624 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
that it is very difficult to make general statements, and their method of 
respiration is quite a puzzle. There is evidently considerable variation 
in the rapidity of development, and, consequently, of the number of 
annual generations ; this variation is partly due to the particular para- 
site and partly to the habits of the particular host ; in some cases 
growth appears to be very slow. As a rule, Chalcidid larvae which are 
internal feeders transform internally into naked, more or less coarctate 
pupae. Some cause a marked inflation in the host-larva by the formation 
of oval cells around the parasite. From one to three thousand parasites 
may develope in a single host. The study of agamic reproduction will 
probably prove of the highest interest and importance. According to 
the author’s estimate, the number of species of Chalcididas will prove to 
be immense. 
British Phytophagous Hymenoptera.* * * § — Mr. P. Cameron has pub- 
lished the fourth and concluding volume of his monograph. In all 
382 species of Tenthredinidae, 9 of Cephidae, 5 of Siricidae, 1 of Phys- 
cidaa, and 179 of Cynipidae have been described. The present volume 
contains an appendix which brings up our information to date. 
Copulatory Organs of Cockchafer.f — Dr. J. E. V. Boas gives a 
detailed and apparently complete account of the copulatory apparatus 
of the Cockchafer. After a general account of the parts and of their 
function he enters into greater detail as to special organs ; there is in 
the cloaca a chitinous band fused to the cloacal stylet ; the latter is of 
importance as a point of origin of muscles ; of these there are a number 
which take part in the movements of the penis. 
Eggs of Acridium peregrinum.J — M. R. Dubois has a note on the 
oil found in the eggs of this grasshopper. In colour and consistency 
the oil is like that of the hen’s egg ; in a short time it becomes rancid, 
and has the smell of cod-liver oil. It contains as much as 1*92 per 
cent, of its weight of phosphorus, but no sulphur. The author hopes 
the oil may be proved to be of use in therapeutics or commerce, when a 
prize would be offered for “ the destruction of the plague of our colonial 
agriculture.” 
j3. Myriopoda. 
Functions of Nervous System of Myriopoda.§ — Mr. C. M. Child 
has made some observations on the central nervous system of Lithobius , 
from which he draws the following general conclusions. The nervous 
system consists of, firstly, a series of centres which are capable, unaided, 
of responding to sensory stimulation by appropriate co-ordinated 
motions ; or, in other words, a series of complex reflex centres lie in the 
ventral cord. Secondly, there is situated in the head a single ganglion 
to which all the reflex centres are subordinated, and which contains also 
the centres for the eye and the antennse, and is the seat of whatever 
intelligence may be possessed. Steiner defines a true brain as a centre 
possessing a general motor centre together with the centres of at least 
one of the higher senses. According to this definition the supra-oeso- 
* London, printed for the Eay Society, 1893, 248 pp., 19 pis. 
f Overs. K. Danske Vid. Selsk., 1892, No. 3, pp. 239-61 (1 pi.). 
I Comptes Rendus, cxvi. (1893) pp. 1393-4. 
§ Amer. Natural., xxvi. (1892) pp. 1051-5. 
