ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 
481 
no evidence that any birds prey habitually upon butterflies, whatever 
the colours of the butterflies. With regard to the kingbird a very 
curious fact was noticed. It eats Eristalis and many other “ mimick- 
ing” forms and also the drones of the bee. A similar power of distin- 
guishing between drones and workers on the wing has been observed 
in the common fowl, indicating a keenness of observation which must 
have some bearing on the theory of mimicry. The author does not 
draw any very definite conclusions, but believes that colour is at most 
only one of the factors which determine whether or not an insect will 
be attacked by birds. 
Morphology of the Abdomen.* — Dr. R. Heymons gives a critical 
review of anatomical and embryological studies bearing on the structure 
of the abdomen in insects. Among the conclusions the following may 
be noted. As to the component segments, twelve is probably the 
primitive number ; eleven and a telson are still demonstrable in some 
forms. A typical segment consists of a dorsal tergite arising from two 
lateral halves, a ventral sternite primitively tripartite, and connecting 
pleural membranes with the stigmata. The telson seems to be typically 
composed of three plates or laminae anales. 
As to appendages, the cerci which belong to the eleventh segment 
are appendicular and are closely comparable to antennas ; the styles 
are vestigial structures originally appendicular, but there are various 
abdominal outgrowths which have not this value; the gonapophyses, 
about which there has been so much debate, are here regarded as 
epidermic processes peculiar to the class Insecta. 
Parasitic Ely of Chinese Silkworms.f — Prof. C. Sasaki notes that 
in Italy silkworms are infested by larvae of Senometopia pumicata Meig 
and Doria meditabunta , in Bengal by (Estrus bombycis , in Japan by 
Ugimyia sericarise. To these he adds Tachina rustica L. (syn. Mnsca 
nigricans Fabr., Musca larvarium De Geer), parasitic on Chinese silk- 
worms. He describes the maggot and both sexes of the fly, and notes 
that the fly deposits its eggs on the body of the silkworms. 
Pygidial Glands of Staphylinidse and Cicindelidae. % — M. Fr. 
Dierckx has a brief paper on this subject, in which he entirely rejects 
the descriptions and explanations of M. Bordas.§ In the species of 
Staphylinus the offensive glands consist of two dark sacs communicating 
with two white cuticular sacs which open to the exterior. When the 
abdomen is compressed, the dark sacs slip into the transparent ones, and 
the latter are invaginated to the exterior (cf. the movements of the 
tentacles in the snail), at the same time the contents of the dark sacs 
are discharged. These dark sacs are lined by the secretory epithelium. 
In the species of Gicindela the organ has a structure similar to that 
found in the Carabidae ; that is, it consists of a simple glandular follicle, 
a collecting tube, and an ovoid cuticular sac forming the reservoir. 
Morphology of Stinging Apparatus in Hymenoptera.|| — Dr. Enoch 
Zander has studied a series of these insects with a view to determining 
* Zool. Centralbl., vi. (1899) pp. 537-56. 
t Annot. Zool. Japon., iii. (1899) pp. 25-8 (4 figs.). 
X Zool. Anzeig., xxii. (1899) pp. 311-5 (12 figs.). 
§ Ann. Fac. Sci. Marseille, ix. (1899) p. 230. 
|| Zeitschr. f. wiss. Zool., lxvi. (1899) pp. 289-329 (2 plsA 
