February 17, 1911] 



SCIENCE 



267 



Kingsbury's classification and grouping of the 

 lateral line organs in amphibia is found to corre- 

 spond in a general way to their innervation in 

 Amphium<L and Siren, but it is evident that the 

 external distribution of neuromasts is no exact 

 indication of their innervation. Much overlap- 

 ping of groups occurs, and there appears to have 

 taken place a considerable degree of migration of 

 neuromasts from their points of origin. The 

 occipital group of neuromasts is innervated not 

 by the lateral line nerve of the trunk, as Kings- 

 bury supposed, but by the rami supratemporalis 

 and auricularis X. The ramus lateralis VII. in 

 Amphiuma, contrary to the earlier opinion of the 

 writer and of Driiner, has no connection with 

 neuromasts. The neuromasts in Siren have a 

 much less typical arrangement than in Amphi- 

 uma. Full account to appear in Proceedings of 

 the Iowa Academy of Science, Vol. 18, 1911, 

 under the heading " The Lateral Line Organs of 

 the Urodele Amphibians : Distribution and In- 

 nervation." 



A RevieiD of Recent Work on the Development of 

 the Sympathetic Nervous System: Albert 

 KUNTZ, University of Iowa. 



Poulton's Theory of the Origin of Mimicry in 

 Certain Butterflies: J. F. Abbott, Washington 

 University. 



A biometric study of the variation of the color 

 pattern of butterflies of the two species of Limen- 

 itts, arthemis and archippus, captured in the 

 same region in New York State fails to confirm 

 Poulton's theory that the latter form has origi- 

 nated from the former by an expansion and 

 migration through the agency of selection, of 

 color patches existing in the ancestral type 

 {arthemis). The selection hypothesis by itself 

 would thus seem inadequate to explain the origin 

 of the phenomenon. 



Comparison of the Arrangement of Eggs in Nests 

 of Japyx sp. and Scutigerella immaculata: 

 Stephen R. Williams, Miami University. 

 A photograph of two specimens of Japyx sp. 

 guarding their eggs was snown. The two egg- 

 masses were placed, each in a cavity in decayed 

 wood, in such a way that only a very few eggs 

 were in contact with the substratum. The rest 

 were heaped upon these and touched nothing else 

 in the cavity. 



The attending individuals died within twenty- 

 four hours and the eggs never hatched, being at- 

 tacked by fungus. 



Precisely the same arrangement of the eggs is 

 seen in Scutigerella immaculata, which occupies 

 the same habitat. The eggs are placed in a heap, 

 few eggs only touching the moist decayed wood 

 of the substratum and the rest above and around 

 these. The female remains with the eggs to keep 

 off fungi and animal parasites and no masses of 

 eggs unattended by the female have hatched under 

 laboratory conditions. 



When Scutigerella in the laboratory is unable 

 to find a sufficiently secluded place to deposit the 

 eggs they will be laid singly here and there. In 

 every case, however, the single egg is fastened to 

 the substratum as if in preparation for heaping 

 others about it. 



Besides the well-known outward resemblances 

 between Japyx and the Symphyla — the shape of 

 the antennse, the shape of the body, the presence 

 of pairs of rudimentary legs on the sesments of 

 the abdomen — can these similar nesting habits 

 not be considered as an additional indication of 

 relationship ? 



The Vitalism-materialism Controversy: Can it be 

 Ended? (vice-presidential address) : W. E. RiT- 

 TER, University of California. 



On the Transition from Parthogenesis to Gamo- 



genesis in Aphids: S. J. Hunter, University of 



Kansas. 



Observations on the conditions attending the 

 appearance of the sexes in the aphid, Toxoptera 

 graminum, now made continuously through four 

 years, show that time of occurrence of sexes and 

 attendant behavior of the agamic and inter- 

 mediate forms continue as presented in a paper a 

 year ago before the eastern branch.' 



The problem of this year, beginning January 

 last, was the addition of the woolly aphis to be 

 studied under normal conditions, and an attempt 

 to determine what bearing, if any, modifications 

 in food supply might have on the Toxoptera 

 graminum. A duplicate series of experiments in 

 charge of two careful observers were established 

 last January under the following conditions in 

 the laboratory. Wheat was germinated in three- 

 inch pots and each treated continuously with — 

 instead of water — ^solutions of a number of salts 

 — seventeen in all, respectively. New pots of 

 wheat, similarly treated, replaced those in which 

 wheat succumbed to treatment. 



Daily observations and records were made on 

 each one of these experiments throughout the 



'Science, N. S., Vol. XXXI., p. 476, March 25, 

 1910. 



