1885.] Entomology. 403 
flat track, of a sieve-like appearance, beneath which occur a num- 
ber of long, polygonal processes, apparently fused, but in reality 
separate, which are in connection basally with a stout  nerve-fila- 
ment. Rather by a process of exhaustion than from direct evi- 
dence as to their function, Dahl affirms that this organ is olfactory 
in nature. It is universally found in the Arachnida, though in 
different stages of development, being most fully developed in 
Pachygnatha.— Journ. Roy. Microscopical Society, Dec. 
IGnivorous Ant.—G. Rafin described a species of ant which he 
has observed in the Island of St. Thomas, and which he proposes 
to call Formica ignivora. A large fire of wood having been kin- 
dled at a certain distance from the ant-hill, he is able to affirm 
that the ants precipitated themselves into it by thousands, until it 
ogi completely extinguished.. Fourn. Roy. Microscopical Society, 
éc., 1882, 
EnTomotoaicaL Nores.—In a paper on the larvz and larval ` 
cases of some Australian Aphrophoride, F. Ratte describes those 
of a species probably of Ptyelus, which are true shells, contain- 
ing at least three-fourths of carbonate of lime, and resembling in 
shape some fossil and recent serpulz, some being conical, others 
serpuliform or helicoidal. The conical shells.are fixed on the 
branches of some species of Eucalyptus, the mouth turned up- 
wards, the larva being placed in it with the head downwards—— 
In his notes on the flight of insects, Dr. v. Lendenfeld contests 
the views of the French physiologists that the position and move- 
ments of the wings of insects are merely the results of the 
mechanical influence of the resisting air, and gives instances 
where muscular contraction had been clearly proved. DE S. 
W. Williston begins, in the Bulletin of the Brooklyn Entomo- 
logical Society for February, a series of papers on the classifica- 
tion of North American Diptera. The first paper is extracted 
from a monograph of the North American Syrphidæ, now ready 
for the press, and which gives the results of a careful study of 
nearly 275 species of this family. The committee on a union 
of Papilio with the Bulletin haye reported in favor of it, and 
recommend that a monthly journal be issued under the name of 
Entomologica Americana, at $2 a year. n entomological 
society has been established at Newark, N. J. In an examina- 
tion of over 1500 specimens, Mr. C. H. T. Townsend found 115.3 
males to every 100 females (Can. Ent., Dec, 1884). Mr. W. 
H. Edwards recounts, in the Canadian Entomologist for December, 
further experiments upon the effects of cold applied to chrysalids 
of butterflies. Nature for Jan. 29, gives good figures and de- 
scriptions of the two fossil scorpions from the Silurian of Swe- 
den and Scotland lately discovered. A writer in the same 
number claims that the leaf-eating ant has something to do with 
the barrenness of the pampas of the La Plata, as they defoliate 
Eucalyptus plantations, cutting off the first leaves. 
