414 Miscellaneous. 



DESCRIPTION OF A NEW SPECIES OF VOLUTA. 



Voluta Norrissii. — Greyish white, very minutely black, dotted with 

 broad black wavy irregular longitudinal streaks, with three bands with 

 paler dots and streaks ; nucleus blunt, upper part slightly crenated ; 

 last whorl subangular ; mouth bright orange, with a white edge to 

 the outer lip. Inhab. ? Cabinet, Mr. Norris. 



Very like Voluta nervosa, but the shell is minutely black dotted, 

 the longitudinal streaks are broader, and the three dark bands are 

 rather more towards the front of the shell ; the hinder one occupies the 

 whole of the spine and hinder slope of the last whorl. — J. E. Gray. 



GIGANTIC ECHINUS SPINE. 



There has lately been discovered in Sicily the fragment of a gi- 

 gantic spine of an Echinus, nearly an inch and half in circumference 

 and more than eight inches long. — J. E. Gray. 



CURTIS'S BRITISH ENTOMOLOGY. 



The 15th volume of this splendid work commenced with a beau- 

 tiful plate of Stauropis Fagi with its grotesque caterpillar. Niti- 

 dula Colon, Ledra aurita, and Myopa fulvipes follow; a figure of 

 Orchestes Waltoni, a new species of the saltatorial Curculios, has 

 enabled the author to record some facts respecting the destructive 

 ceconomy of these minute beetles. Acrolepia Betulella, an unde- 

 scribed Tinea, Crabro subpunctatus, and Hydrcessa pygmcea, a pretty 

 little insect allied to Velia, complete the two first numbers. 



Those for March and April contain Dermestes lardarius, Lithomia 

 Solidaginis, a fine Noctua new to Britain, with its caterpillar ; Pro- 

 stemma guttula from an unique British specimen taken near Sandwich; 

 the rare Tetyrafuliginosa, Trachys minuta, Porrectaria albicosta, Cy- 

 nips nervosa, belonging to the tribe of Gall-nut flies, and Trigonome- 

 topus frontalis, a remarkable fly established as a genus by Macquart. 



Nos. 173 and 174 exhibit Otiorhynchus maurus, with some remarks 

 on the great mischief committed by various species of the genus on 

 fruit trees, &c. Siona dealbata, an elegant moth, having very much 

 the appearance of a white butterfly. Tenthredo cingulata ; this is a 

 figure of an hemaphrodite specimen, in which the different colours 

 of the two sexes are strikingly contrasted in the body ; Capsus hirtus, 

 Elater aterrimus, Alucita hexadactyla, a strong variety of Panorpa 

 germanica, and Phasia speciosa, for the first time figured and recorded 

 as an indigenous species. 



Of the 24 plants, which are as highly finished and as faithfully 

 depicted as the insects, we were most struck with the figure of the 

 wood strawberry (pi. 690.) and amongst the rare or local species 



