570 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



A butterfly — Paroponyxa stratiolata — fills its cocoon with air, probably 

 in the same way, for the leaf to which it is attached is often pierced 

 with uumerons canals. 



Dorsal Appendages.* — Miss A. M. Fieldo reports finding at Swatow, 

 in still 2)Ools of fresh w^ater, an insect or insect-larva which bore on 

 its back four longitudinal rows of jointed appendages, of nearly the same 

 length as its body, and capable of being raised, lowered, or bent, either 

 by the insect or by external pressure. The colour varies with the 

 habitat from pale green to black. The head is flat, with a pair of largo 

 eyes made up of six ocelli ; the antcnnso are short and six-jointed, and 

 the biting mouth-parts strong and horny. The three thoracic segments 

 bear three pairs of six-jointed legs ending in a long claw. The abdomen 

 has nine segments, the last bearing ventrally a pair of long, sharp, 

 jointed styles. 



The body is cylindrical, tapering posteriorly, with the ventral surface 

 flattened. AH the segments except the last bear dorsally four tapering 

 jointed tubes. The main tracheal trunks run, one on each side, between 

 the proximal ends of these two rows of appendages, through which they 

 send long straight branches. 



So-called Digestive Stomach of some Ants.f — Prof. C. Emery has 

 examined the stomach of most genera of Camponotidse and Dolichoderidfe, 

 as well as several Cryptoceridre, and some members of other groups. In 

 the first of these the crop is succeeded by the calyx, in which aro four 

 calycinal lamellfe, held together by a continuation of the crop. Further 

 back are valves, and still further back there is an enlargement. Between 

 this apparatus and the chyle-intestine there is a narrow tube which ends 

 in the latter by a knob. Between the four lamellae the intermediate 

 membrane forms four folds which project into the lumen of the cuj) ; at 

 the open concavities of the folds are the bundles of longitudinal muscles. 

 The whole is surrounded by the circularly arranged transverse muscu- 

 lature. In every section of a lamella we may distinguish a median 

 portion and tw'o wings ; the former contains a groove, which is sharply 

 limited externally, but seems internally to lose itself gradually on the 

 wings. In these two layers may be recognized, the outer of which, as 

 well as the wall of the groove, should be regarded as the continuation 

 of the chitinous membrane of the crop ; the striation which is observed 

 is the expression of fine i^ore-canals. The inner layer of the wings is 

 formed by small very closely packed chitinous hairs. In the valves 

 there are clefts, and these the author looks upon as the continuation of 

 the clefts which connect the groove of the lamellaB with their free 

 surface ; there is no homologue of the wings in the region of the valves. 

 The musculature of the stomach, which has been correctly described by 

 Forel, consists of longitudinal and transverse bundles ; the latter form a 

 powerful system of constrictors : the greater part of the longitudinal 

 bundles are continued on to the croj), and become lost in its muscular 

 network. 



After describing a number of forms, the author proceeds to discuss 

 the morphology and physiology of what should be called the pumping 

 stomach. In the Camponotidse and such Dolichoderidae as have a 

 "conical bell," the organ consists of parts which have two difierent 



* Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. riiilacl, 1888, pp. 129-30 (1 pi). 

 t Zcitschr, f. Wiss. Zool., xlvi. (.1888) pp. 378-412 (3 pis.). 



