48 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
there can be no doubt that these secondary nuclei are derived from the 
nucleus of the giant cell. 
Polymorphism and Ergatomorphism.* — Prof. A. Forel gives an 
account of the seven different forms which occur among Formicidse 
(1) winged female ; (2) winged males ; (3) wingless workers — large 
and small; (4) soldiers; (5) ergatomorphic females; (6) transitional 
forms between (1) and (3); and (7) ergatomorphic males. Ergato- 
morphism is a secondary phylogenetic tendency to produce wingless 
sexual forms of the worker type. It may lead to perpetual inbreeding, 
as in Anergates. In Tomognathus there seems to be only one form (mono- 
morphism) — an apterous parthenogenetic female. As many as five out 
of the seven types may be illustrated by one species. Forel regards the 
polymorphism as expressing phylogenetic germinal variations fixed by 
natural selection ; nutrition and other such influences may act as 
stimuli, not as efficient causes. In short, he agrees entirely with 
Weismann. 
Formation of New Termite Colonies.! — M. J. Perez finds that a 
couple of winged termites ( Termes lucifugus) are, in proper conditions, 
able to form a new colony without the aid of workers. His experiments 
show this to be the case, and contradict Fritz Muller’s remark that a 
winged pair left to themselves had no more chance of founding a new 
colony than a couple of new-born children left on a desert island. The 
fact is that they may remain for at least five or six months immature, 
incapable of pairing, but that they survive and finally become functional 
king and queen. 
Poison- Apparatus of Ichneumonidae.J — M. L. Bordas has dis- 
covered a poison-apparatus in various species of Ichneumon ; they are 
provided with three kinds of glands, two of which correspond to the acid 
and alkaline glands of the Apidrn, Yespidse, and others. The multifid 
gland is formed of a bundle of long, cylindrical tubes, which are 
often branched at their ends ; they open into a common reservoir, which 
gives off the excretory canal. The tubular gland (or alkaline gland of 
Aculeata) may be as much as 1 cm. long and 4 cm. wide ; its anterior 
portion alone seems to be glandular, the rest serving as a reservoir. 
The accessory gland is small in size, triangular in form, and provided 
with a filiform excretory duct. 
The author states, in conclusion, that he has met with well-developed 
poison-glands in about forty species of the sub-order Terebrantia ; in 
some of them the accessory gland is wanting. 
Phosphorescence of Chironomidge.§— Herr P. Schmidt gives reasons 
for thinking that the luminosity of these Insects is due to the presence 
of Bacteria, just as in the case of Talitrus described by Giard. Unlike 
that author, however, he has not yet been able to detect the microbes. 
He bases his conclusions on the facts that there are no specially 
luminous species, but that the commonest and widely spread forms give 
off light, that the light is not localized, is independent of the will of the 
* Arch. Phys. Nat., xxxii. (1894) pp. 373-80. 
t Comptes Kendus, cxix. (1894) pp. 804-6. 
X Zool. Anzeig., xvii. (1894) pp. 385-7 (1 fig.). 
§ Zool. JB. (Abth. f. System., &c.), pp. 58-66. 
