340 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
the store of nutriment is exhausted, the larvae burst from the membranous 
tube into the perivisceral cavity of the caterpillar, where they feed on the 
lymph of their host. The essential organs are spared, and the cater- 
pillar is apparently unaffected, until the parasites are about to undergo 
their metamorphosis. M. Bugnion begins to describe the anatomy of the 
larva, but his general results may be reserved until the publication of 
the complete memoir. 
The Blood of Meloe and the Use of Cantharidine.* * * § — M. L. Cuenot 
finds that the fluid which is exuded from the tibio-tarsal articulations of 
Meloe proscarabeus and similar insects is blood. It contains normal 
amoeboid corpuscles, abundant fibrinogen which forms a clot, a pigment 
(uranidine) which is oxidized and precipitated when exposed to the air, 
a dissolved albuminoid (haemoxanthine) which has a respiratory and 
nutritive significance, and finally, dissolved cantharidine. The blood is 
exuded when the insects are provoked or attacked, and is undoubtedly 
protective, for reptiles and carnivorous insects dislike it intensely. A 
mole-cricket on which some of the blood of Meloe was sprinkled was 
thereby saved for some days from the appetite of Cardbus. The 
effectiveness of this defence compensates for the softness or iucomplete- 
ness of the elytra in vesicating insects. 
Moulting in RJiynehota.f — Dr. L. Dreyfus formerly shared the 
general opinion that the new bristles of moulting Bhynchota were made 
inside the old, and that the latter underwent a process of moulting. In 
his investigation of Phylloxerinae he finds that the suctorial bristles are 
entirely thrown off in moulting, and that entirely new structures are 
drawn out of sacs which lie at the base of the old ones. In these sacs 
the new bristles are formed from the “ retort-like organs.” 
Hemidiptera Hseckelii.J — Prof. N. Leon describes an interesting 
Ceylonese insect, which he at first mistook for a species of Halobates, 
but soon recognized as Dipterous. There are three simple eyes besides 
the compound pair ; the wings are like those of Diptera ; the mouth- 
parts resemble those of Hemiptera ; but so many of the characters are 
neutral that Prof. Leon proposes to compound the names of the two 
orders in the generic title Hemidiptera, while the specific title records 
that of the discoverer. He describes the external features, and naturally 
wishes that he could do more. 
Metamorphoses of Oxyethira.§ — Herr F. Klapalek describes the 
metamorphoses of Oxyethira costalis Curt, or Lagenopsyche Fr. Muller. 
The larva is Campodeiform, in form suggesting a queen-Termite. The 
head and thorax are relatively small ; the abdomen is expanded. The 
mouth-parts and all the external features are described. The nymph is 
spindle-shaped, broadest about the first abdominal segment; the two 
sexes are approximately the same in size. Klapalek also describes the 
“ house,” how the larvae close its openings and fasten it to the leaves of 
w T ater-plants, how the nymphs rest within it, and so on, but the special 
* Bull. Soc. Zool. France, xv. (1890) pp. 126-8. 
t Zool. Anzeig., xiv. (1891) pp. 61-2. 
X Jenaische Zeitschr. f. Naturwiss., xxv. (1890) pp. 13-15 (1 pl.l. 
§ SB. K. Bohm. Gesell. Wiss., ii. (1890) pp. 201-8 (1 pi.). 
