March io, 1893.] 



SCIENCE. 



133 



place, but Equisitum rogersii is ia magnificenl development, and 

 branchlets of Walchia everywhere in abundance. 



In the Upper Permian about Cbarlottetown, the Carboniferous 

 features of the formation are almost lost. Dadoxylon, Tyloden- 

 dron, Walchia. Palissya and Baeria mingle with Voltzia, Ptero- 

 phyllum, Fodozamities, Clathropteris, ferns of Mesozoic type, and 

 abundant Eqiiisetacce. 



At Carleton a bressiated conglomerate contains many osseous 

 fragments of considerable size, which in structure have a reptil- 

 lian aspect. 



This series of deposits appears to have closed in an important 

 glacial period, for on its summit rests not only drift fragments, 

 which must have come from the distant hills of New Brunswick, 

 but a well-marked glacial moraine, now consolidated into a firm 

 mass of conglomerate five hundred yards in length, occurs in the 

 valley of the Mill River, reposing on the summit of the Permian 

 and underlying the horizontal Trias. 



The Trias contains no good deposits of plants, but such remains 

 as we find are quite distinct from those of the underlying forma- 

 tion. Even the ubiquitous Walchia gracilis has disappeared and 

 a new form taken its place. VoHzia, Palissya, Baiei-a mingle 

 with a few inferior Cycads, and the accumulations of the ancient 

 sand reefs are everywhere penetrated by the repent stems of 

 Equisetce and their peculiar bulbous nodes. 



This meagre flora is but the representative of Mesozoic plant 

 life when the district was recoveiing from, the desolation of a 

 great glacial period. Later deposits are entirely wanting, but the 

 chance occurrence of a high-typed Mesozoic reptile, theBathygna- 

 thus borealis (Leidy), in these early beds, clearly establishes their 

 systemic standing. The whole of this series of deposits is exceed- 

 ingly interesting as illustrating the transition of plant life from 

 the Carboniferous to the Triassic. 



NOTES ON THE WING-COLOR OF NORTH AMERICAN 

 LOCUSTS BELONGING TO THE SUB- FAMILY CEDIPO- 

 DINiE AND ITS SEEMING RELATION TO CLIMATIC 

 CONDITIONS. 



BY LAWRENCE BRUNEK, STATE UNIVERSITY, LINCOLN, NEB. 



One of the many features that have been noted in the study of 

 our North American locusts during the past ten or a dozen years 

 is the color-variation of the wings of the different species of lo- 

 custs of the sub-family QEdipodinae. As all students know who 

 have had anything to do with these insects, some have yellow, 

 others orange, still others red. and a very few have their 

 wings blue. While this is true, perhaps it has not been generally 

 noted that the presence or absence of humidity seems to have 

 some influence upon these color- variations in the different rep- 

 resentatives of this group that are to be met with throughout the 

 country. That sttch must be the case, I think there can be no 

 doubt. But little investigation is necessary to show that along 

 the Atlantic slopes and even in the interior of the continent as 

 far westward as the eastern edge of the great plains, red or orange 

 is the characteristic color. On the plains and in other arid dis- 

 tricts of the west and southwest the red and orange give place 

 almost entirely to yellow. In the mountains red re appears, 

 while at a certain elevation and under peculiar conditions blue 

 takes the place of both. In some species we find both red- and 

 yellow-winged individuals. There are also those in which yellow- 

 and blue-winged individuals occur. Nor are these wing-color 

 variations conSned strictly to special genera. We find both the 

 red and yellow appearing in species of Arphia, Hippiscus, Derot- 

 mema, Trachyrhachis, Psinidia, Lactista, Tomonotus, Dissos- 

 teira, etc.; while the blue and yellow axe common to representa- 

 tives of Leprus and Trimerotropis. 



