20G THE entomot^ogist's record. 



them for a few minutes in petrol. They are almost instantly killed by 

 this process and can later on be readily set and are in no way 

 deteriorated by their unwonted bath. All of us know how difficult it 

 is to bring home the members of this family in a satisfactory condition 

 on account of their tenacity of life. Instead of a mass of crawling in- 

 sects in the poison bottle, a number can be immersed in the petrol in 

 the field and taken out at leisure to be dried on blotting paper in the 

 air. A small bottle of petrol wrapped round with several thicknesses 

 of blotting paper and fitted to a tin, can be easily carried in the pocket 

 when out collecting and will travel well. — H.J.T. 



@^URRENT NOTES AND SHORT NOTICES. 



Owing to the necessity of the label " detained abroad " and subse- 

 quent pressure of work, it was impossible to take up the editorial 

 business in time either to issue at the usual date or to get matter ready 

 for a full issue. However, we have plenty of matter forthcoming for 

 subsequent issues and several more plates have been promised for the 

 present volume. 



The generally excellent popular production ^fanrh- of Insert Lifi', 

 in Pai't 2, contains unfoi'tunately two serious errors. The plate on 

 p. 75, which is reproduced on the wrapper, shows what is described as 

 a female brooding her young ; it is a pity that she is figured with a 

 male abdomen, that is with ten segments, and thorned tubercles on the 

 angles of the tenth tergite, although the forceps resemble those of a 

 female. The second error is on the plate on p. 79, showing " Insects 

 of the Coal Period," where an undoubted earwig is shown, and in the 

 legend at the foot we read ", . . . a large species of earwig . . . . 

 of that period." The creature known as Baseo/mis for/icidiva, Heer, 

 from the Lower Lias of Aargau has always been regarded as the 

 oldest known earwig, but Handlirsch, whose authority no one will 

 deny, has seen the original specimen, and states categorically that 

 whatever it may be, it is certainly not an earwig. He also declines to 

 admit as an earwig " Furjiriila problematica," of Weyenbergh, from 

 the Solenhofen slate. Undoubtedly earwigs do not occur till the 

 Tertiary Epoch ; they are tolerably numerous in the famous Tertiary 

 Lake Basin of Florissant, Colorado, and in the Baltic amber, both 

 attributed to the Oligocene. — M.B. 



Mr. A. Bacot writes to say that he sailed for Freetown, Sierra 

 Leone, on July 29th. 



In the Ann. Soc. Ent. Behj., for May, M. F. J. Ball, in an article 

 dealing with the rediscovery of At/riades thersitex by Dr. Chapman and 

 its differentiation and distribution, states that he has found evidence 

 of its occurrence at several places in Belgium — Halloy, Tellin (Luxem- 

 bourg), Denee, Ham-sur-Lesse et Velthem from specimens confirmed 

 by Dr. Chapman. But not until his article was in print had he 

 obtained any evidence of the occurrence of Polj/ouimatiis icarus var. 

 icariniis. Three specimens of this last were seen by him, two from 

 Denee and one from Moorsel. 



The Re/inrt of the Kntoiii(ilo(/ical Societij of Ontario for the year 1913 

 has recently been issued. The Fiftieth Annual Meeting of the Society 

 Avas held at Guelph, the President, the Rev. Prof. C. J. T. Bethune, 

 was present and the Vice-President, Dr. C. Gordon Hewitt, took the 



