58o SCIENCE PROGRESS 



the Group Tortricidce of the Lepidoptera of the British Islands, 

 F. N. Pierce and J. W. Metcalf contribute the third volume 

 on these organs. Their investigations have led them to add 

 seven species to the British fauna : on the other hand, no 

 structural differences in the genitalia were found to separate 

 five pairs of species which have all hitherto been regarded as 

 distinct. The rare event of adding a new species of the well- 

 worked group of the Noctuidse to the British list has recently 

 occurred when J. J. Walker {Ent. Month. Mag., 1923, 8) 

 detected an example of Cucullia lactucce W. V. among a col- 

 lection of British Lepidoptera in the Oxford University Museum. 

 J. D. Detwiler {Can. Ent., 64, 176-91) gives a very full, illus- 

 trated account of the ventral prothoracic gland in the larva 

 of Schizura concinna. A. P. Jameson in his Report on the 

 Diseases of Silkworms in India (Calcutta, 1922) discusses the 

 subject more especially from the economic and historical 

 standpoints. It appears that all the recognised silkworm 

 diseases are found in India, and that those of the mulberry, 

 muga, and eri worms are the same. The author states that 

 the crux of the whole question is the " ryot." If improvements 

 are to be effected, the village rearer will have to be instructed 

 in the causes of the disease and induced to go in for improved 

 methods of rearing. E. A. Cockayne {Trans. Ent. Soc, 1922, 

 225-39, pis. v-ix) discusses cases of intersexual forms in 

 Plebius argus. J. de Joannis {Ann. Soc. Ent. Fr., 91, 73-155) 

 gives a revision of the cecidogenous Lepidoptera of Europe 

 and the Mediterranean Basin, and enumerates sixty-two species, 

 of which rather more than one-third are Tortricidae. 



Diptera. — E. Roubaud {Comp. Rend., 174, 964-66) dis- 

 cusses overwintering in various flies. True hibernation may 

 occur as larvae, pupae, or imagines. In many cases the winter 

 " sleep " of the imagines does not result from low temperatures : 

 it is an expression of an internal rhythm. In Musca, Stomoxys, 

 and Drosophila there is a uniform vital activity except in the 

 presence of marked cold. In certain species of Sarcophaga, 

 Mydfsa, and Lucilia there are phases of unequal activity in 

 the annual cycle. Broods rapidly developed, susceptible to 

 temperature, are followed by a generation characterised by 

 inertia or diapause which commences in autumn, but is not 

 initiated by a lowering temperature. F. W. Urich, H. Scott, 

 and J. Waterston (Proc. Zool. Soc, 1922, 471-7) discuss 

 the habits of a pupiparous Dipteron, Cyclopodia greeffi Karsch, 

 which parasitises a flying fox in San Thom^. The female 

 deposits the full-fed larvae to parts of trees upon which the 

 bats sleep, and in this situation they immediately pupate. 

 A Chalcid, Eupelmits urichi, sp. nov., is described by Waterston 

 from the puparia of the above insect. J. A. Sinton {Ind. 



