384 General Notes. [April 
Light-Perception by Myriapods.—Fourteen years ago Pouchet 
showed that muscid larve without eyes were still sensitive to 
light, and Graber (as indicated above) has recently in some striking 
experiments extended the same conclusion. Prof. F. Plateau" 
his own puicaac hie on blind Myriapods 
His method of experiment was manifold. That of Pouchet, 
that of Graber, and two other modifications were employed in 
order to determine whether the blind Myriapods were able to 
perceive light, while in another series M. Plateau sought to de- 
termine the rapidity of perception. 
His chief results are summed up'as follows: The blind chilo- 
pod Myriapods perceive the daylight, and are able to choose be- 
tween it and darkness; in the chilopod Myriapods provided with 
eyes, and in those without these organs, a considerable time must 
elapse before the animals perceive that they have passed from 
relative or complete obscurity to daylight; the length of this 
period is not greater in the blind Myriapods than in those with 
eyes; owing to the general slowness of perception, blind Myria- 
pods, although sensitive to light, may cross a dark space of small 
extent without perceiving it, or being able to find it again when 
they have left it; the rapid search for a hole in the soil is ex- 
plicable, not only as a flight from light, but as an expression of 
the necessity for a damp environment, with which the greater 
part of the body may be in direct contact.—Z. c 
England.—At a meeting of the Ento- 
mological Society of London, held December 1, Miss Elenor 
A. Ormerod read a paper and exhibited specimens of the Hes- 
sian Fly (Cecidomyia destructor) taken in Hertfordshire, England. 
The specimens undoubtedly belonged to this species, as they had 
been compared with authentic American and Austrian examples. 
Function ‘of the Palpi in Chilopods and Spiders.—Felix 
Plateau has recently investigated the question of the function of 
these organs, and has published the account of his experimen 
in the Bulletin of the Zoological Society of France (1886, p. 512). 
He reviews the previous opinions on the subject, and experiment- 
pail pee epetrates that in Lithobius, etc. ae are used neither as 
as sensory, and have described organs of smell upon 
7 Jour. de LAnat. et de la. Physiol., xxii. (1886) pp. 431-57. 
