736 SUMMAEY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



The legs may, further, have a sexual function as attaching or 

 holding organs ; or, as in Mantis religiosa, Nepa cinerea, &c., they 

 may be of use in seizing prey ; and, finally, they may be used as 

 cleansing organs. The leg^ in ants may be seen to be pectinate, an 

 admirable arrangement for forms ihat live in dust and earth ; they are 

 often specially adapted for cleansing the proboscis, and for other 

 functions for an account of which we must refer to the paper itself. 



Organs of Attachment on the Tarsal Joints of Insects.* — 

 G. Simmermacher first takes lip the case of sexual organs of attach- 

 ment in the Coleoptera, where the males have some of the tarsal 

 joints more or less remarkable on account of their widened form, and 

 for the possession on the lower siirface of sUckers which are visible to 

 the naked eye. The differences between males and females are best 

 seen in the DyticidaS, where the first three tarsal joints of the first 

 pair of limbs are distinguished from those that succeed them, on. 

 account of their greater breadth ; those of the second pair are a little 

 less remarkable. The suckers that are developed belong to the group 

 of modifications which were associated together by Plateau under the 

 head of "cupules sessiles," but the author finds that the large 

 suckers have a stalk, and they are, further, distinguishable from the 

 smaller suckers by the presence of better developed and more 

 numerous ridges. The stalk is traversed by a canal. The disposition 

 of the suckers on the joints is described; 



The tarsi are moved by a strong muscle, the long axis of which is 

 parallel to that of the foot ; it is attached to the chitinous exoskeleton 

 at every joint, and consists of several muscular fibrils, through which 

 pass branches of the tracheal system ; the muscle is attached to the 

 stalk of the sucker, the movement of which is, therefore, under the 

 control of the will. The suckers are to be found on the tarsi of the 

 males of all the twelve genera of Dyticidas living in Germany; 

 the differences seen are found to be constant in genera and species ; 

 such differences as obtain are due to (a) either the tarsal joints of 

 the first and second pair of feet are partly widened out and beset with 

 suckers [Dyticus), or there are suckers on the first pair only (Gyhister) ; 

 {/3) the three tarsal joints on the first pair are very greatly widened 

 and rounded, and those of the second are but little altered (^Dyticus), 

 or, as in Hyhius^ the first pair of feet are but little altered ; (y) the 

 suckers are either rounded (Dyiicus), or elongated as in Gyhister ; 

 (8) the suckers on one and the same joint are either all similar, or they 

 differ in form or size, or in the form of their joints. A systematic 

 description of the organs is given for the different genera. 



Simmermacher is of opinion that the grooves on the wing-covers 

 of the female Dyticidfe have no function in copulation, and in this 

 he agrees with the results lately obtained by Dr. Sharp, whose im- 

 portant monograph he did not see till the first part of his own work 

 had been concluded. 



The CarabidsD and Cicindelidge are next dealt with in the same 

 manner. 



* Zeitschr. f. Wis?. ZooL, xl. (1884) pp^ 481-556 (3 pis.). 



