ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 
421 
minute fly, unusually well preserved, which forms the type of a new 
genus of the Mycetophilidae ; this it is proposed to call Necromyza. The 
ants compose the bulk of the Hymenoptera. 
Phylogeny of Lepidoptera.* — Prof. A. S. Packard is of opinion that 
the significance of Walter’s interesting discovery that Eriocephala cal- 
thella has maxillae constructed on the type of those of biting insects was 
apparently overlooked by him as well as by others. Its bearings, how- 
ever, on the phylogeny of Lepidoptera seem to be of the highest interest. 
The feature affords a basis for a division of the Lepidoptera into two 
grand divisions, or sub-orders, for which Prof. Packard proposes the 
names of Lepidoptera laciniata and L. haustellata. Diagnoses, which 
are too long to be repeated here, are offered of these two sub-orders m y 
to them the attention of entomologists should be directed. The Lepi- 
doptera haustellata may be divided into the Palseolepidoptera and Neo- 
lepidoptera. The last series may be divided into two sections, corre- 
sponding in the main to the Pupae incompletae and the P. obtectse of 
Dr. Chapman. The author concludes with a provisional genealogical 
tree of the order, based mainly on the pupal and imaginal characters, 
which we regret our space does not enable us to reproduce. 
Fungus Growing and Eating Habit of Sericomyrmex opacus.f — 
Mr. F. W. Urich states that a species characterised by the habit of 
growing and eating mushrooms is well represented in Trinidad. The 
nests of the ants which form the subject of the present note are found 
commonly about Port of Spain, in gardens, and from their peculiar 
raised entrance can be readily recognised. In young colonies this 
entrance leads into a small chamber about 6 inches below the surface of 
the ground. As the colony increases the ants do not enlarge this 
original chamber, but, piercing its side, form another near it, with a 
small entrance below. In large colonies, or those consisting of about, 
but not not more than 200 individuals, the nest consists of two or three 
chambers which open on the original excavation. This last is no longer 
used for growing the fungus in, but forms a sort of antechamber, which 
generally contains material brought in by the ants to grow their mush- 
rooms on. The mushroom gardens consist of a grey spongy chamber, 
consisting of a great number of little irregular cells and resembling a 
coarse sponge, among which are scattered larvae, pupae, and ants, The 
walls of the cells consist of small round pellets, resembling dust shot, 
and are penetrated by and enveloped in white fungus-hypliae, which 
hold the mass together. Strewn thickly upon the surface of the garden 
are to be seen round white bits about a quarter of a millimetre in dia- 
meter, and it is on these that the ants feed. 
Glandular Parts of Hymenoptera.f — M. E. Bordas has devoted a 
lengthy memoir to the study of the glands of the Hymenoptera. In all 
of them he finds that the salivary glands are thoracic, post-cerebral, and 
super-cerebral in position. Many are provided with lateropharyngeal 
racemose glands in front of the brain. All have mandibular glands, 
and some have external mandibular glands also. Other glands which 
* Zool. Anzeig., xviii. (1895) pp. 228-36. 
t Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond., 1895, pp. 77 and 8. 
% Ann. Sci. Nat., xix. (1895) pp. 1-362 ((11 pis.). 
