1887 | Entomology. | 383 
be easily seen swimming about in search of food and ee 
themselves to any plump carcass that came in their wa 
placed in ordinary alee alcohol they would live bata 
three and four hour 
As is well a the prevailing color of the leaves of this 
plant is a livid red, and it is worthy of note that the commonest 
of the larger insects found within them belonged to that family 
which is said to be especially attracted by this color,—the Ves- 
æ or wasps. It is probable, also, that this color may have 
some attractive influence over various two-winged flies,—includ- 
ing the parents of the larve mentioned above.—Clarence M. 
Weed, Champaign, Tii. 
Bacteriological Studies in Arthropods.—M. E. G. Balbiani* 
finds that saprophytic bacilli, when inoculated into the blood, are 
pathogenic for a large number of Arthropods. Death follows 
in from twelve to forty-eight hours, according to external tem- 
perature, number and origin of spores, size, age, and ceed 
of the subject. They die with all of the symptoms which char- ` 
acterize the disease known as “ flacherie” in silk-worms, a malady 
determined by the development of various species of bacteria in 
the organism. Insects of the different orders are not equally 
susceptible; those which contain a small quantity of blood in 
which the relative proportion of blood is greater, and (above all) 
in which the pet is richer in corpuscles; this is specially the 
case with the Gryllide. 
The resistance is 5 dag to the corpuscles seizing by their pseu- 
tissue, which seize on and destroy the poisonous organisms. 
which exists between the two kinds of cells. Death is delayed 
if the spores are kept for more than six years in a state of desic- 
cation.— Four. Roy. Micr. Soc., 1887, p. 70. 
Ants and Ultra-Violet Rays.—Whilst Sir J. Lubbock con- 
siders that ants perceive the ultra-violet rays by means of their 
eyes, Graber finds, by removing these organs from Tritons, etc., 
that it is by the skin that these rays are perceived. Prof. A. 
Forel has made experiments in order to answer the question 
whether ants perceive these rays by means of their eyes, or by 
the skin; and he finds that it is mainly by the former organs, 
but admits that “ photodermatic” perception may accompany the 
optic sense. Camponotus ligniperdus and Formica fusca served 
for his experiments, and a “solution d’esculine” was used for 
absorbing the ultra-violet rays.—Z. c., p. 73. 
* Comptes Rendus, ciii..(1886) p. 952-54. 
