254 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS [Oct., '22 



REPORT OF THE IMPERIAL ENTOMOLOGIST 1920-21. By T. BAINBRIGCE 

 FLETCHER. Calcutta Superintendent Government Printing, India. 1921. 

 (Reprinted from Scientific Reports, Agr. Res. Inst. Pusa, 1920-21, pp. 

 41-59, pis. iii-viii). The principal work done on insect pests during the 

 year mentioned was a continuation of the investigation of borers in 

 sugar cane and other gramineous plants and, on the side of pathological 

 entomology, on Tabanidae in connection with surra disease and on 

 Culicidae. A Chalcidid of the genus Phanarus? heavily infests the eggs 

 of several Tabanids but it lias not shown polyembryony. Twenty-one 

 students received training to varying extents in agricultural and sani- 

 tary entomology, lac- and sericulture. The collection at Pusa is now 

 estimated to contain rather more than 7,000 named species of Indian 

 insects. Among the specialists whose aid in making identification is 

 acknowledged are Messrs. Rohwer and Morgan Hebard, Profs. Cockerell 

 and Felt. The project for the preparation and publication of a cata- 

 logue of all described Indian insects has been approved by Government 

 and considerable progress made during the year. A notice of the first 

 part of this catalogue (on Acryclidae or Tettigidae) appeared in the 

 Nrws for March last, p. 95 of this volume. P. P. CALVERT. 



OBBTUARY. 



WILLIAM LUCAS DISTANT, known especially for his work 

 on Lepidoptera and Hemiptera, died at Wanstead, Essex, Eng- 

 land, February 4, 1922. He was born at Rotherhithe, November 

 12, 1845, son of Capt. Alexander Distant, "who in old South 

 Sea whaling-days, sailed round and round the world, and trans- 

 mitted a love of roaming to< his sons," and whom the son ac- 

 companied to the Malay peninsula in 1867. In his earlier 

 years he was engaged in the tanning business and in this con- 

 nection spent a year in the Transvaal in 1890-91, and made a 

 second visit thereto in 1898. From April, 1899, to November, 

 1920, he was a part-time Assistant in the British Museum 

 (Natural History), rearranging the national collection of 

 Hemiptera and describing many new species. His own collec- 

 tion of about 50,000 specimens, chiefly in this order, and over 

 2500 types came to the Museum in 1911. The last decade of 

 his life was saddened by the loss of his wife and two younger 

 sons and by incurable and protracted disease. 



American entomologists are especially interested in Hemip- 

 tera Heteroptera, Vol. I (1880-1893) and Heteroptera Homop- 



