Academicians Baer and Ovsyannikov personally were sure 

 of the reliability of Wagner's observations, and he, after 

 review by a committee that included Baer, Ovsyannikov, and 

 Brandt, was awarded the Demidov prize. 20 i n the same year 

 in Denmark Meinert21 confirmed Wagner's discovery, and 

 proposed for cecidia, the larvae of which kill their mother 

 during their development, the new generic name MIASTOR 

 (Greek for killer, villain) . Meinert also agreed with 

 Wagner that the larvae of the new generation arise from the 

 fat body of the larva-mother. Pagenstecher22 also confirmed 

 the fact of asexual reproduction among the larvae of cecidia, 

 but he thought the larvae to be formed, not from the fat body, 

 but from minute ova, but Pagenstecher could not establish the 

 places of appearance of the ova. 



The subsequent investigations of the reproduction of 

 Miastors were performed in Leuckart's laboratory at Giessen; 

 I. I. Mechnikov, who worked there, shared in them. In a 

 preliminary report published in NATURALIST (No. 8, 1865), 

 Mechnikov wrote that he, together with Leikart, found in the 

 larvae of cecidia special organs — "small embryos, fissionable 

 into separate compartments, swimming freely in the body cavity 

 and producing new embryos. The development of the latter," 

 Mechnikov continued, "I have also observed, and have found 

 that the small embryos are formed from direct transformation 

 of 'polar cells,' as in the genus Chironomus, as earlier 

 blastomeres ." Baer especially underlined the importance of 

 Mechnikov' s discovery, that "the small embryos or ovaries— call 



20. Spontaneous reproduction of caterpillars and insects. 

 Prof. Wagner. Kazan (Thirty- third Award of P. N. Demidov 

 prize, June 26, 1864, pp. 238-242) (review by Baer 

 together with Ovsyannikov and Brandt) . 



21. F. Meinert, "Weitere Erlauterungen liber die von Prof, 

 N. Wagner beschriebene Insektenlarve, welche sich durch 

 Sprossenbildung vermehrt," ZEITSCHR. WISS. ZOOL. 

 (1864) , 14, pp. 394-399. 



22. A. Pagenstecher, "Die ungeschlechtliche Vermehrung der 

 Fliegenlarven," ibid. , pp. 400-416. 



473 



