During some investigations in which, he has been engaged on the internal parasites of rats in the British Isles, Mr G. C. Dudgeon, of the Wellcome Bureau of Scientific Research, has kindly submitted to the writer examples of all the species of adult Cestodes found.

Complete specimens of this nematode are difficult to obtain, owing to the manner in which the worms bury themselves in the tissues of the urinogenital system of the Cetacea in which they are found. Mr A. G. Bennett, to whom the writer has previously been indebted on more than one occasion for Crassicauda material, has recently sent home further interesting specimens from South Georgia, accompanied by notes and a sketch which throw some light upon the burrowing habits of the worm. A special effort was made to obtain complete specimens by dissection.

In making the examination of a series of 400 rats, Heligmosomum brasiliense was found in 6 per cent. of those examined. The rats were all of the one species, Epimys norvegicus, and were chiefly from London and suburbs; the exceptions being one from Berkshire, one from Hampshire and two from Hertfordshire.

Cysticercus Fasciolaris, the larval stage of the common tapeworm Taenia taeniaeformis (T. crassicolis), was recently found in great numbers in the liver of a brown rat. The rat measured 18 cm. in length and weighed about 275 g.; it was vigorous and apparently healthy when caught, but when killed and examined, its liver was found to be heavily infested with the cysticerci.

The parasite herein described was found in the intestinal contents of Blatta americana at Calcutta. The species seems to be comparatively rare and was observed twice only. It may be named B. blattarum sp. nov.

1. The biology, as studied under laboratory conditions, of O. savignyi is very similar to that of O. moubata.

2. Females may oviposit over 400 eggs, of which at least 60 per cent, may be fertile; parthenogenesis does not occur.

3. An increase in temperature of 8° C. (from 22° C.) decreases the longevity of the female from 775 to 358 days, i.e. by 45 per cent.; an increase of 7° C. (from 30° C.) reduces the period required for the production of third stage nymphs by 26 per cent. At 30° C., the mean minimum periods required for metamorphosis are 60 days for males and 73 days for females (cf. O. moubata, 36 days for males and 45 days for females). Reproduction was inhibited at 37° C.

4. Moisture is an unfavourable factor, decreasing the vitality of the individual at each stage of growth.

5. Changes in external anatomy undergone during development are similar to those already described for O. moubata.

The growing importance of the silver black fox industry in Canada, and latterly in other countries, has been so marked, that scientific workers have turned their attention to a study of the maladies affecting this species of fox.

In 1851 Macquart described two new species of the Dipterous genus Cyrtoneura from Tasmania, under the names of Cyrt. longicornis and Cyrt. analis, both species being very different from all others of the same genus inhaving hairy eyes and the first species also owing to its very long third antennal joint.

When collecting small living animals, particularly insects or other small Arthropods, for dissection, or search for parasites, etc., one encounters difficulties in choosing a suitable and convenient arrangement in which the animals may be kept without injuries until they are brought home. The usual entomological corked glass tubes and wide-mouthed jars with a gauze cover are not practicable when a large number must be carried; their bulk hinders free movement, and their fragility renders it necessary to pack them carefully in a box or other suitable containers.

In the course of a study of a method for the recovery of Uncinaria larvae from the soil, one of the employees of the laboratory became infected under circumstances closely simulating experimental conditions.

In former times when this country was dependent upon bees for its supply of sugar, a heavy mortality among these insects was of sufficient importance to be placed on record. In his Animal Plagues Fleming (1871) gives a number of references to such losses. In Ireland there was a “mortality of bees” in 950 A.D. and again in 992 A.D. there was a “great mortality upon men, cattle and bees.” In 1035 A.D. the destruction of bees afflicted the whole of Bavaria. An eclipse of the sun in 1124 A.D. was followed by a great pestilence amongst oxen, sheep, pigs, and bees. During the time of the “Black Death,” also, there appears to have been heavy losses of bees and at the Manor Court of Heacham in Norfolk, a statement was made on oath by the steward in the forty-fifth year of the reign of Edward III (1372 A.D.) to the effect that ten out of eleven stocks of bees had perished from the murrain. There is little doubt that this entry in the manorial court rolls refers to epidemic disease, but, as Fleming points out, “there is evidently no relationship between the morinâ of the bees and that of the sheep and cows.”

Numerous males and females collected from a Blue Duiker (Cephalophus (Guebei) monticola) at Ngome Forest, Mt Ngwibi, Natal, by Mr J. Tustin.

On Jan. 27th, 1920, among a number of nearly fully grown larvae of Bibiomarci which had been kept in the laboratory about two weeks, a few individuals were observed to be unhealthy or dead. These latter were found to contain parasitic Dipterous larvae, which eventually proved to be those of Hypocera incrassata Mg. Certain of these larvae were observed to be leaving the bodies of other larvae of Bibio marci at the same time.

Three species of two-clawed Mallophaga have heretofore been recorded from South American mammals. Concerning one of these species, Menopon extraneum Piaget, nothing is known aside from the information included in the original description and, judging from this and the accompanying figure, it appears not to differ from the usual type of bird-infesting members of this group. The other two species have each been made the type of a genus and these two genera have been considered by Harrison as representing a well-marked family, the Trimenoponidae.

Until the appearance of Neumann's paper “ Sur l'Ascaride des Bêtes Bovines ” (1883), Ascaris vitulorum was not generally accepted as a valid species, the form from cattle being referred by different authorities either to Ascaris lumbricoides or A. megalocephala. Neumann's study of this worm showed, however, that the species differs in many important anatomical characters from the common Ascarids of the pig and the horse and since the publication of his memoir the specific identity of A. vitulorum has not been disputed.

Pierre Joseph Van Beneden was born 19 December, 1809, at Malines, Belgium, and died 8 January, 1894, at Louvain. He graduated in medicine (1831) and became Curator of the Natural History Museum, Louvain, where he became Professor of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy in 1836. Besides doing zoological work of high value which he pursued actively to the end of his life, he established at his own expense in 1843, a marine aquarium, one of the first of its kind. In parasitology he attained great distinction through his investigations upon the biology of parasitic worms and their relation to their hosts, his work Mémoire sur les vers intestinaux (viii + 376 pp. 28 pis. 4°), published in 1858, bringing him the “grand prix des Sciences physiques” of the Institut de France. In 1875 he published his results in popular form under the title Les commensaux et les parasites dans le régne animal, as one of the International Science Series, this appearing both in English and German translations. His publications number over 200 and he was joint author with Paul Gervais of a general work on medical zoology in two volumes (1859).