THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 407 



29 the heading, "Analytical Key to the Genera of Eleodiini," is somewhat 

 misleading, since it includes also B/aps, of the Blaptini. 



Nothing comparable to this monograph has ever been attempted by 

 American coleopterists. It represents years of labour, largely of a most 

 tedious nature, and the few oversights noted are undoubtedly due to 

 interruptions of a busy professional life. We must rejoice that the author's 

 enthusiasm survived the shock of the great San Francisco disaster, and 

 welcome his work as a valuable contribution to the knowledge of a 

 neglected but most interesting group of beetles. — -H. F. Wickham. 



Bulletin de la Societe Le'pidopterologique de Geneve. De'cembre, 1905 ; 

 Decembre, 1906 ; Juin, 1908 ; et Avril, 1909. 



Four numbers, completing the first volume of this important publica- 

 tion on the Lepidoptera, have been published. The number 4, April, 

 1909, has just been received. 



It is an inspiration to read the annual address of the President, Mons. 

 A. Pictet, telling of the aims, ambitions aud accomplishments of this 

 enthusiastic body of genuine, mostly non-professional, entomologists. It 

 is just by that class of students, and in that spirit, that a great deal of the 

 interesting and valuable biological work of the past has been done. This 

 Society consists of four honourary members, eight charter members, one 

 corresponding member, one life member, and forty-one active members. 

 The Society has an auxiliary Society, called the " Album," consisting of 

 their " jeunes amis," who have not attained the age limit, but are enthusi- 

 astic young collectors, who will eventually form the larger Society, in more 

 advanced studies. The President calls attention to the " curieuse " 

 abundance of blue females of several species of Lyccena, in the canton of 

 Geneva. This is of great importance to biology, as marking an approach 

 to the disappearance of sexual dimorphism in the group. He then 

 considers some factors which might have operated to produce this 

 phenomenon, /. e., conditions of weather in previous years, but he 

 considers this as not a satisfactory explanation, and that we are powerless, 

 in the present state of science, to explain the phenomenon. This would 

 be a point of great interest to observe and study in this country. The 

 President also speaks of the effect of feeding on the variation of several 

 species of lepidoptera, and considers it of great importance in biology ; 

 " la est un domain fecond en observations nouvelles, 1111 champ vaste 

 d'investigations." He then discusses an immigration of Vanessa cardui 

 in 1906, and its consequences. 



