, aed I 
i ilna eective reaches far beyond the consideration of purely 
Bs logical que 
1884.] Recent Literature, 165 
so many pages, seldom, if ever, under a thousand, replete with 
matter of interest to naturalists and to fishermen, as well as 
to the general public, together with some padding to fill 
out the portly tome. The most notable zodlogical contribution 
is Mr. Goode’s “ Material for a history of the sword fish,” a com- 
prehensive account including a notice of the fisheries. It com- 
prises ninety-nine pages and twenty-four plates, and is published 
rather to stimulate inquiry than as a complete monographic 
account of these fishes, so difficult to carefully study in nature. 
large proportion of the report is filled with translations of 
foreign papers on different piscicultural topics. 
ADOLPH’s MORPHOLOGY oF THE WINGS OF HYMENOPTERA.— 
This important memoir was published during the past year in the 
Nova Acta of the Imperial Leopold-Carolinian German Academy 
of Naturalists, under the title : “ On the morphology of the wings 
of Hymenoptera. F orming a contribution to the question of the 
origin of species and of atavism.” It is illustrated by six plates, 
five of which are filled with photograms of portions of wings, 
illustrating the variations and abnormalities in the venation. It 
'S iN Continuation of an earlier similar work, published in 1882, 
on insect wings 
gs. 
It is impossible to make an abstract of these interesting 
researches on the variation of venation, as the author does not 
Present us with one. He closes the work, however, as follows : 
€ number of drones of Apis mellifica here studied amounts 
to 1918; of these 889 specimens with 2107 anomalies of thirty- 
fight different types or formations (bildungen) were surveyed 
_the most exact manner in tables, the remaining ones only 
with reference to the rarest forms. Three hundred and twenty- 
‘IX worker bees and 125 queens were brought together for 
comparison. Among isolated deviations have occurred only 
Bae. figured on Taf. 5, fig 2; Taf. 4, fig 5, and these indeed 
for systematic uses. But now they have an interest from other 
tae of view, and especially valuable are these abnormal forma- 
the a are opposed to artificial specifications and break over 
aag ts to species which our comprehension of Nature has 
Aid une as the drones of Apis mellifica. But much is accom- 
While t if we no more hastily throw aside, but consider it worth 
with ? Eve thoughtful consideration to and compare them 
other—be they normal or deformed—venations. In the 
open, hy Species nearly exhausted. There is a possibility still 
ten these researches, of opening a new line of inquiry, 
stions.” 
