters, which were well 

 represented from Great Britain, the United States, 

 and France, the collections are not remarkable. Brit- 

 ish Columbia showed a fine example, in spirit, of 

 Cryptochiton Stelleri. This species, by the way, 

 though rare in European collections, is abimdant in 

 proper localities from Santa Barbara, fal., north and 

 west to the extreme limit of the Aleutian Islands. 

 It is eaten raw by the natives of Alaska. Norway 

 showed a small collection of fine specimens of her mol- 

 lusks, as did the museum of Gothenberg, Sweden. 

 The most important and interesting collection was 

 that of the Vega, dredged in the Arctic seas from Nor- 

 way to Bering Strait by Baron Nordenskiiild. Among 

 these was a Pleurotoma (from the description, clo.sely 

 resembling P. circinata Dall, of the Aleutian Islands), 

 which Dr. Jeffreys believes to be larger than any other 

 known species, and to which he has applied the name 

 of P. iiisiynis. — {Ann. mn<i. nat. hint., Aug., 1883.) 

 w. n. I). [431 



Worms. 



Notes on worms. — C. Vignier has published a 

 preliminary notice of his researches on -the annelid 

 Exegonegemraifera in the Comptes rendus (xcvi. 729), 



and promises a full memoir. W. II. Caldwell gives, 



in the ]>roceediiigs of the Royal society of London 

 (xxxiv. :!71), a preliminary note on the structure and 



development of Phoronis. A third preliminary 



publication is that on the development of Borlasia 

 vivipara, in the Bulletin scieulijiqnedu departenuml du 



yord (v. 402), by W. Salensky. In the journal of 



the Linnaean society of London (xvii. 78), Dr. T. S. 

 Cobbold describes Ligula Mansoni, n. sp. Twelve 



