944 SUMMARY OF CUUUENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



rings or furrows discovered by Landois are always present, though often 

 indistinct or incomplete. When present they ordinarily occupy the 

 "rcater i)art of the basal spot, and arc more or less parallel. They aro 

 best developed on the part of the surface wbicli, in the natural position 

 of tlie palps, is directed upwards and inwards; it is this part which is 

 most commonly pressed against the basal part of the proboscis, which is 

 provided with a raised ridge. 



In addition to these rings there aro peculiar forms of hairs which do 

 not seem to have ever yet been described. They arc conical in form, 

 chitinous, and surrounded at their base by a circular membrane ; they aro 

 all connected with nerve-fibres, on which, just before they enter the cone, 

 a ganglionic swelling can be seen. There are several hundreds of these 

 cones, and, in addition to them, there are immense numbers of similar, 

 bnt much smaller, conical bodies. In the Microlepidoptcra tliere aro 

 sometimes also pits or pores, and sometimes these pits are alone present. 



There can be no doubt that we have here to do with specific sensory 

 organs, but what is the special sense we do not yet know. The author 

 is inclined to think tliat it is of an olfactory nature. The cones exhibit 

 the greatest variability and higliest grade of development in the Rhopa- 

 locera, and their variations may be of use in the definition of families 

 and genera. In the Butterflies proper the organ in question is always 

 much larger and better developed in the male than in the female. 



Development of Musca.* — Prof. 0. Ciitschli gives an account of some 

 observations by two of his pupils, Ilcrren C. Maurice and H. Debus, on 

 the develoi)ment of the fly ; it is, unfortunately, so written as to bo 

 unintelligible without reference to the figui'es by which it is illustrated. 

 It would appear that Musca differs from other Metazoa with a similar 

 mode of development of the mesoderm in that the extended gastrula- 

 invagination is only differentiated into enduderm and mesoderm at its 

 hinder end, and that the greater part corresponds only to the part of the 

 endoderm which forms the ca?lomic diverticula. 



Larva of Sarcophila Wohlfartii in Gum of Man.t — Viof. E. Brandt 

 relates a case of the jirescncc of the larva of Sarco^yhila Wohlfartii in 

 the gums of human patients. This viviparous creature is very active in 

 the hot part of the day (from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.), and attacks men sleeping 

 in the open, and ungulates, but does not go into rooms or stalls. The 

 gum of the patient was inflamed and swollen, but all troubles ceased as 

 soon as the larvfe were pressed out. The larvfB found in this case were 

 in the second stage of development, tliat marked by the possession of 

 only two oral hooks, two stigmatic clefts on the hinder stigma-plates, 

 and by the peculiar arrangement of the spines which has been figured by 

 Portschinsky in his monograph. 



Brain of Somomya.| — Dr. G. Cuccati has investigated the minute 

 structure of the brain of Somomya eri/throcephala. 



The otic-ophthalmic bundle, the " eorpo forcato " in the brain, the 

 antennary lobes, the " olfactory glomeruli," the otic ganglia, the cerebral 

 peduncles, &e., are referred to with appalling exactness, and the results 

 are compared with the author's previous investigation of the supra- 

 oesophagcal ganglia of Orthoptera. 



• Morpliol. Jahrb., xiv. (1888) pp. 170-4 (2 figs). 



+ Zool. ADZtig., xi. (1888) pp. 560-1. 



X Boll. Soc. Entom. Ital., xix. (1887, pul). 1888) pp. 286-8. 



