98 THE entomologist's record. 



The remaining 220 pages of the Volume are occupied by an 

 account of " The Hybrid Bistoninae," by J. W. H. Harrison, B.Sc, in 

 English and French, in which he deals exhaustively with nine first 

 crosses and four secondary hybrids between Li/cia hirtaria, Poecilopsh 

 ponionario, F. lapponaria, It/iyfsia zonaria, and /. (jraecaria. 



Though several of Mr. Harrison's hybrids have been obtained 

 previously, bis essay is practically entirely founded on his own experi- 

 ments and observations, and not on reports culled from magazines, etc. 

 The result is to give him a grasp of the whole subject hardly obtain- 

 able in any other way. His concluding remarks occupy fourteen pages 

 and cannot be abbreviated with advantage, but we may mention 

 several of the more important facts which he specially discusses, these 

 are (p. 467) : — 1. The great constitutional strength of the larvse. 



2. The variation in sterility of the different primary hybrids reared. 



3. The apparent dominance of zonaria and (jraecaria characteristics 

 in the products. 4. Independent of the last point, the greater influence 

 of the male in determining the appearance of the hybrids. 5. The 

 distaste of the hybrid larvae for such foodplants as yarrow, trifolium, 

 etc., i.e, the foodplants of the Ithysia group. 6. The failure to yield 

 females observed in certain crossings. 7. The gynandromorph nature 

 of certain of the secondary hybrids. 



Not the least valuable of the Plates in Fasc. VII., are 111 Photo- 

 graphs illustrating the Exploration of Algeria (Aures) by Harold 

 Powell, in 1912. Nine of these illustrate the devastations of Liparis 

 dispar on Evergreen Oaks, one interesting point as to these is that one 

 tree may be denuded of leaves and the next one hardly touched, and 

 another that a tree denuded of leaves and looking dead has three weeks 

 later a new and vigorous burst of leaves. The thirty-two following 

 plates are of living larviB and imagines of which the most striking are 

 perhaps these of K. siiberifolia, whose outline renders it barely visible, 

 those of Pipjaera powelli, Obthr., and of C. nouna. The remainder 

 illustrate typical aspects of country and vegetation, and of habitats of 

 particular insects, many of them, though suggesting desert conditions, 

 obviously promise interesting entomologising. 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 



Fertile Queen of Lasius umbratus accepted by Queenless 

 Colony of Lasius alienus. — On August 27th, 1913, at Woolacombe, 

 Devon, I took about 50 workers, about 50 pupa>, and 80 to 100 eggs, of 

 a nest of Lasius alienus. These were placed in a " Crawley" nest the 

 same day. The nest from which they came was situated on the golf 

 links, and could only have been a few yards above the sea at high tides. 

 By the end of August all the pupte had fully developed. 



About August 15th I had taken a queen of Lasiun uuibratan just 

 after swarming ; she was already minus her wings. This queen was 

 the subject of the following experiment : — 



September 15th. — Introduced the umbratus queen into the alienus 

 nest. She showed no special nervousness, but nevertheless entered 

 slowly and cautiously. Neither were the alienus workers much 

 excited, but one seized the queen by an antenna for about one minute, 

 the queen was introduced at 8 p.m. ' 



