r>2 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



Fauna of the Tombs.* — M. P. Megnin has shown that the popular 

 notions that corpses formed the food of worms, and the less vulgar one 

 that they crumbled to dust under chemical and physical agencies, are 

 both erroneous. He has studied the fauna of the tombs, having had 

 opportunity for this gruesome task in connection with sanitary inquiry. 

 Corpses are devoured by insects which attack them at various and 

 definite periods of decomposition, so definite indeed that from the 

 insects on the corpse the date of burial could be proved to a medico- 

 legal investigation. Some of the insects were larval, others chrysalids, 

 others adult. 



The list is as follows : — Four species of Diptera : Calliphora vomitoria, 

 Ourtonevra stabulans, PJwras aterrima, and an undetermined Antliomyia ; 

 one species of Coleoptera, PJtizophagus parallelocollis ; two Thysanura, 

 Achorutes armatus and Templetonia nitida ; and lastly a young undeter- 

 mined lulus. These occur in definite succession on the body. 



How do these insects get down to a depth of two metres, and through 

 well-jointed boards ? Dampness and pressure cause the latter to give 

 way, and paths of penetration are readily formed. The larvae of 

 Calliphora and Curtonevra were found only on bodies which had been 

 buried in summer, and must have been deposited on the dead before 

 inhumation. The larvse of PJwras and PJiizopJiagus must be supposed 

 to penetrate the whole stratum of earth. Phoras is specially found on 

 thin bodies, Bhizophagus on the reverse. 



Phizop>hagus 'parallelocollis is a rare insect, its larva has not before 

 been known. No wonder. " Besides revealing these facts extremely 

 intei'esting from a biological point of view, this research had contributed 

 some entomological material of use in legal medicine." 



B. Myriopoda. 



Powers of Vision.'!' — M. F. Plateau contributes an historical summary 

 of past researches on the structure and function of simple eyes, and gives 

 an account of his observations as to the vision of Myriopods. 



A very simple and lucid account is given of the general structure of 

 a simple eye. This is accompanied by a few diagrammatic figures. The 

 second portion of the memoir is devoted to a summary of the various 

 opinions held in regard to the function of simple eyes, and especially of 

 those of Dujardin, Exner, Grenacher, and Patten. 



The author then gives a detailed account of his experiments on 

 numerous Myriopods, and summarizes his results. (1) Myriopods 

 distinguish light from darkness; (2) as this power is exhibited by 

 normally blind forms, the perception of light in forms with eyes may 

 be partially due to dermatoptic sensations ; (3) Myriopods see very 

 badly, and supplement their insufficient sight by touch, which is princi- 

 pally localized in the antenme ; (4) species with eyes are not much 

 better situated than those which are blind ; (5) forms with eyes perceive 

 at a distance an object placed in their path only when it reflects much 

 white light, or light belonging to the most refrangible region of the 

 spectrum ; this perception is probably in part dermatoptic ; (6) Myrio- 

 pods do not distinguish the forms of objects ; (7) but some of them can 



* Comptes Rendus, cv. (1887) pp. 948-51. 



t Bull. Acad. R. Sci. Belg., xiv. (1887) pp. 407-48 (1 pi.). 



