CURRENT NOTES. 119 



British species, and in this volume the female organs are illustrated as 

 well as the male. The prospectus says that the author "has attempted 

 to give a classification based entirely on the genitalia." This we 

 think somewhat of a mistake. Authors who have made such an 

 intensive investigation in one line of characters only, must of necessity 

 have a bias sufficient to much overweigh their estimation of the 

 taxonomic value of all other sets of characters. It would have been 

 better to take, say. Front's classification, as given in South's Moths of 

 the Brititih Isles, and merely to indicate where the inference from the 

 study of the genitalia pointed to an apparent want of co-ordination 

 with the remaining classificatory characters of the species usually 

 associated. We have seen a large number of the drawings prepared 

 for this work and we can only say that they are vastly superior to 

 those of the previous volume. In all the detail work, drawings and 

 microscopical preparations, the author has collaborated with our 

 colleague, the Rev. C. R. N. Burrows, whose hearty, long-continued and 

 laborious help has been unreservedly placed at his disposal. The 

 study of the primary sexual characters has become so important of 

 late that no student, however little he does, but must have a com- 

 prehensively illustrated work, such as this will be, for reference. ' 



Not only does our colleague, Mr. J. R. leB. Tomlin, work deeply in. 

 study of British Coleoptera, but this year we find his name in the list 

 of the Council of the Malacological Society of Great Britain. 



The annual volume of the R. Scuola Superiore d' A(iricoltura in 

 Fortici (Italy) has recently came to hand. It contains the record of 

 the economic work carried on in connection with the Laboratorio di 

 Zoologia Generale Agraria in Portici by F. Silvestri, A. Borelli, J. J. 

 Kieffer, G. Grandi, M. Bezzi, Count Turati, etc. Probably one of the 

 most important articles is one by Prof. Sylvestri, " Description of a 

 New Order of Insects," which order is named by him, Zoraptera. 

 The new family and genus are diagnosed, and named Zoioti/pidae and 

 Zorotiipus respectively. This is the result of his study of three very 

 small apterous insects. One Zorotiipus ceylonicns, sent him by Mr. E. 

 E. Green from Ceylon ; another, Z.jarauicus, from Mr. Jacobson, from 

 Java; and the third, Z. (luineensis, obtained by himself from the west 

 coast of Africa. There is a capital figure of the last-named species, 

 and many figures of details of the three species so far known. As 

 regards the systematic position of this order Prof. Silvestri states, 

 "I Zorapteri devono essere collocati vicino ai Blattoidei e agli Isopteri." 



The National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural 

 Beauty have now made arrangements for the appointment of a watcher 

 for their property in Sedge Fen, Wicken, Cambridgeshire. Applications 

 for permission to visit this property should be addressed to A. H. 

 Evans, Esq., Secretary of the Local Committee, 9, Harvey Road, 

 Cambridge, or to S. H. Hamer, Esq., Secretary of the National Trust, 

 26, Victoria Street, London, S.W. 



In the recent numbers of the Kiitoiii<do(/ist, Mr. H. Rowland-Brown 

 and the Rev. F. E. Lowe give an account of their holiday experiences 

 among the Lepidoptera of France in 1912-13, the foj'mer in the 

 Vercors, south of Grenoble, between the rivers Isere and Drome, and 

 in Alios and Larche, IJasses-Aipes, and the latter in the mountains 

 east of Marseilles, La Chaine de Sainte Baume, Provence. Mv. Lowe 

 met with I'oIi/oiiniiatKs dolus in some numbers, both of the type and 



