ZOOLOGY. 181 
more than two years ago, have often seen humble bees entering 
these flowers. They pry or untwist the opening with their mouth 
organs and legs, and then pop into the barrel-shaped cav iy , which 
they just fill. 
Tue Desmips.—O. Nordstedt has published in the part bearing 
date 11th Sept. of the ‘‘ Lunds Universitets Arsskrift ” an exten- 
sive memoir on the Desmidee of S. Norway; over 260 species are 
described, of which some 20 or more are new. ° In the same jour- 
nal Nordstedt describes and figures a new species of Spirogyra 
from Scania (S. velata).— Journal of Botany. 
ZOOLOGY. 
EntTomoLocy IN Missourr. — On pages 471-7, vol. vii, there is 
a flattering notice of the fifth Missouri Entomological Report, 
which notice, though lacking the familiar initials A. S. P., is, I inv 
: fer, from the pen of one of the editors and a co-worker in the 
cause of economic entomology, who frequently writes over those 
letters. The notice contains some strictures which call for a 
reply : : ) i ] 
_ (1) As morphology indicates by the presence of four pairs of jointed 
` appendages in the head, and embryology demonstrates, by their early 
presence, four rings in the head, our author’s definition of an insect as 13- 
jointed does not express the whole truth. (2), He should say 17-jointed. 
or 14-jointed, counting the head as one, in a popular report of this sort. 
(3) Four rings can -be demonstrated in the head of an insect as easily as 
that the petals of a flower are modified leaves. 
(1) It hardly becomes one who, if my esas i is correct, 
-~ has in his own writings put forth different opinions as to how 
‘Many “typical” joints the head of an insect is composed of, to say 
with such assurance, that embryology “demonstrates” that it is 
composed of four. The comparatively few species that have been 
studied embryologically will scarcely warrant our receiving such a 
_ Statement as an established fact, in face of the many objections 
that can be brought against it. Most morphologists, believing 
with Sir Jno. Lubbock that there exists’ between Crustacea and 
Insecta a physiological relation analogous to that existing be- 
tween water and land vertebrata, have been inclined, with 
| Straus-Durckheim, to consider the insect head as 7-jointed, and 
ore inmect body: as hes ointed. This is a very desirable number to 
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