No. 569] 



NOTES AND LITERATURE 



317 



triple allelomorphism:. For this reason I am inclined to assign 

 priority to Morgan and Lynch, whose paper on linkage of genes 

 in Drosopliila which are not sex-linked appeared after my own 

 paper and before Punnett's. 

 Columbia University A. H. Sturtevaxt 



NABOURS 'S BREEDING EXPERIMENTS WITH 

 GRASSHOPPERS 

 In a recent paper, Nabours ('14) describes breeding experi- 

 ments that he has been carrying on for some years with grouse 

 locusts of the genus I'aratdti.r. His work is of special interest 

 in showing thai in a wild species there exists a number of distinct 

 types that show alternative inheritance of a particular kind. His 

 paper may be summarized as follows : 



1. Nine distinct, true breeding forms of Paratettix were col- 

 lected "in nature." These "species" (as Nabours is inclined 

 to consider them) "are mainly distinguished by their striking 

 color patterns." 



2. When an individual of one of these species is mated to one 

 of a different species the hybrid character of the offspring is 

 apparent at once, in that "all the characters of each parent are 

 represented in the F x hybrid." In other words, the hybrid is in 

 a certain sense an intermediate, and "the terms dominant and 

 recessive" are probably not "applicable at all." This point, 

 while of little theoretic importance, has a practical value in that 

 the zygotic constitution of any hybrid can be recognized without 

 further breeding tests. 



3. With one exception, each color pattern factor was found to 

 behave as an allelomorph to any other color pattern factor. 



4. The various lengths of the wings and pronotum are appar- 

 ently not inherited, as such but are determined by environmental 

 factors, especially such as tend to prolong or to shorten the length 

 of larval life. 



It appears that Nabours confuses the relation of the facts men- 

 tioned under 3, and that he supposes this to be the ordinary 

 behavior of "mendelizing characters," for he says: 



The essential result of these experiments has been the extension of 

 this principle [Mendelian inheritance] to a considerable number of 

 types of a phylogenetically low group of ametabolous insects. 



To be sure, he recognizes that other workers in genetics have 

 an attitude quite different from his, and he takes some little pains 

 to make clear his own point of view. To quote again (p. 142) : 



8 Biol Bull, XXIII, 1912 (Aug.). 



