Cambridge Entomological Club, 1874
PSYCHE

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Article beginning on page 203.
Psyche 5:203-207, 1888.

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PSYCHE.
THE FEMALE OF EUTERMES RIPPERTII.
BY HERMANN AUGUST HAGEN, CAMBRIDGE, MASS. The ovarium of the imago,
The dark colored, mature-winged
imago, taken out of the nest before
swarming (therefore before copulation)
was dissected. The color of the ova-
rium is pale and whitish. Each ovarium
is connected within the ends of the meta- thorax with the dorsal vessel by a very
fine filament. The end of the filament
measures only .003 mnl. in thickness,
and in the middle between the insertion
and the sudden dilatation of the ovarium the filament is .023 mm. in thickness.
Each stigma sends a very large bundle
of tracheae to the external part of the
ovarium. Where the first bundle reaches
the ovarium a rounded dilatation is to be seen, and from here the ovarium
in-
creases slightly. Nevertheless, its thick- est part, just before the oviduct, though containing some eggs in an advanced
stage of development, is only .512 mm. in thickness. The internal half of the whole length of the ovarium is somewhat paler
and consists apparently of the filaments of the egg tubes, one running very near
to the other, without any twisting and all so closely connected, that a separation
is impossible. I was not able to observe in this internal part any tracheae.
The
external part is visibly darker and pro- vided with very numerous tracheae. The
bundles of the tracheae reach the ovarium in a horizontal direction in the begin-
ning of the abdomen ; those that follow
go obliquely from behind forward to the
ovarium, and rise there from a single
main stem of .I 18 mm. in diameter,
while the two bundles in the beginning
of the abdomen rise from two or three
smaller main stems. Just before reach-
ing the ovarium, the main stem of the
tracheae is suddenly divided into very
numerous smaller branches, which enter
the ovarium, divide again like a braid3
between the filaments and are curved
there to provide the interior of the ova- rium. Some remain externally on the
superficies of the ovarium, and are
divided into very fine branches running
in an irregular, meandrous manner.
The finest I was able to measure, were
.o03 mm. in thickness. Following the
last attached bundle, the ovarium is
pear-shaped, dilated, the egg tubes visi- ble and dilated, and filled with a number of eggs, the largest ones, a dozen or
more, of dark amber color and of the
Ps\rhf 5 20l-208 tp~-1903). hHg:/!psyche ciilclub org/5&20J html



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same size as the ripe eggs of the queen. The size of the eggs before these
'diminish rapidly ; only eight or nine
were developed, and very similar to those in the queen ; the three eggs in advance of the last one are darker with a series of elongated cells on each side ; those
before them shorter, nearly quadrangu-
lar, paler, all with a germinal vesicle and dot. Then come very small compart-
ments, with egg-cells in transversal rows and farther on irregular cells in large
numbers and very near together. The
oviduct is inserted on the inferior end of the ovarium, just on the centre of its in- ferior end, first somewhat enlarged, then cylindrical, ,157 mm. in thickness, and
.641 mm. in length to the point, where
it meets the oviduct of the opposite side ; both forming together from here the large oviduct.
The egg-canal in the centre
of the ovarium does not reach beyond
the point where the first (near the tip of the abdomen) bundle of tracheae is at-
tached, and increases therefore later in length by the successive development
of the ovarium.
The ovarium of the queen.
A queen of Eute~mes ri'fertii .24
mm. in length, the abdomen .20 mm.
long and .08 mm. in thickness, was
dissected. After removing the dorsal
part of the skin the whole abdomen ap-
peared to be filled by the two ovaria.
The queen was perhaps an old one, as
there was very little fat along the outer side of the ovarium. In a queen of
Termes gilvus and in another of 23.
~if$ertii a large layer of fat very richly provided with tracheae was found outside along the ovarium. Probably this fatty
layer had been used up by the dissected
queen of E. ri'?er/& as the rich net
of tracheae was connected more closely
below with the ovarium.
Each ovarium seen from above is a
large cylinder, and both are placed so
close together, that only a small median furrow for the dorsal vessel remains above between them.
The whole surface of the ovarium is
light yellow and consists of very small
egg tubes, beginning seemingly on the
inner border of the ovarium, and form-
ing bundles in the shape of flattened
braids, running backward somewhat and
later incurved outwards, winding down
to the under side of the ovarium.
The basis of the ovarium near the end
of the abdomen is thick, rounded and
globular. The apex of the ovarium
near the thorax follows strictly the outline of the abdomen, is somewhat globular
but on the top has a more contracted
part, adapted to the smaller size of the first abdominal segment. This part
consists also of braids of egg tubes, ar- ranged similarly to the parting of the
hair. A small, cylindrical, yellow pro-
longation situated internally near this
part reaches farther into the thorax to
the dorsal vessel. This yellow cylinder
is short, .13g mm. in thickness andends
with a quadrangular, somewhat hand-
shaped, internal dilatation, concave be- low, and meeting the similar dilatation
of the opposite ovariu tn. The yellow
cylinder is formed of the filaments or
thread-like ends of the egg tubes, closely



