118 [October. 



Note on the transformation of Cantharis. — I liave succeeded pretty well this 

 year in breeding Cantharis, having now eight larvae in their second form, which 

 has hitherto been unknown. After having passed the first stage of their life 

 feeding in the interior of honey-bees, they feed on honey, which, of course, is an 

 artificial nutrition, in liberty they must eat the bee's egg before eating the honey. 

 The honey I give them is of two different kii;ds — one from Osmia tridentata, the 

 other from Ceratina chalcitis, the former yellow, the latter white, and the larvae 

 take the colour of their food. — Id. 



The Locust Plague in the United States : by Charles V. Riley, M.A., 

 Ph.D. ; 8vo, pp. 236. Chicago : Eand, McNally, and Co. 1877. 



This instructive volume is confessedly chiefly made up from the 7th to 

 9th Reports on the Insects of Missouri, by the same author, already noticed in 

 our pages. But good service has thereby been done, and the result is a capital 

 book illustrated by good figures, and by excellent maps shewing the various parts 

 of the United States in which the insect permanently exists, and also those over 

 which it, in a somewhat erratic manner, spreads in migratory swarms from year to 

 year. The author, in his introduction, says, that " man has power to utterly rout, 

 " by practical and feasible means, the young, or unfledged, insects. Indeed, when 

 " our people become familiar with the locust plague in all its phases, it will cease to 

 " be such a bugbear." The same remark will apply to the so-much-dreaded Colorado 

 beetle. We wish we could say as much respecting our potato fungus : — a corres- 

 pondent, with much justice, says he would gladly compound for the beetle, if the 

 fungus could be destroyed. The only paragraphs we should like to have seen 

 omitted by Dr. Riley, in this practical reprint, are some theological allusions at 

 pp. 213-216, which contain good common sense advice without doubt, but are 

 out of place. 



E. W. Robinson. — Born January 20th, 1835, the son of a well-known engraver, 

 it was but natural that E. W. Robinson should learn the art of steel-engraving, whilst 

 assisting his father. 



Moio his attention was first di'awn to insects, or when we, know not. Richard 

 Shield, the author of " Practical Hints respecting Moths and Butterflies," wrote of 

 him in May, 1856, as " a young friend of mine, and one of my entomological pupils." 



Mr. Shield exhibited, as a specimen of his friend's skill in engraving, as 

 applied to entomological subjects, a sample plate representing LithocoUetis tenella, 

 highly magnified. Mr. Shield was well aware that the " Natuml History of the 

 Tineina " (of which only one volume had then appeared) was delayed by the want of an 

 artist to execute the plates ; and, since the death of William Wing, on the 9th 

 January, 1855, the want of both entomologist and artist combined in one had been 

 much felt. 



Richard Shield thought that in E. W. Robinson he had found this desideratum, 

 and the materials for the plates of vol. 2 of the Natural History of the Tineina were 

 soon placed in the hands of the new-found artist, and the entomological world is 

 well aware with what results. 



The plate illustrating the Entomologists' Annual for 1857 was, we believe, the 

 first published plate executed by Mr. Robinson. 



