ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 
185 
passes into numerous filaments around tlie Malpighian tubules — the acid 
filaments of the fatty body ; the indigo is absorbed by the Malpighian 
tubules ; and the Chinese black is found in the lymphatic glands. A 
variable number of these (2-10) occur in each segment after the second. 
They absorb not only Chinese black but all sorts of dust, red blood- 
corpuscles, milk-globules, and bacteria. They are distinctively phago- 
cytic glands. Numerous experiments bear this out. In Iulidae a similar 
system seems to be represented by lymphoid cells, which line a sinus 
surrounding the ventral nerve-cord. 
Climbing Powers of Millepedes.* — Dr. C. Verhoeff comments on 
vom Rath’s conclusion that Iulidfe could move on vertical or even over- 
hanging glass plates, or along the under surface of a glass lid. This 
seemed to Verhoeff physiologically impossible, since the legs end in 
simple claws, which, though well suited for movement on rough or fairly 
soft surfaces, are unsuited for movement on glass. Experiments with 
Tachypodoiulus albipes C. K., Micropodoiulus ligulifer Latz., lulus nitidus 
Verh., Chordeuma silvestre C. K., and Craspedosoma Hawlinsii Leach 
corroborated this conclusion. They could not climb up clean glass 
surfaces sloping at an angle of 45°, far less vertical or overhanging 
surfaces. 
5. Araclmida. 
Habits of Spiders. f — Herr W. Wagner has given a detailed descrip- 
tion of the nests, webs, cocoons, &c. of the Spiders of middle Russia. A 
feature of the memoir is the arrangement of the industries of each group 
in phyletic series, which bear some remarkable relations to the ordinary 
systematic series of morphological basis. The author has pursued a 
resolutely objective mode of treatment, and the general conclusion is 
that the choice of sites and materials, the architecture of nests and webs, 
the cocoon-making, and so on, illustrate instinctive activities with little 
evidence of intelligence. Prof. Emery J gives a summary of Wagner’s 
observations, and evidently agrees with the main results, protesting 
against the too common custom of crediting animals with intelligence 
where learning from experience, imitation, &c. are not proved. He 
regards Wagner’s observations on fluctuating and divergent instincts as 
very important in relation to the theory of instinct; they point to 
germinal variations and not to inherited habit as the probable origin 
of most. 
Biology of Tardigrades.§ — Dr. Rywosch, in reference to a recent 
paper by R. v. Erlanger, notes that it is only in early spring that the 
males of Macrobiotus macronyx are as common as the females. Apart 
from their small size and the contents of their gonads, the males are 
known by a peculiar extra hook on the anterior appendages. In 1889, 
the author pointed out that the desiccated adult of the above species 
does not revive. But other forms which live in moss ( Macrobiotus 
Hufelandii , Milnesium tardigradum, &c.) are very resistent, surviving 
four days’ desiccation. Indeed, these moss forms are not adapted for 
prolonged life in water. 
* Zool. Anzeig., xix. (1896) pp. 1-3. 
t Mem. Acad. Imp. St. Petersburg, xlii. (1894) pp. 270 (10 pis.). 
I Biol. Ceutralbl., xvi. (1896) pp. 118-22. § Tom. cit., pp. 122-3. 
