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SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
of Dalbergia foliosa (Leguminosae), and by its eating causes jumping 
movements like those produced in the “ jumping bean ” ( Groton collignaja ) 
by Carpocapsa saltitans. J. A. T. 
Canadian Black Fly of Cattle. — A. E. Cameron {Bulletin Canadian 
Department of Agriculture , 1922, 5, 1-26, 9 figs.). An account of the 
structure, habits, and life-history of Simulium simile , common in 
Saskatchewan. The eggs are laid in gelatinous masses near the water- 
line of rapids'; the larvae form colonies on the stones and feed chiefly 
on diatoms ; the pupae are within shoe-shaped, coarsely woven, silken 
cocoons on the stones. There are probably four broods in the year. 
There is much mortality from desiccation. The swarms of adults may 
be carried ten or twelve miles from the river. The adult female is 
tenaciously parasitic on cattle and horses ; it sucks blood from fore- 
quarters, under-surface, and inguinal region. The development of the 
ovaries depends on the engorgement. Man is not a host. Larvae of 
may-flies and stone-flies devour the larvae of Simulium , but the sucker- 
fish ( Catastomus commersonii ) is even more effective. “ Smudge ” smoke 
is a protection to grazing cattle and horses, and so is spraying with oily 
preparations. J. A. T. 
Life-history of Flies. — E. Roubaud (Comptes Rendus Acad. Sci ., 
1922, 174, 964-6). Many flies pass the winter as larvae or as pupae, 
and there is also adult hibernation. In many cases the winter “ sleep ” 
is not the direct result of cold ; it is the expression of an internal 
rhythm. In homodynamous species— e.g. house-fly, Stomoxys , and Droso- 
phila — there is uniform vital activity, except when the temperature is 
very low. In heterodynamous species — e.g. Lucilia sericata , Mydaea 
'platyptera, Sarcophaga falculata — there are stages of unequal activity in 
the annual cycle. Generations of rapid development, susceptible to 
thermal influences, are followed by a generation sharply punctuated by 
obligatory inertia or diapause, which sets in in autumn, but is not 
caused by the cold. The diapause is constitutional ; the re-activation 
is induced by the cold. “ II faut l’hiver pour faire cesser le sommeil 
d’hiver.” J. A. T. 
Dipterous Bat-parasite and a New Chalcid bred from it. — 
F. W. IJrich, Hugh Scott and J. Waterston ( Proc . Zool. Soc., 1922, 
471-7, 1 fig.). The flying-fox, Eidolon helvum, of San Thome is the 
host of Cyclopodia greeffi Karsch, an agile pupiparous Dipteron. The 
female attaches the full-fed newly-born larvae, which immediately form 
a puparium, to parts of the trees where the bats sleep. From the 
puparia there were hatched out specimens of a Hymenopterous parasite, 
Eupelmus urichi sp. n., which might well, owing to its antennal and 
thoracic peculiarities, be made the type of a new genus. J. A. T. 
Sarcophagid Parasite of Field Cricket. — C. A. Herrick {Trans. 
Amer. Micr. Soc ., 1921, 40, 116-7). Larvae of Sarcophaga Icellyi were 
found inhabiting the general cavity of Gryllus assimilis at Manhattan. 
This seems to be a new case of parasitism in the black field cricket, but 
the same larvae have been reported from grasshoppers, freshly moulted 
or inactive forms being chosen by the fly. J. A. T. 
