100 
SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 
mandibular glands, formed of cells with a large central nucleus in the 
external, and having in the internal a small nucleus. The sub-lingual 
glands are only separated from the buccal orifice by a delicate chitinous 
lamella. The maxillary glands are very rudimentary, and look like two 
small white dots in the midst of the muscular bundles which pass to the 
anterior pair of maxillae. 
Reproduction of Wasps.* — France, like some parts of Britain, 
having been severely plagued with wasps during the summer of 1893, 
M. P. Marchal had no difficulty in finding material for an investigation 
into some points of their reproductive history. Using Vespa germanica 
he found by experiment that the workers lay eggs parthenogenetically ; 
that the eggs thus laid can develope without the aid of the male, and 
that they produce males only. These results are in entire conformity 
with those of Siebold on Polistes. It was also found that there are 
among the workers (or, as they are often wrongly called, neuters) a con- 
siderable number of individuals which have a predisposition to become 
fertile ; abundance of nourishment determines this fertility. This 
observation explains how it is that the most fertile period corresponds 
with the time of year when food is most abundant. As the number of 
males in a colony increases with the fertility of the workers, there would 
appear to be a kind of division of labour between these latter and the 
queen ; one producing males, the other females and workers. It is not, 
however, to be hastily concluded that the queen does not produce males, 
at any rate towards the end of the summer. 
Termite Societies.! — Prof. B. Grassi and Dr. A. Sandias have in- 
vestigated the nature and origin of the Termite society in Calotermes 
flavicollis and Termes lucifugus. A Calotermes society may include 
(a) indifferent larvae, capable of becoming soldiers or sexual members ; 
( b ) larvae and pupae of sexual members with rudiments of wings ; 
(c) soldier-larvae and soldiers which may arise from (a) and ( b ) ; 
(d) winged sexual insects ; ( e ) a true royal pair with vestiges of wings ; 
(/) larvae of “ reserve ” sexual members and the reserve kings and 
queens which arise from these. These last larvae may be developed from 
(a) or from various stages of ( b ). 
In the Termes nest there is a special caste of workers and no dis- 
tinctive royal pair. The society includes ( a ) very young indifferent 
larvae ; ( b ) larger larvae and the workers and soldiers to which they give 
rise ; (c) winged sexual animals ; (d) various stages of reserve and com- 
plementary sexual animals. 
The one type, that illustrated by Calotermes , is founded by a king 
and queen, who may be replaced by a pair of reserve royal individuals, 
i. e. by a “ neotaenic ” couple. The second, less primitive type, illus- 
trated by Termes , contains several neotaenic couples, while kings are 
only temporary ; in this case the nest arises in a secession from an older 
colony. 
* Comptes Rcndus, cxvii. (1893) pp. 584-7. 
t Biol. Centralbl., xiii. (1893) pp. 758-66 ; Atti Accad, Gioenia Sci. Nat,, vi. 
and vii., 150 pp., 5 pis. 
