372 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
young ; but as long as communication with the main colony is kept up, 
may not provide new queens ; but as soon as this is lost, many substitutes 
are provided, and thus new colonies arise. In Calotermes , strangers of 
the same species are readily received into a nest ; and even a royal pair 
may be received if they are orphaned. Jealousy is most conspicuous 
among royal forms, but is less marked than among bees. Several sub- 
stitute pairs are provided to replace the true royal pair ; but only one 
usually survives the conflict which takes place. 
The paper also contains a historical survey of earlier works on the 
same subject, and appendices on the Protozoa parasitic in Termites, and 
on the Embiidas. 
Embiidge.* — Prof. B. Grassi, in an appendix to his memoir on Ter- 
mites, makes a contribution to the study of the Embiidae. He gives a 
detailed account of the external features of the larva and the adult male 
and female of Embia solieri , which is widely distributed in Italy, but of 
which only the larval form has hitherto been known. There is no trace 
of wings in either sex at any stage. The insects live from November 
till May in ramifying silken galleries which they construct under stones. 
From May to July they make their galleries 10-15 cm. under ground, 
to avoid too great dryness. The spinning of a gallery takes from 12-15 
hours, and is accomplished with the fore-legs either alternately or to- 
gether, with intervals of rest. The silk is extruded as a liquid ; and from 
its structure and the method in which the insect works, Prof. Grassi 
concludes that it is secreted in the anterior legs, which have well developed 
glands. The Embiae become adult about the middle of June, pair at the 
end of that month, and probably die during summer. The species in 
question is degenerate in being wingless. This is probably due to the 
fact that the climate of Europe is not so hot as that of the countries 
where most species occur. The insects do not acquire wings before 
summer drought sets in, and there is a precocious maturation of the 
generative organs (neoteinia). 
The authors give an account of the internal anatomy, which the trans- 
lator supplements from his study of Embia uricliii. The systematic posi- 
tion remains doubtful. They are very remote from Termitidae, and have 
no more definite affinity with Perlidae ; nor is the much-mooted relation- 
shop with Psocidae more than problematical. Grassi thinks that they 
should be ranked among Orthoptera (s. lat.) as a special sub-order 
parallel with Orthoptera (s. str.). The translator is inclined to assign 
them a position intermediate between the Thysanura and the Orthoptera 
Oursoria. 
Development of Lepisma.j — Dr. P. Heymons has studied the de- 
velopment of this primitive form (L. saccliarina L.). The eggs are 
laid by means of a long and extremely narrow ovipositor ; their form 
is a long oval ; their colour changes from whitish to yellowish-brown ; 
the shell consists of a delicate colourless exochorion, and a firm resistant 
endochorion ; the content shows yolk-balls and fat-drops between them ; 
the segmentation is peripheral. 
* Quart. Journ. Micr. Soi., xl. (1897) pp. 55-75 (the date of the original paper 
is 1S88-9). 
t Zeitschr. f. wiss. Zool., Ixii. (1897) pp. 583-G31 (2 pis. and 3 figs.). 
