394 Miscellaneous. at any conclusiou as ix) whether his species is a lirimary or secondary parasite of the Hessian fly. SemiotcUus (?) nigripes is a form which does not appear to have its representative in North America. It has a strong green, or sometimes blue, metallic lustre, the antennae and legs black, the latter with greenish lustre, the tarsi pale yellow at the base. Length 2 millim. The species is widely distributed in llussia. It appears to be single-brooded, emerging in July and August. Eupchnus Karschii is black with a green or blue lustre ; antennae black ; legs yellow, with the tips of the femora and tibiae and the last joint of the tarsi black. In the female the fore legs are entirely yellow. Length under 2 millim. The American species is recorded by Riley as a parasite of Isosoma hordei and /. tritici. Platygaster minutus. — Length k millim. Black, shining, but with no metallic lustre. Legs yellow, with black femora, and the poste-rior tibiae black ; wings large, extendiug far beyond the tip of the abdomen, veinless, but hairy ; femora much thickened in the middle, tibiae in their lower half. The species seems to be abundant. The author regards it, as also the much larger American P. Ilerrickii, as a direct parasite of the larva of the Hessian fly, and not as parasitic in the egg ; he always reared it from the puparia, and obtained from four to eleven individuals from a single puparium. Euryscupus saltator is wingless, black, with a green lustre on the head and thorax, and frequently a brownish spot on each side of the mesonotum. Abdomen black with a faint greenish lustre ; legs yellow, with the femora, the middle of the tibiae, and the tips of the tarsi rather darker ; first segment of the abdomen reddish brown ; ovipositor yellow with the tip black ; scape yellowish brown ; flagellum black or dark brown, with a greenish lustre on the first two joints. Length 2 millim. The author has bred this species from puparia of the Hessian fly and also from galls of Iso-soma liordei, but it does not seem to be abundant, A single specimen of a seventh species has been obtained by the author. It appears to be a Flaii/gaster of about the same size as the one already noticed, black, with yellow legs and brown antennae, which have a large black club ; the wings are as in Platygaster. — Bull. Soc. Imp. Nat. Moscou, 1887, no. 1, pp. 178-192. On the Power of Multiplication of the Infusoria Ciliata. By M. E. Maupas. The author notes that the power of multiplication of the Ciliata depends upon three factors, namely: — 1, the quality and abundance of food ; 2, temperature ; 3, the biological adaptation of each species as regards alimentation. The tliird factor alone varies for each type, the organization of the buccal apparatus determining the kind of food necessary, and rendering the animalcules herbivorous, carnivorous, or omnivoroiis. Crypjtochilum, Parayna'cium, Colpoda, Tillina, Colpidium, and the Vorticellidae are herbivorous, living almost exclusively upon Schizo-mycetes and small zoospores. These Infusoria are great purifiers of
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