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pressed together. From the external
and anterior border of the hand-shaped
dilatation a large number of more or less isolated, white, hyaline filaments ,008
mm. in thickness, reach farther up to
the dorsal vessel. These filaments are
empty within, very small nuclei are at-
tached to it externally, and a number of epithelial cells of different size, $he
largest .OI mm. in diameter, lay near by or around them. I believe that the hya-
line filaments are parts of the external coat of the dorsal vessel, torn off by the dissection. Indeed, one or two are iso-
lated, but the larger pait form flattened slips. These parts are always very dif-
ficult to dissect, particularly in alcoholic specimens. In a large queen dissected
by me many years ago, I was fortunate
enough to prepare the dorsal vessel
without separating the attachment of the ovaria, forming a thicker fatty ring
around the whole dorsal vessel, and the
same fact was stated to be true with the queen of the honey bee by Dr. Knoch of
St. Petersburg.
In another queen of E. ri'p't>ertii the
insertion of the ovaria to the dorsal ves- sel was carefully prepared.
Shortly before the dorsal vessel is in-
flated to the metathorax to send down
the smaller aorta, the filaments of both ovaries are attached to the under side.
The attachment is very firm and covered
above and below with muscles ; there-
fore, torn-off parts of the dorsal vessel and muscles are retained, forming a
somewhat hand-shaped process.
Both filaments are united in a semi-
circular curve, so that as far as I can ob- serve the two ovaria are fused together. At least I was not able to see any end of the filaments. The winged muscles ire
which the side vessels are laying (W.
Peters Reise nach Mozambique. I 862,
Vol. 5, Neuroptera by H. A. Hagen,,
p. 75, pi. 4 fig. 3) send a triangular bunch above the filament and another below,
both inserting partly on the dorsal ves- sel partly on the filament, originating
on each side of the dorsal vessel
in an elongated bundle of fat and epi-
thelial cells. I tried polarization to see better the difference between the mus-
cles and filaments without success, the
number of the muscular fibres being too.' large, and strongly mixed by their inser- tion of the filaments, even running along- their interior curved border.
The ovarium seen from the side is near.
the thorax only half as thick as near the' end of the abdomen ; it is gradually en- larged, the basis rounded, globular. The internal side of the ovarium is straight and flattened, as both ovaria are very
near each other. The yellowish cylinder
of the apex of the ovarium is prolonged
along the internal side in a yellow flattened band I mm. broad, running in a straight
line a little below the upper border of
the ovarin m, which is convex and formed' by the beginning of the braids. There-
fore when the bands of both ovaria are-
laying close together, there is always
left above them a small groove for the
dorsal vessel. The inferior border of
the band is straight, very sharp and sep- arated somewhat from the ovarium.
The band has entirely the shape and the
appearance of a tendon, which towards




