GENEEAL NOTES. 73 



a solid rod of cells which runs straight for a short distance and then 

 becomes coiled and twisted upon itself and provided with a distinct 

 lumen. In fact, apart from the relative size of the funnels and the 

 presence of the gonads, it would be impossible to state from which 

 segment a given section through the terminal portion of a nephridium 

 had been taken. In a later stage the large funnels of the genital 

 segments become ciliated, but this ciliation takes place before there is 

 any marked change in the tube which is connected with the funnel. 



" In the young worm which has just escaped from the cocoon the 

 funnels are ciliated, and they are each of them connected by a short 

 tube, in which a lumen has been developed, but which ends blindly in 

 close proximity to a coil of nephridia. No trace of any nephridial tube 

 other than the sperm duct or oviduct could be observed, whereas in the 

 preceding and succeeding segments the rudimentary nephridial funnel, 

 and a straight tube leading from it direct to the body wall, was 

 perfectly plain. Dr. Bergh has figured, in his account of the develop- 

 ment of the generative organs of Lumbricus, a nephridial funnel in 

 close contact with the funnel of the genital duct. It may be suggested 

 that a corresponding funnel has been overlooked in the embryo 

 Acanthodri/us ; the continuity of a structure, identical (at first) with 

 the nephridia of the segments in front and behind, with the genital 

 funnels, seems to show that a search for a small nephridial funnel 

 would be fruitless. 



"I can only explain these facts by the supposition that in Acantho- 

 drilns multiporus the genital funnels and a portion at least of the 

 ducts are formed out of nephridia. This mode of development is a 

 confirmation, to me unexpected, of Balfour's suggestion that in the 

 Oligoclneta the nephridium is broken up into a genital and an excretory 

 portion. 



" In the comparison of the facts, briefly described here, with the 

 apparently independent origin of the generative ducts in other Oligo- 

 chseta, it must, be borne in mind that in Acanthodrilus the segregation 

 of the nephridium into several almost detached tracts communicating 

 with the exterior by their own ducts precedes the formation of the 

 genital ducts." 



Recent Papers on the Natural History of New Zealand. — 



Maskell, W. M., " Icerya Purchasii, and its insect-enemies in New 



Zealand." Entom. Monthly Mag. (2). Vol. I., No. 1, p. 17-19. 

 Hudson, G. V., "The life-history of Himaethis combinata, Walk." 



Entom. Monthly Mag. (2). Vol. I , No. 1, p. 22-23. 

 Hudson, G. V., " On the flight of Atta antarctica.'' Entom. Monthly 



Mag. (2). Vol. I.. No. 1, p. 23. 

 Smith, W. W., " On Mecyna polygonalis, Treitschke, in New Zealand." 



Entom. Monthly Mag. (2). Vol. I., No. 2, p. 51-52. 

 Meyrick, E., " Mecyna polygonalis, Tr. in New Zealand." Entom. 



Monthly Mag. (2). Vol. I., No. 3, p. 87-88. 

 Hudson, G. V., " Abundance of Vanessa cardui in New Zealand." 



Entomologist, Vol. 23, Apr., p. 133. 



Occurrence of Glow-worms in a Deep Cave, — Mr. A. Pbilpott 

 of Mt. Linton station sends the following interesting note 011 the 

 occurrence of glow-worms in the limestone caves near Clifdeu station, 



