726 The American Naturalist. [August, 
Metamorphoses of Leptocephalus brevirostris.—A descrip- 
tion of the transformation of Leptocephalus brevirostris into Anguilla 
vulgaris has been published by G. B. Grassi and Dr. Caulandruccio. 
The reality of the metamorphoses described has been confirmed by the 
characteristics of another specimen of L. brevirostris captured last 
January by Dr, Silvestri in the Straits of Messina. (1) The head and 
point of the tail has noticeably acquired the special characteristics of 
the eel. (2) The larval teeth have totally disappeared, while the dis- 
tinctive ones seem entirely absent. (3) It lacks all traces of pigment. 
(Atti della Reale Accad. Lincei, VI, 1897, p. 239.) 
ENTOMOLOGY: 
An Ant-Inhabiting Mite.—M. Charles Janet continues his in- 
teresting records of Myrmecophilous insects (Comptes Rendus, 1897, 
p. 583-585). His latest study relates to the peculiar mite Antennopho- 
rus uhimanni and its host Lasius mixtus. The mite lives on the ant as 
an epizoon. “It fixes itself on the lower surface of the head or on the 
sides of the abdomen of its host by means of the carunculs in which its 
feet terminate, and which are furnished with a very adhesive sticky 
substance. 
These parasites are blind, but the first pair of feet is transformed in- 
to long antenniform appendages provided with very sensitive olfactory 
organs. They do not wander about in the galleries of the nest, but 
walks over the bodies of the ants, passing from one to another. When 
an Antennophorus, detached from the body of an ant, lies upon the soil 
in one of the galleries of the nest, it raises and stretches forward its 
first pair of ambulatory feet and at the same time it explores the space 
around it with its long antenniform feet. These appendages are much 
more agitated when an ant passes close by. If it pass near enough, 
the Acarid glues itself on to its body by means of the cup of sticky 
material on the end of one of its ambulatory feet, which it holds. up 
ready for this operation, and it can in this way soon climb up and fix 
itself in a good position on its host. This latter is surprised, and seeks 
to rid itself of the new comer, but failing in this it becomes resigned 
very quickly as soon as the Acarid has taken up one of its normal posi- 
tions. 
! Edited by Clarence M. Weed, New Hampshire College, Durham, N. H. 
