1916.1 Igy 



Vespa norvegica at Reigate. — Mr. Lionel Adams calls my attention to there 

 being more wasps' nests in bushes than usual, his attention having' been called 

 to several. Unfortunately these were all desti-oyed but one when we came to 

 investigate them. The remaining one proved to be of Vespa norvegica ; the 

 others were probably the same species. This wasp is perhaps sufficiently 

 infrequent in this district to make its occurrence, apparently in some numbers, 

 worth noting. — T. A. Chapmax, 



Ohituary -. a correction.— In the notice of Mr. Enock which appeared in our 

 July number, his birth-place is by an oversight given as Birmingham. It 

 should have been Manchester. — Eds. 



Abstracts of Jlerent jL^iterature. 



BY HUGH SCOTT, M.A., F.L.S., F.E.S. 



Keilin, D. " Recheeches suk les larves des Diptekes Ctcloehaphes." 

 Bulletin Scientifiqiie de la Trance et de la Belgique, Vol. 49, fascic. 1-2, 

 pp. 15-198, pi. 1-16, Dec, 1915. 



In the Ent. Mo. Mag. for August, 1915, there appeared an abstract of a 

 short paper on " the adaptative forms of Anthomyiid larvae," one of a number 

 of interesting articles on Dipterous larvae and their biology published by 

 Dr. Keilin, who i.s at present carrying on his studies at Cambridge. The large 

 and extremely valuable work now under review is the result of several years of 

 research effected at the Laboratoire d' Evolution in Paris. It is a striking fact 

 that mixch of the material, on which the remarkable discoveries outlined below 

 were made, came from the small garden of that institution and from some other 

 gardens in the heart of the great city. 



The treatise is divided into two parts : (i) dealing with the life-history of 

 Pollenia rudis and the parasitism of Dipterous larvae in Oligochaet worms ; 

 (ii) discussing various points in the comparative morphology and biology of 

 Dipterovis larvae. Though it is of considerable size, its author intends it to be 

 only the first of a series of memoirs on the early stages of the Biptera. 



Pollenia rudis, a Calliphorine fly known in America as the " clustei--fly," is 

 one of the commonest flies in houses in EurojDe and America, sometimes infest- 

 ing rooms in swarms. Though it is so common, its life-history was unknown 

 till Keilin discovered that its larval existence is passed in the earthworm Allo- 

 lohophora. His preliminary narration of this fact appeared in 1909, and was 

 referred to by me on p. 20 of the present volume of the Ent. Mo. Mag. The 

 full account of the life-cycle is contained in the work now imder review. 



The species of Allolohophora parasitised are A. chlorotica Sav. and A. rosea 

 Sav., but the following remarks apply mostly to the former. The female Pollenia 

 lays its eggs in the earth about the beginning of September. The larvae hatch 

 in 4-6 days, and having found an earthworm, penetrate into it throiigh the male 

 genital orifice. This act, which Keilin has watched in the course of several 



