No. 521] 



NOTES AND LITERATURE 



of other species of termites. The variability of a "general popu- 

 lation" of T. natalensis obtained by adding together random 

 samples of 100 individuals each (the small soldiers being the 

 caste chosen) from 30 different nests. The coefficient of vari- 

 ability obtained from this population was 7.02 as compared with 

 3.02 as the average coefficient for single families (i. e., nests). 

 There is thus a reduction here, as in the wasps, of about 50 per 

 cent, in variability in passing from "general population'' to 

 single nest. The "inter-nest" correlation of the means between 

 any two castes is about 0.9. The author points out that: 



It is curious that the correlation between similar castes (large and 

 small soldiers) does not appear to be greater than that between dis- 

 similar castes (small soldiers and large workers). 

 From a study of the correlation between the coefficients of varia- 

 tion it appears that : 



In any given nest when one caste happens, say. to be particularly 

 variable, it does not follow that every other caste is correspondingly 

 variable. From a priori reasons one would have expected that the 

 variability of the different castes in a nest would have been closely 

 related, if the variability is to be regarded as an inherited character. 

 If, on the other hand, the variability is to be mainly referred to nur- 



intelligible. 



Bachmetjew (5, 6) has developed an intricate and highly 

 organized theory regarding the existence and origin of poly- 

 morphism in the normal bee colony. This theory is supposed 

 by its author to rest upon a solid "statistisch-analytische" foun- 

 dation. In reality this statistical "foundation" is of such char- 

 acter as to make one wonder at times whether the author (by 

 training a physicist and presumably familiar through that dis- 

 cipline with the elementary principles at least of the mathe- 

 matical theory of probability) is really serious, or whether he is 

 not perpetrating a irreat bioniotric practical joke. The character 

 with which Bachmetjew has dealt in bees is the number of hooks 

 on the anterior margin of the posterior wings. His central thesis, 

 which he at once proves (?) and then forthwith applies to aid 

 in still greater biologico-metrical onslaughts, is to the effect that 

 if a group of individuals (size of group not specified and appar- 



integral or discrete units ( r. </.. book number), then the eggs (or 

 seeds) from which the individuals of the group originated were 

 fertilized. If, on the other hand, but one maximum of frequency 



