ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 
191 
One of the most interesting results concerns tho influence of nutrition 
in producing polymorphism. Thus the reserve sexual members are fed, 
not only in the larval state but afterwards, from salivary secretion only, 
a nutritive diet which probably hastens the rapid development of the 
reproductive system. 
A Stridulating Aquatic Hemipteron.* * * § — M. Oh. Bruyant finds that 
the minute Sigara minutissirna , 1-1*2 mm. in length, produces a very 
distinct stridulation by working the tarsus (or palette) of the first pair 
of appendages against the rostrum. Buchanan White has described a 
somewhat similar arrangement of hairs in Corixa, and Schmidt Schwedt 
has noted the stridulation of Corixa Geoffroyi. M. Bruyant also 
records that Sigara minutissirna is a casual commensal with Spon- 
gilla lacustris, like the larva of Sizyra Spongillse and like Nais probos- 
cidea. 
Anatomy and Development of Female Genital Armature of Ortho- 
ptera t — M. Peytoureau has followed the development of this apparatus 
in Periplaneta americana , and finds that the female genital armature 
belongs exclusively to the eighth and ninth urosternites ; the three pairs 
of genital apophyses, without occupying the position of appendages, 
arise early in a way which recalls the development of those parts. The 
other pieces are merely modifications of the sternites or are chitinized 
membranes. After the last ecdysis the parts which are nearest the 
orifices of the nidamental gland and the copulatory pouch are often 
quite the first to become chitinized. 
jS. Myriopoda. 
Chordeuma germanicum.J — Dr. C. Verhoeff, in a note on this 
Myriopod, calls attention to a point of general interest, namely the 
morphological resemblance of two not homologous, metamorphosed 
appendages — the second pair of legs of the sixth segment of C. ger- 
manicum and the second pair of legs of the seventh segment of C. silvestre. 
In other words, almost identical results are obtained with pairs of legs 
which, originally, were morphologically identical but not homologous, 
in consequence of almost similar functions and notwithstanding enormous 
changes. 
y. Protracheata. 
Hatching of a Peripatus Egg.§ — Dr. A. Dendy describes the 
hatching out of an egg of Peripatus which had been laid for about seven- 
teen months ; he supposes the long period to be due to the eggs having 
been kept in a very cool room. At any rate, there can now be no doubt 
that the larger Victorian Peripatus lays eggs which may hatch after the 
lapse of a year and five months. 
* Comptes Eendus, cxviii. (1894) pp. 299-301. 
t Op. cit., cxvii. (1893) pp. 749-51. 
t Zool. Anzeig., xvi. (1893) pp. 477-9. 
§ Proe. Roy. Soo. Victoria, 1893, pp. 118 and 9. 
