218 THE kntomologist's recoed. 



plate with illustrations of the other new species. We congratulate 

 Mr. Fletcher heartily on this piece of work. 



Mr. T. Reuss describes {Entom.) a new form of Gonepteryx rhamni, 

 a 3' with black wing tips, as ab. niiiriaiiicata. 



Messrs. Britten and Newbery give {Ent. Mo. Mag.) a revision of 

 the British species of Ptenidimn, Erichson, and a table based on 

 Flach's paper in the Verh. s.-b. Ges. Wien., xxxix. (1889). It is new 

 to find in the Eiit. Mo. Mag. the admission of the mythical and 

 nebulous subgenus, but the genus Ptenidiinn, Erichson, is broken up 

 into the subgenera — Matthewsium, Flach (with gressneri, Gillm., 

 lafvigattiiH, Gillm., and turgidnm, Thorns.), Wankowizium, Plach (with 

 inter med ill III, Wank.), Ptenidium, Gr. (with pioutatum, Gyll., fiiKncorve, 

 Er., myr'>iecophilu)ii, Mots., pmillum, GylL, brisoiiti, Matt.), Gillmei- 

 sTERiuM, Plach {mtidinii, Heer), so that we get the logical result that 

 Ptenidium, Erichson = Matthewsium, Flach, Wankowizium, Flach, 

 Ptenidium, Erichson, and Gillmeisterium, Flach, in other words, that 

 Ptenidium, Erichson, is equal to itself and three other things, which, 

 in the face of our professed binomial nomenclature, appears to be 

 absurd. If the described group-names — Matthewi^imn, Wavknwiziiwi, 

 Ptenidinm, and Gilliiieisterium — are natural divisions, and represent 

 group names next above species, they must be genera, and the useless 

 absurdity termed subgenus falls through. The authors' arrangement — 

 Genus : PTENIDIUM, Erichson. 

 Subgenus : Matthewsium, Flach 



Species : Ptenidium gressneri, Gillm. 

 P. laevigata, Gillm. 

 P. turgidum, Thorns. 

 Subgenus : Wankowizium, Flach 



Species : Ptenidium intermediuvi. Wank. 

 Subgenus : Ptenidium, Erichs. 



Species : Ptenidium punctatum, Gyll. 

 P. fuscicorne, Er. 

 P. myrmecophilimi. Mots. 

 P. pusillum, Gyll. 

 P. hrisouti, Gyll. 

 Subgenus : Gillmeisterium, Flach 



Species : Ptenidium nitidum, Heer 



looks to us a trifle absurd as a catalogue production. If the divisions 

 are sound, the arrangement, of course, should be — 

 Tribe: PTENIDIIDI. 



Genus : Matthewsium, Flach 

 Species : grestineri, Gillm. 

 laevigata, Gillm. 

 turgidum, Thorns. 

 Genus : Wankowizidji, Flach 



Species : intermedium. Wank. 

 Genus : Ptenidium, Erichs. 

 Species : punctatum, Gyll. 

 fuscicorne, Er. 

 myrmecopliilum, Mots. 

 pusillum, Gyll. 

 hrisouti, Gyll. 

 Genus : Gillmeisterium, Flach 

 Species : nitidum, Heer. 



To call the division above species a " subgenus " instead of " genus," 

 and the next division higher " genus " instead of " tribe," appears to 

 us to be merely juggling with the orthodox binomial code. Do not 

 British coleopterists also think so ? A good life-history of one of 

 these species would be worth a lot of subgenera. 