We find the red- winged species most common in humid regions, 

 the yellow-winged in more or less arid regions. In the United 

 States the blue-winged forms are found chiefly in mountainous 

 regions just between the dry and wet conditions. At Pueblo, 

 Colorado, Leprus ivheeleri occurs with either blue or yellow 

 wings. Near Ogden and Salt Lake City are found both this 

 species and Trimerotropis cyaneipennis. They occur most 



abundantly a little below the upper shoreline of the ancient Lake 

 Bonneville, and from that point up and down the mountain 

 slopes for several hundreds of feet. Below there are to be found 

 yellow- winged species of Trimerotropis. above red- winged Ar- 

 phias. Blue- winged locusts are also to be met with on the lava 

 beds of the Snake River Plains, on the alkali flats of portions of 

 Montana, Wyoming, Nevada, and California, and in the Coast 

 Range of mountains in southern and Lower C alifornia. 



This same variation in wing-color among the representatives 

 of the sub-family was also observed in Mexico, where the writer 

 had an opportunity of visiting a number of different regions 

 from which specimens were secured. The dry interior contained 

 most yellow-winged and the humid "tierra calientes" furnished 

 most red-winged species; while the midway mountain regions 

 were the characteristic home for a blue-winged locust. 



The following species are found with both red and yellow 

 wings, viz. ; Eippiscus tnbereulaius, the prevailing color red, bub 

 in the Big Horn Mountains of Wyoming yellow-winged speci- 

 mens are not uncommon. Hippiscus, here in Nebraska, seems to 

 furnish about an equal number of specimens of each color. A 

 coupleof others of the genus are know to have the same wing-vari- 

 ations. Psinidia mcerata in the East is normally red-winged, but 

 in the West is yellow-winged. Two of our Arphias, at least, 

 have either red or yellow wings, while Track iji-hachis pardalina 

 may be either the one or the other — the red being most common 

 eastward and the yellow-winged westward upon the plains, and 

 red again in the Sierra Nevadas. 



So characteristic does this variation in color of the hind wings 

 of these insects appear, that I have about come to the conclusion 

 that an examination of a fair representative collection of these 

 insects would be a sufficient index of the climate of the region 

 from where they came. Possibly I may be wrong. If so. I 

 would be pleased to hear the views of others who have made this 

 feature more of a study than I have. 



CURRENT NOTES ON ANTHROPOLOGY.— XXIV. 



[Edited bij D G. Brinton, M.D., LL.D.] 



The Problem of Life. 



"Le Probleme de la Vie"— such is the title of the latest work 

 of that thoughtful and learned writer, the Marquis de Nadaillac. 

 The great and serious theme he has chosen is handled with a 

 masteiful acquaintance with facts and a severely critical spirit. 

 The sweep of his horizon is most extended. He begins with a 

 statement of the possible methods of formation of the terrestrial 

 globe, the first appearance of organic life upon it, and the suc- 

 cession of animal and vegetable organisms which have one after 

 another occupied its surface, down to the beginning of the qua- 

 ternary period. These questions fill about one-half of the three 

 hundred pages of the volume. The remainder is an anthropologic 

 study. The antiquity of man, the growth of bis physical powers 

 and intellectual faculties, and his identity throughout all ages, 

 are the points which receive especial consideration. 



The results of this long and patient research are unfortunately 

 negative. "We must resign ourselves to the avowal that science 

 can teach us nothing either about the first appearance of organ- 

 ized beings on the earth, or about their succession in time, or 

 their rapid multiplication in space" (p. 176). "I look as vainly 

 down the vista of the unmeasured past as I do in the present for 

 any positive evidence of the evolution of organisms or the trans- 

 formation of species " (p. 178). " As far as we wander, as widely 

 as we search, everywhere the individuals of each species reveal 

 the same uniformity of action, the same psychical fixity." Man 

 alone shows the power of indefinite progress. "Before such 

 facts, who -will pretend that man and beast ever sprang from one 

 common ancestry?" 



Such is the author's conclusion. 



The Early Iron Age in Central Europe. 

 With the general employment of iron, a new era arose in cen- 

 tral Europe, one which gave birth to that high culture which has 

 since focussed there the civilization of the world. An intense 



