SOUTH AFRICAN ZOOLOGY. 2J^ 



Entomologist of the Union, and essential to the ripening of the 

 cultivated fig. On the other hand, Mr. Lounsbury has supplied 

 California with a South African chalcid wasp, Sciitcllista, whose 

 agricultural function is the repression of the black scale insect. 

 The next order of arthropods embraces, amongst others, the 

 South African chafer beetles and ladybirds. To the last-named 

 must now be considered to belong the Vedalia cardinalis, whose 

 importation by the Cape Government in 1891 was the means of 

 successfully checking the Dorthesia {Icerya piircJiasi), at that 

 time a severe garden pest in and about Cape Town. To butter- 

 flies and moths the limitations of a text-book naturally permit 

 of scarcely more than incidental reference, but amongst those 

 referred to, the orange-tree butterfly {Papilio demaleus) and the 

 death's-head moth {Achcroniia atropos) are prominent. The 

 diptera described and illustrated include Glossiiia morsifans and 

 G. palpalis, as weh as the Natal fruit fly and the bot flies of 

 the horse and ox. The aphidse are briefly referred to in general 

 terms, special attention being bestowed on Phylloxera vasta- 

 trix, whose life history is detailed. Some of the scale insects 

 are next dealt with, and reference is made to the recent appear- 

 ance of Aspidiotus pcrniciosiis (San Jose scale) in the Transvaal 

 Province. The important phylum of arthropods also includes 

 the arachnids, and amongst these the scorpions and spiders. 

 Good illustrations are given of the common South African 

 scorpion (OpistJwpJithaliuns Karoocnsis) and of the great 

 baboon spider (Ccratogyrus darlingi). After a short considera- 

 tion of the sheep- scab mite and the various ticks, the author 

 passes on to the next subdivision — the molluscs. Of these the 

 common garden snail is taken as a type, and the history of its 

 introduction into South Africa recounted. In the next sub- 

 division — echinodermata — the chief South African representa- 

 tives of the star-fish and sea-urchin classes are referred to, after 

 which there is a further upward movement in the scale of life 

 to the final phylum — that of the vertebrates. This phylum 

 includes fishes, amphibia, birds, reptiles and mammals, and occu- 

 pies one-third of the book. Here the author traverses in outline 

 the whole range of back-boned animals familiar to South 

 Africans, from " rooi aas " (red bait, i.e., Polycarpa) to man. 

 Such common South African types as the sea-snake, dog-fish, silver 

 fish, stock-fish, all appear in turn. Amongst the South African 

 frogs we meet the small globular " rain frog." and amongst the 

 lizards, snakes, and tortoises, those peculiar to this country are all 

 typically represented. From reptiles we pass to birds, where as 

 full an account of the South African representatives of the 

 twelve orders is given as one can expect to find summarised 

 within the limits of eight pages. Last of all, the mammalia 

 are reached. Here some attention is given — after dealing with 

 such characteristically South African types as the " dassie," the- 

 hippopotamus, and the girafife — to the great variety of antelopes 

 in which the countrv abounds. Of the three South African 



