328 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
press of the Essex Institute, from which has issued Dr. Packard’s excellent 
work noticed in our last number. 
A larva and beetle of theElater genus have, says the Aihenceum (June), been 
recently brought from Bahia and exhibited at the British Museum. The 
following description of them has been given. When seen in the da / ght 
it is somewhat like a meal-worm, but more tapering at each end and rather 
more than an inch long, of a pale yellow colour, with a small red head. 
There are ten beautiful bright golden and green luminous spots on each side 
of the body, edging the stigmata and differing in brilliancy as the animal 
respires, the head emitting a most brilliant ruby light, like the lamp of a 
railway locomotive. The insect often lies on its side, forming a ring of 
beautiful lamps, with the ruby head in the centre. ' When the animal crawls 
in the dark it looks like a double line of yellow lamps, as it were following 
the ruby light. The light is much more brilliant and intense than that of 
the glow-worm, but the individual spots are smaller. 
Natural History at the British Museum. — In the ^‘Report ” just presented 
to Parliament, Prof. Owen reports in general for the Departments of Natural 
History, progress in arranging and improving the exhibited collections. He 
complains, as before, of want of room ; the additions numbering 35,562. — 
Dr. Gray details for the Department of Zoology the acquisition of 24,144 
specimens, of which 17,144 are Annulosa j the printing of catalogues of 
Diurnal Lepidoptera, by Mr. A. G. Butler ,* and of Heteropterous Hemiptera, 
Part HI., by Mr. F. Walker j also many important items of the additions. — 
The Department of Geology, under Mr. Waterhouse, has been employed in 
new arrangements. — The Department of Mineralogy, under Dr. Maskelyne, 
has acquired 1,036 specimens, including diamonds. Dr. Maskelyne has also 
added largely to the collection of meteorites, a subject in which he is now 
engaged in elaborate researches. 
Life on the deep-sea Bottom. — The Americans continue their important 
dredging enquiries in the Gulf Stream. A recent number of the Bulletin of 
the Museum of Comparative /joology (No. 7) gives the second series of 
reports of results. Mr. L. F. Pourtales, who supplies the record, states that 
the utmost depth reached with the dredge was 517 fathoms, or 3,102 feet, or 
over 1,000 feet beyond the late researches near Spitzbergen. The bottom 
has been divided into three regions, extending in zones around the Florida 
reefs : — 1. From the reef outwards four or five miles to the depth of 90 
fathoms; 2. From 00 to 250 or 350 fathoms; 3. The bottom of the 
channel, which does not much exceed 500 fathoms. The first region is 
barren, and covered only by dead and broken shells, showing that the fauna 
of the reef itself does not extend seaward. The second is “ rich in animal 
forms,” and is particularly interesting to the geologist. It is a limestone, 
gradually increasing by the accumulation of the calcareous remains of Corals, * 
iOchinoderms, and Mollusks. These debris are consolidated by the tubes of 
Serpul.'p, the interstices filled up by Foraminiferae, and smoothed over by the 
Nullipores. It is supposed that this will eventually thicken until the water 
is shallow enough for tlio Astreans and Madrepores to begin their work of 
founding a new barrier similar to the existing reefs. This limestone is filled 
with recent fossils, furnished in great part by the animals now living on the 
bottom, but a few contribute by sinking after death from the higher regions 
