868 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXIV. No. 626. 



has had. the patience to count the facets in the 

 eyes of 150 species of beetles. He finds that 

 the larger the specimen, the more numerous 

 are the facets, and that usually there is not 

 much difference in the sexes. The male in 

 many cases, however, has more facets than 

 the female. In Lampyris splendidula the 

 male has 2,500 facets, while the female has 

 but 300. Melolontha vulgaris has, male, 5,300, 

 female, 4,850; and Saperda carcharias, male, 

 2,200, female, 1,800. There is no general re- 

 duction in nocturnal species. 



South American termites are the subject of 

 an exhaustive paper by Dr. N. Holmgren.'' It 

 is based on collections made in parts of Peru 

 and Bolivia. Out of the thirty-nine species 

 taken, twenty-six are described as new. He 

 adopts the genera of Wasmann. Nearly one 

 half of the article treats of the ethology and 

 postembryonal development; the latter subject 

 being almost entirely new. There are chap- 

 ters on swarming, the founding of colonies, the 

 enlargement of the nest, the use of the soldier, 

 symbiosis of different species, classification by 

 the nesting habits, and the geographical dis- 

 tribution of all the species known from South 

 America. 



Dr. K. Escherich describes some interesting 

 new genera of exotic Thysanura,^ the most 

 remarkable being Assmuthia, with two new 

 species from India. This genus bears much 

 general resemblance to some Collembola, with 

 nearly equal segments, a strongly convex body, 

 and very short anal stylets. It occurs in ants' 

 nests. 



A. Diicke publishes a supplement to his 

 former article on the habits of Brazilian social 

 wasps.^ The nests of nearly ninety species 

 are now known to him. He gives a key to the 

 genera of South American Yespidse, and a 



' ' Studien iiber siidamerikanische Termiten,' 

 Zool. Jahrh., Aht. Syst., XXIIL, pp. 521-676, 

 60 figs., 1906. 



* ' Beitrage zur Kenntnis der Thysanuren,' 

 Zool. Anzeiger, XXX., pp. 737-749, 1906. 



'' ' Sobre as Vespidas sociaes do Para — Supple- 

 mento,' Bol. do Museu Goeldi, IV., No. 4, 1906, 

 pp. 652-698. 



classification by nests and habits. Photo- 

 graphs of nests are on four double plates. 



Nathan Banks. 



BOTANICAL NOTES. 

 ' PROGRESS OF BOTANY.' 



Under this alternative English title Doctor 

 J. P. Lotsy, of Leiden, has begun the publica- 

 tion of an annual summary of the recent ad- 

 vances in botany to be known under its Latin 

 title as ' Progressus Eei Botanicae ' (Gustav 

 Eischer, Jena, 18 mk.). Only the first Heft 

 of 317 pages has come to hand, but the pros- 

 pectus promises the completion of the first 

 volume during the present winter. Hereafter 

 it is the intention of the editor to publish the 

 Heften at intervals of about four months, the 

 three Heften making an annual volume of 

 from six to eight hundred pages. The part 

 before us contains four articles, viz. : ' Die 

 Ontogenie der Zelle seit 1875,' by Professor 

 Eduard Strasburger; 'The Present Position 

 of Palaeozoic Botany,' by Doctor D. H. Scott; 

 ' Bibliography of Literature on Palaeozoic 

 Eossil Plants,' by E. A. Newell Arber, and 

 ' Les progres de la Gleographie botanique 

 depuis 1884,' by Professor Ch. Elahault. The 

 treatment is considerably different in these 

 papers. The first, by Strasburger, is an ad- 

 mirable summary of the steps by which our 

 present knowledge of the process of cell divi- 

 sion, and especially of karyokinesis, has been 

 built up by additions made by many investi- 

 gators. Dr. Scott's paper is an attempt to 

 give a sketch of our present knowledge of 

 paleozoic plants, and his treatment is some- 

 what more general than the preceding one. 

 In Professor Flahault's paper the treatment 

 is still more general, and is much more like a 

 somewhat popular lecture on the subject to a 

 company of botanists who were not specialists 

 in phytogeography. It is an admirable intro- 

 duction to the present development of this 

 branch of Botany as understood by the author 

 of the paper. The bibliographical paper by 

 Mr. Arber is thoroughly classified, and must 

 prove of great service to paleobotanists. 



A full review of this promising publication, 

 which must be indispensable to every botanist. 