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the end of the abdomen is divided into
divergent and downward bent branches.
The band as well as its cylindrical,
apical prolongation is formed by the fine filaments of the egg tubes very closely
pressed together. There does not exist
;a separate thread beginning at the base <of the abdomen and united with the fila- ments of the following tubes, as observed Toy Mr. Stein in other insects. So far I was able to follow the filaments each of ĺ´themi prolonged to the apex, all run-
ming together. I was not able to find a
connection in a loop of the ends of the
filaments, as observed by Mr. Leydig
in other insects, but I confess that I was mot able to separate the ends, which are ĺ´ver delicate.
The ovarium is covered below the
bands with braids of egg" tubes just as
above, but towards the base tubes with
more developed eggs or evenripe eggs
begin to be visible and become by and
hy prevailing.
Of course this will be
different in young queens ; in one of
T. gilvus, for instance, the whole ova-
rium was covered with braids, and only
after removing them the more developed
'eggs appeared.
An egg-canal (the beginning of the
'oviduct) extends through the whole
ovarium, the calyx of Dufour and
Stein.
It is situated in the centre of the
ovarium and begins blind near the first
segment of the abdomen, runs at first
straight, but soon makes a flattened
curve downward to the middle of the
length of the ovarium, followed by a
similar flattened curve upwards. In the
last fourth of the ovarium the canal is
sloping down, and shortly before the end bent downwards and inwards, and
continued in a free, short, cylindrical
tube,
meeting the canal of the oppo-
site side, where the oviduct begins.
This egg-canal is pale yellow and
somewhat fleshy, at the beginning -32-
.38 mm. in thickness and becomes grad-
ually thicker, towards the end it is
.64--77 mm.
It begins as a hollow tube,
just large enough to allow the passage
of one egg, but the part near the ovi-
duct is always somewhat dilated, when
the eggs have to pass through it.
Around the egg-canal the egg tubes
are perpendicularly inserted so near each other, that nothing of the outer surface of the egg-canal remains free. Every
egg tube is inserted in a short fleshy
cylinder, with a concave dish on top,
and a hole in the middle, much smaller
than the egg. I counted around the
blind beginning of the egg-canal six to
eight cylinders, but a part taken out of the middle of the ovarium showed about
ten to twelve cylinders, very irregularly placed, and about 20 rows in a part
of the egg-canal of 4 mm. in length.
The cylinders are .3 mm. in length and
less thickened. A part of the egg-canal
of 4 mm. in length possesses at least 240 cylinders, and as the egg-canal by its
curves is longer than the ovarium, there must be at least 1500 cylinders and egg
tubes. But as the insertion towards the
end of the abdomen is very irregular and closely pressed, I believe even this num- ber is probably too small. The whole
substance of the egg-canal is very brittle, at least in alcoholic specimens.




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The egg tubes are unequal in length ;
those nearer to the thorax are the
shortest, and inserted directly in the be- ginning of the egg-canal ; those nearer
to the tip of the abdomen are the longest, and, being incurved, may be somewhat
longer than the ovarium. I think it by
no means improbable that the fine fila-
ments of all the egg tubes may reach the dorsal vessel. At least I was not able
to find the end of any filament before
that point, and the finest filaments in
the band measures only .OOI mm. in
thickness. Therefore the cylindrical
prolongation at the apex of the ovarium
.13g mm. in diameter would be thick
enough to contain several thousand fila- ments, as they are here thinner than in
the band. The white hyaline filaments
originating from the border previously
described belong to the hand-shaped
dilatation and cannot be connected with
the egg tubes, being of a much larger
diameter, .oo8 mm.
The beginning of the egg tubes was
empty in the queen of E. rippertic
only later they are filled with irregularly placed nuclei ; but the apparently
younger queen of T.giZvus showed the
egg tubes filled with such nuclei directly from the beginning of the tubes. Then
follow elliptical epithelial cells with
nuclei, placed one after the other. The
tube of .o I 6 mm. diameter begins to show short transversal compartments, each
with three rows of transversally placed
egg-cells, followed by somewhat irregu-
lar compartments, containing rounded
cells each with a germinal vesicle and dot ; the cells are placed very nearly together. Then follow quadrangular compartments
with a single egg, filled with epithelial cells with nucleoli, and series of elon- gated cells about ten in number along each side. These compartments become by
and by more elongated, with eighteen
elongated cells on each side, the con-
tents of the eggs grow darker, and the
germinal vesicle smaller. The following
eggs are filled with globular cells each containing a strongly reflecting dot, and later suddenly after three or four succes- sive larger ones appear ripe eggs of
dark amber color with a less visible ger- minal vesicle. They are ,106 to .I I 3
mm. in length and .076 to ,079 mm. in
thickness ; the germinal vesicle is .033 to .035 mm. in diameter, the germinal
dot .no6 to ,008 mm. in diameter.
These eggs have sixteen to eighteen cells along each side, and eight to nine such
cells along the smaller sides. The
longer sides of the compartments are
rounded. The size of the eggs increases
till they are ready to be laid. I took
several
measures of eggs . I I 8 mm . in
length and .1o2 mm. in thickness with
a germinal vesicle of .102 lam. in diam- eter and a germinal dot of .015 mm. in
diameter : of riper eggs .307 mm. in
length and .256 mm. in thickness ; the
largest eggs .71 o to .769 mm. in length and .318 to .581 rnm. in thickness.
The disc of the cylinders in which the
egg tubes are inserted measures .2 I 7 to ,356 mm. in diameter, and the central
hole, through which the egg has to pass
.038 to .05 I mm. ; therefore this hole
has to undergo a remarkably large dila-
tation, about ten times its diameter to




