882 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



afford a means, which the larger opening would not afford, of the 

 smallest particle of honey being sucked up. These observations seem 

 to the author to support the theory which he propounds that the 

 honey is drawn into the mouth through the inside of the tongue by 

 meaus of a complicated pumping action of the tongue itself and its 

 closely contiguous parts, and not in any sense by lapping.* 



" Ignivorous Ant."t — G- Rafin describes " a species of ant which 

 he has observed in the island of St, Thomas, and which he proposes 

 to call Formica ignivora. A large fire of wood having been kindled 

 at a certain distance from the ant-hill, he is able to affirm that the 

 ants precipitated themselves into it by thousands, until it was com- 

 pletely extinguished." 



Aquatic Lepidopterous Larvae. t — W. Miiller-Blumenau has ex- 

 amined Catadysta pyropalis, the larvae of which live in water, but do 

 not resemble the only known example, Paraponyx stratiol da, in the 

 same way of breathing by gills. The larva, which is 1 • 4 cm. long, 

 has a flattened body, attenuated posteriorly. The gills are in the 

 form of unbranched tubular appendages of the second and third 

 thoracic and of all the abdominal segments ; they are arranged in an 

 upper and a lower group ; the number of gills varies somewhat. The 

 stigmata of the tracheal system are, as a rule, all closed, but are easily 

 to be distinguished by a black oval dot ; just as in other larvse with 

 tracheal gills, as described by Palmen, the stigmatic branches are 

 completely closed. The larvje are ordinarily found attached to stones, 

 and are rather more frequent in stagnant than in running water. 

 They form for themselves a chamber with delicate but closely spun 

 walls, and they do not leave this, as a rule, until they attain to the 

 imaginal state. The spaces at the edge of the cocoon only serve as a 

 means of exit for the faeces ; they live on the diatoms and other uni- 

 cellular algae which grow on the stones to which they attach them- 

 selves. They almost always fix themselves by their backs to the 

 stone, and in correlation with this we observe that they present the 

 remarkable condition of having their dorsal surface pale, and their 

 ventral dark. This is not, however, to be regarded as a protective 

 adaptation, but as the result of an earlier condition in which the 

 whole of the larva was darkly pigmented ; the paleness of the back 

 is due to the want of light. 



After an account of the pupa and of the homes in which it dwells, 

 the author passes to some other species of the same genus, all of which 

 are Brazilian. These are much less common, and their specific 

 characters are not yet fully worked out, but there are probably five 

 species. The gills, which are always unbranched, never attain to the 



* In this theory the author follows, though he does not quote (no doubt not 

 being aware of it) the suggestion of J. Spaulding in Amer. Natural., xv. (1881) 

 pp. 113-9, see this Journal, i. (1881) pp. 442-3. " In conveying the nectar from 

 the flower to its mouth the bee probably uses the rod and sac as a suction and 

 force-pump." 



t Comptes Rendus, xcix. (18S4) p. 212. 



I Arch. f. Naturgcsch., 1. (1884) pp. 194-212 (1 pi.). 



