Miscellaneous. 
241 
larvae of workers (which are barren females) and converting them into 
queens by feeding them with peculiar food, used only for such as are 
destined for sovereignty, and as the working ants are also barren 
females, — is it probable that the ants have the power by selecting 
one of their number to convert her into a fertile female by the means 
of some peculiar treatment which may cause the more full develop- 
ment of those organs essential for impregnation ? I am aware in the 
case of the bees this is accomplished in infancy ; still, as the matured 
workers have the female organs perfect, though in a comparatively 
low state of development, is it irrational to suppose, that when circum- 
stances make it necessary, even at a later period of life, these same 
all-important parts may be stimulated and rendered fit for the ac- 
complishment of so desirable an object as reproduction ? I am also 
aware that working ants, like working bees and wasps, do occasionally 
lay eggs ; but when this does take place, they invariably produce 
males, wdiich I suspected could not be the case with those alluded to, 
from the great disparity of size observable in the larvae and cocoons, 
and which I should have been able to ascertain with certainty had 
not the before-mentioned accident befallen them. 
I remain, dear Sir, yours respectfully, 
To Richard Taylor, Esq. Henry Denny, A.L.S. 
On the Digestive Apparatus of the Gnat, Culex pipiens, Linn. 
By F. PoucHET. 
The digestive apparatus of the Gnat is highly complicated : the 
mouth is composed of two mandibles furnished with a row of stiff 
fixed hairs, and of two maxillae bearing moveable cilia like the blades 
of a fan and destined to collect the alimentary granules. 
The intestinal tube is remarkable from the presence of eight iso- 
lated vesiculiform stomachs which are ovoid, thin, arranged symmetri- 
cally around the intestine, and each communicating with it by means 
of a short canal situated at the union of the anterior third with the 
two posterior thirds of its internal region. These eight cavities 
represent so many stomachs, and cannot be compared with the respi- 
ratory vesicles described by Treviranus, Ramdohr, Cams, Meckel, 
Owen, Newport and Lacorclaire, in several insects belonging to the 
order Diptera or Lepidoptera. At first sight these gastric cavities 
are observed to be more or less filled with nutritious matter similar 
to that perceptible in the remainder of the intestinal tube. These 
vesicles in fact are seen to contract from time to time and successively, 
in order to allow the alimentary substance to pass into the intestines. 
The contractions are repeated at intervals of from twenty-five to 
thirty seconds ; moreover on immersing these insects in liquids 
coloured with carmine or indigo, the eight stomachs are observed in 
the course of half an hour or sometimes less to be perfectly filled 
with these substances ; the nature of these organs is consequently 
beyond doubt. 
Although certain obser^^ers, as Swammerdam and Leon Dufour, 
have asserted that several insects ruminate, it cannot be admitted 
Ann. Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 2. Vol. i. 16 
