STE J. LUBBOCK ON ANTS, BEES, AND WASPS. 167 



otoconia in the former case and single spherical otoliths in the 

 latter. The dental organs themselves usually consist of a basal 

 plate of attachment, with which the dental tubercles or fangs, 

 which always point backwards, are connected. They are subject 

 to depreciation or suppression, and further development or in- 

 crease, both wholly or as to their component parts, which has, no 

 doubt, given rise to all the diversity of character which we observe 

 in the different families of Gasteropoda. Thus we often find the 

 dental processes so large as to quite absorb the basal plates, while 

 in other cases the basal plate alone remains, as it were prepara- 

 tory to its complete extinction. It will be seen therefore that if 

 the pleura on each side gradually undergoes suppression, a typi- 

 cal pavement will be made to assume a more or less strap-like 

 appearance ; and this character will be made more deceptive by the 

 coincident development of the rhachis*. On the other hand, if 

 the rhachidian series is suppressed, the dentition will, of course, 

 be divided into two lateral portions and thus become more or less 

 decidedly double, the effect being enhanced by the greater deve- 

 lopment of the central part of each pleura. Illustrations of these 

 conditions are to be found in all the principal sections of the 

 Gasteropoda. I have only to regret at present that my time wdll 

 not permit me to make this subject clearer by special reference 

 to examples ; but I hope to do so at some future period as an 

 introduction to the second part of this paper, taking up the 

 classification of the Gasteropoda Dicecia. 



Observations on Ants, Bees, and Wasps ; with a Description of a 

 new Species of Houey-Ant. — Part VII. Ants. By Sir John 

 Lubbock, Bart., M.P., F.K.S., F.L.S., D.C.L.,LL.D., Vice- 

 Chancellor of the University of London. 



[Read June 17, 1880.] 

 (Plate VIII.) 



Power of Communication oy something approaching to Language. 



In my previous papers many experiments have been recorded, in 

 which I have endeavoured to throw some light on the power of 



* For example, in the Eolidse and neighbouring genera, the affinity of which 

 cannot be doubted, the gradual reduction from a typical pavemental dentition 

 to the pseudo strap-like form may be easily observed. 



