12 



while the general proportions of the body are one-third of 

 the adult, the spring at this stage is only one-fourth the size 

 of the mature spring. 



THE SUPPOSED YOUNG OF BECKIA ALBINOS. — NIC. 



These larvae were found under boards in a greenhouse on 

 the 29th and 30th of December, 1881. They were active and 

 lively in their movements, and kept the antennae continually 

 vibrating ; pallid white, very shining, ordinarily with greenish 

 or steely-blue reflections, but with occasional tints of purple 

 and red. There are two small dark eye spots. The meso- 

 thorax is very flatly arched ; antennae with third joint shorter 

 than second, and only slightly elongate, varying to sub- 

 globular and globular ; fourth joint slender and spindle- 

 shaped, equalling in length the second and third together. 

 There would be no doubt about the larvae being those of 

 Bechia albinos, were it not that the adult Beckia has no eyes at 

 all, while these have two — one on each side. On the 21st of 

 February, 1882, 1 had several larvae of the same kind hatched 

 in confinement from egg collected in the greenhouse. The 

 eggs are white and globular, with long, white, somewhat 

 twisted hairs, which taper towards the apex. There are 

 traces in some of a raised rim at one or both poles, as I have 

 observed in the eggs of Eutomobvya niultifasciata var lanuginosa. 

 Can this be the ruptured external envelope of the egg spoken 

 of by Nicolet in' his " Recherches," and figured on plate I., 

 figs. 9 and 10 ? 



On the 31st of January, I found a larger individual, white 

 and apparently without eye spots. There seems little doubt 

 of this being a more mature form of those observed a month 

 before, so that the eye spots must have been lost in moulting; 

 but further observation is required to make this certain. 

 This specimen had sub-globular third joints to the antennae, 

 agreeing with Tullberg's characters of the genus Cyphodevus 

 (which includes Beckia albinos , in which he draws attention 

 to the very small third antennal joint, almost bullet-shaped. 

 The denies and mucrones together are shorter than the 

 manubrium. 



It is not at all unlikely that the young of Beckia albinos 

 should have eyes either before or when they are hatched. 

 The Collembola generally are provided with eyes, and it is 

 only in aberrant genera like Beckia that they are absent. 

 One would, therefore, naturally expect that the young in the 

 course of their development would follow the course of their 

 ancestors, until such a time as the special modifications of 

 their parents become forced upon them, so to speak, in con- 

 tinuation of the special characters of the species. Thus, it 

 may not be until after the first or second moult that the 



1 



