yctit. - downloads.hindawi.com14 psyctit. january--february 888. egg-layingoflimenitisdisippus. on...

14 PSYCtIt. January--February 888.

EGG-LAYING OF LIMENITIS DISIPPUS.

On July, in Sugar Hill, N. H., I saw afemale Limenitis disibSbus flying heavily overa bank by the roadside. This bank wascovered with young poplar shoots, and, see-ing the butterfly settle on one of these, Ifollowed her, and saw that she laid an eggon the tip of a leaf and then flew away.Picking the leaf, I followed her to the nextshoot which she selected, and continued thechase until I had collected seventeen eggs.Then the butterfly rose higher in the air,flew to an ash-tree, and was hidden in theleaves. A shower was near, and rain beganto fall in less than five minutes after she dis-appeared.The eggs all hatched in due time, and pro-

duced eleven males and six females, all per-fect.One peculiarity of this female was that she

laid, more than the "one egg at the very tip,"which books and pictures have led us to ex-pect.One leaf had four eggs; one at the tip, two

on one edge near the tip, and one on theother edge near the tip. Another leaf hadtwo; one on the tip, the other near it. Thethird leaf had three irregularly placed nearthe tip.Afterwards I found four eggs, two on each

side of the tip of a willow-leaf, but these werenot near the same place, and were the onlyeggs of L. disibus that I found on willow.I found no larvae on willow, while they werevery abundant on poplar shoots close by. Infact L. dlsipus was more abundant this sum-mer than I have ever found it before.

Caroline G. Soule.

A SPHAERULARIA-LIKE WORM.In the American naturalist for January,

1886 (v. 20, p. 73-75), I called attention tosome of the peculiarities of S3kaerulariabombi, a nematod parasitic internally in spe-cies of bumble-bees (t?ombus), and to thefact that a species of Sbkaerularia was

found in America. One remarkable pecul-iarity of Spkaerularia is that the genitalorgans of the female evaginate, and form,when they have attained their full size, aworm-like body. The evaginated ovary is solarge in proportion to the worm itself, thatthe latter was, for a time, overlooked by nat-uralists, and the evaginated portion wasdescribed as a worm.

Professor R. Leuckart, whose researcheshave done much towards completing ourknowledge of the life-history of Skaerula-ria, has published, in the Zoolo$,isckerzeiger (20 Dec. 886, v. 9, P. 743-746), apreliminary communication entitled, "Einspaerulariaartiger neuer nematode," in whichhe gives an account of the structure andhabits of a nematod allied to Skaerularia,to which he gives the name of Asconemagibbosum. This worm was discovered inthe body-cavity of Cecidomyia inl, even inthe larval state. The worm is about o.6 ram.long, and the adult female bears, upon theventral surface near the posterior extremity,a bean-shaped process about o.5 ram. long.The digestive tract does not form a tube in theadult, but is reduced, as it is in Skaerula-ria, to a chain of large cells.The eggs of Asconema fall into the body-

cavity of their host, the Ceciclomyt’a, wherethey hatch, but the young do not reach theirsexual development until they are set freefrom the host, by the death of the latter.Sexual union takes place within a few daysafter the Asconema are free from theirhost. After this the males die and thefemales that get the opportunity pass intothe Cecidomyia larvae, which inhabit soilcomposed of decaying pine-needles. Againin the body-cavity of a Cecidomyia, thefemale develops and evaginates its genitalorgans, while the digestive tract becomesrudimentary. The ovaries of Asconema arenot so large as those of Sbkaerularia whilethe latter worm requires a year for its devel-opment, Asconema develops in a few weeks.

G Dimmock.

Submit your manuscripts athttp://www.hindawi.com

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttp://www.hindawi.com Volume 2014

Anatomy Research International

PeptidesInternational Journal of


Hindawi Publishing Corporation http://www.hindawi.com

International Journal of

Volume 2014

Zoology


Molecular Biology International

GenomicsInternational Journal of


The Scientific World JournalHindawi Publishing Corporation http://www.hindawi.com Volume 2014


BioinformaticsAdvances in

Marine BiologyJournal of



Signal TransductionJournal of


BioMed Research International

Evolutionary BiologyInternational Journal of



Biochemistry Research International

ArchaeaHindawi Publishing Corporationhttp://www.hindawi.com Volume 2014


Genetics Research International


Advances in

Virolog y

Hindawi Publishing Corporationhttp://www.hindawi.com

Nucleic AcidsJournal of

Volume 2014

Stem CellsInternational



Enzyme Research


International Journal of

Microbiology

yctit. - downloads.hindawi.com14 psyctit. january--february 888. egg-layingoflimenitisdisippus. on...

Documents