ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 
53 
the temperature can be predicted within 1° C. The activity is less erratic 
for higher temperatures and the percentage probable error decreases. As 
the temperature rises to 30° C. the speed changes fifteen fold, increasing 
uniformly from 0*44 to 6 ’60 cm. a second. For a large Eciton ant a 
nominal speed of 7 • 6 cm. a second is recorded by Beebe and on a later 
occasion a speed of 15 ’2 cm. a second. There appears to be little, if 
any, real difference in speed towards and away from the nest. Large 
and small workers have practically the same speed for all temperatures 
during the summer months ; after two months of low temperature the 
large workers are conspicuously more active than the small workers. 
In the case of Liometopum the numbers on the run are as great at night 
as during the day. Maximun activity falls between noon and midnight. 
Within the limits of 14° and 38° 0., temperature seems to have little 
effect on the numbers running in the files. J. A. T. 
Larvae of Cavernicolous Trechini. — R. Jeannel {Arch.Zool. Exper., 
1920, 59, 509-42, 62 figs.). An account of the larvae of numerous 
species of cavernicolous beetles in the family Trechini. They are 
delicate, with little chitin, with ocelli absent or reduced to two or three 
pigmented patches, and with elongated and delicate mouth parts. There 
is a general but not an absolute correlation between the disappearance 
of the eye and the elongation of the appendages. When the adult has 
eyes the larva has ocelli ; when the adult is blind the larva has no ocelli. 
In Trechus breuili the retrogression of the eye has gone further, in the 
larva than in the adult, for the larva is quite blind, while the adult has 
small eyes still functional. The simpler the organ, the easier is its 
atrophic retrogression. J. A. T. 
New Aleocharinae and New Classification of Types. — Adalbert 
Fenyes {Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool. Harvard , 1921,65, 17-36). Descrip- 
tions of numerous new species and genera of these beetles and a 
discussion of the classification of the tribes of Aleocharinae. What is 
proposed is held to offer several advantages over former systems — viz. 
order (the tribal characters being arranged in mathematical progression ), 
simplicity (not more than four characters being used for the definition 
of the tribes), uniformity (the same four characters being employed 
throughout the key), and reliability (the four characters utilized being 
absolute, i.e. expressed in numbers, not relative or comparative). The 
characters used are the tarsal joints, the antennary joints, the maxillary 
palps, and the labial palps. J. A. T. 
New Australian Tabanids. — E. W. Ferguson {Proc. Roy . Soc. 
Victoria , 1921, 33, 1-29, 2 pis., 4 figs.). Descriptions of numerous 
species, new and old, notably in the hairy-eyed group of Tabanus. The 
Australian Tabanid fauna has been derived from two sources — (1) 
Malayan, from which come species belonging to Corizoneura, Silvius 
and Tabanus (excluding the hairy-eyed group) ; and (2) Antarctic, from 
which source have probably been derived the Southern Tabanids, 
including the genera Diatomineura, Erephopsis , Pelecorrhynchus, and 
the hairy-eyed group of Tabanus {Therioplectes) . J. A. T. 
Dipterous Larvae Feeding on Molluscs. — D. Keilin ( Parasitology , 
1921, 13, 180-3). In a previous paper the author described a case of 
