APRIL 26, 1901. ] 
In this family two genera are mentioned which 
possess prominent ancestral characters: Atrac- 
tocerus, with eight visible ventral segments, and 
Hylecetes, with a rudimentary median ocellus. 
PROFESSOR I. BOLIVAR describes * and figures 
a remarkable Coleopterous larva belonging to 
the family Lampyride which he received from 
the Philippines. Ata casual glance the figure 
looks much like that of some fossil trilobite. 
The thorax is extremely large and broad, the 
head apparently sunk in the prothorax; the 
abdominal segments are small and laterally 
produced. M. J. Bourgeois, who has examined 
the figure thinks that it may belong to the 
genus Broxylus, a genus close to our Calopteron. 
A. SKORIKOwW in an article on some Collem- 
bola from Spitzbergen + gives a résumé of the 
known distribution of Collembola on Arctic is- 
lands., Of the thirty-four species only fourteen 
have been recorded from more than one island. 
Six species are common to four different islands, 
five of these being well-known European forms. 
He also tabulates the percentage of species in 
the various families and compares it to the 
Russian Collembola. This shows that in the 
Arctic regions the Aphoruride, Poduride and 
Isotomini are the predominant types, while in 
Russia the Entomobryini and Smynthuride are 
the predominant forms. 
Mr. F. O. P. CAMBRIDGE has begun { a revi- 
sion of the genera of spiders with reference to 
their type species. He differs considerably 
from both Simon and Thorell, who have pre- 
viously investigated this subject. He makes 
several important changes in this part. The 
genus Drassus is held not to be a synonym of 
Gnaphosa ; Micromata becomes transferred to 
the Clubionide, with M. accentuata Walck. as 
type; and Salticus has for its type S. scenicus, so 
that Epiblemum falls to the synonymy. It is 
doubtful, however, if Mr. Cambridge’s work will 
lead to greater uniformity in the use of genera 
of spiders, as so much depends on the rules used 
* Dos formas larvarias de lampiridos. Act. Soe. Es- 
panola de Historia Natural, Vol. XXVIII., 1899, p. 
130-133. : 
f Annuaire du Musée Zoologique Acad. Imp. St. 
Petersburg, Vol. V. (1900), p. 190-209. 
tf Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., 1901, Jan., pp. 51-65. 
SCIENCE. 
669 
in type-fixation. Few of the ancient authors 
had the slightest idea of a genotype, so that 
every attempt to read this modern idea in their 
writings will be largely influenced by opinion. 
In fact there is less uniformity in the use of 
genera of spiders than there was ten years ago. 
S. PRowAZEK has studied * the development 
of a Collembolan, Isotoma grisea, and finds, 
among other interesting matters, that the 
antenne are primitively post-oral, and attain 
their pre-oral position at a later stage. 
MM. J. DANysz and K. Wize have published 
a little brochure + on the use of fungous dis- 
eases against Cleonus punctiventris, a weevil 
injurious to beets and mangel-wurzels in Cen- 
tral Europe. The value of this method had 
previously been shown by several Russian ex- 
perimenters, notably by Professor Krassil- 
stchik, of the University of Odessa. The work 
of the French writers has been principally on 
methods of inoculating the soil. They found 
that where the beet is cultivated by rotation 
every four or six years the fungus was apt 
to die out. Therefore, they have devised 
methods for inoculating the beet fields anew 
each year. 
3 NATHAN BANKS. 
WORKING OF PATENTS ACTS. 
PROBABLY no single influence has had more 
to do with the advancement of the industrial 
interests of the United States and with the re- 
sultant prosperity of the nation than the patent- 
acts. They were fundamental elements of 
primary legislation on the organization of the 
Government, and Hamilton and other of those 
early statesmen to whom so much is due initi- 
ated a patent system as a first and most effec- 
tive instrument in the development of manu- 
factures in a country previously deprived of 
those industries through the repressive legisla- 
tion of the mother country. The patent system 
of the United States became a model for the 
world and, very slowly but none the less steadily, 
other nations, one by one, took up its most dis- 
tinctive methods. The United States promptly 
* Arbeit Zool. Inst. Wien, XII. (1900), pp. 335- 
370. 
} De l’utilization des Muscardines dans la lutte 
avec le Cleonus punctiventris. Paris, 1901. 