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allow the passage of the largest eggs.
numerous fine dark spots.
There are nowhere the so-called corn-
I was not able to find the micropyle
partments for nutrition ; each egg fol-
lows the other, but the ripe ones are
connected by darker funiculi, containing epithelial cells, and around them rounded cells with a nucleus. The interior
membrane of the egg tubes is structure-
less and hy aline, not very easily seen. The exterior membrane is fibrous, and
around the larger eggs shows often
lacunes and holes filled with epithelial cells with nuclei. The connecting parts
around the lacunes are often small and
of decided muscular appearance. In the
part between two eggs the membrane is
striated longitudinally.
The chorion of ripe eggs in the tubes
shows sexangular spaces, the borders be- tween them comparatively wide and
hyaline. The centre of these spaces are
darker and filled with pavement cells,
round, of .015 mm. in diameter, with
in eggs contained in the ovarium.
The
micropyle of laid eggs is dorsal a little before the inferior pole ; there are ten to twelve little holes somewhat different in. siw forming small funnels with a stem
as long as the diameter of the holes.
Near them numerous filiform sperma-
tozoa ( ?) were seen. The eggs are
cylindrical, concave on one side, the
ends rounded a little ; often one end
thicker ; the yolk corpuscula .OI 2 to .025 mm. in thickness.
The dissected queens of E. ripperfii
were from Jamaica and Cuba, of T.giZ-
vus from Rangoon, Burmah. 23, rip-
pertii is probably the long sought for
imago of Termes devastaq Kollar.
The above is a part of a proposed mono-
graph of the anatomy of the termitha
for which a large numberof figures have
been made.
SECOND CONTRIBUTION TO A KNOWLEDGE OF THE AUTUMN LIFE-HISTORY OF CERTAIN LITTLE KNOWN
APHIDIDAE.*
BY CLARENCE MOORES WEED, COLUMBUS, OHIO- The present paper is the result of a
continuation of the study of the autumn
life-history of the a/?zididae, begun in Illinois in 1887. The observations
here recorded were made at Columbus,
Ohio, during the autumn of 1888, upon
the grounds connected with the Ohio
State University.
* For the first article of this series see Psyche, Nov.- Dec., 1888, v. 5, p. 123-134.
MELANOXANTHUS SALICTI (HARRIS).
This species was first described by
Dr. Harris in his treatise on insects
injurious to vegetation as Aphis
solicit* In the Flint edition of the
Treatise, however, Mr. Uhler states
in a foot-note that the specific name
had been ^610ng ago appropriated by
* 1st ed.,
1842, p. 190-191; 2nd ed. 1852, p. 208-209 Flint ed,, 1862, p. 239.




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