384 General Notes. [April, 
the Kouban region. He writes to the editor of the Entomologische 
Nachrichten for Jan., 1886, that he has satisfied himself that the 
locust (Acrydium migratorium) is not peculiarly an inhabitant of 
the plains or steppes, but that preferably and originally the lower 
regions of the banks of rivers, where grow Arundo donax, Scirpus, 
etc., are its birthplace, from whence it flies out and visits the 
steppes. Acrydium migratorium is in his opinion purely a swamp 
insect. Its eggs retain their vitality even if the region in which 
they are laid has remained covered for months in the spring by 
the water of the river. The larvæ in their third stage are marked 
with red, because this color protects them in the swamp surround- 
| ings in which they live. A group of red locust larve, sitting on 
j spears of grass, give the appearance of a group of rushes bearing 
red ears. The similarity is so great “ that I myself sometimes at 
a distance could not distinguish whether the red spots in a swamp 
were a colony of locusts or a group of rushes.” 
ENTOMOLOGICAL News.—In a paper on Parnassius, a genus of 
butterflies, read by Mr. H. J. Elwes at the meeting of the Zoo- 
logical Society of London, held Jan. 10, the author paid special 
attention to the development, functions, and structure of the horny 
pouch found in the females of this genus. He also described the 
habits, distribution and variations of twenty-three species which he 
recognized in the genus. - The paper was supplemented by Pro- 
essor Howe’s remarks on his examination of the anatomy of Far- 
nassius apollo, and by Mr. Thomson’s notes on the habits of a 
insects as bred in the society’s gardens in 1885. Dr. Witlaczi 
in Zodlogischer Anzeiger, Jan. 18, reaffirms against H. Wedde that 
the Aphides and Coccide suck their food in the same manner as 
Lepidoptera and other insects. : 
jewa gives the fesult of his studies in the structure and function 
of the heart of insects, to which we shall call attention more fully 
hereafter ——Mr. A. D. Michael has described before the Lanse 
Society of London (Nov. 19), the remarkable nymphal stage W 
an Oribatid (Zegeocranus cepheiformis), during which the pe 
carries on its back as concentric shields the dorsal portions of 
its A 
-true auditory organ exists in the antennary fossa beneath the bas axe 
¢ eal system is unlike the majority of that of the eg 
‘differing in the branched spiral filament not taking origin directly 
_ from the stigmata themselves———A number of new s aur : 
_ American myriopods are described by F. Meinert in the Froces™ 
_ ings of the American Philosophical Society. - 
