1891.1 277 



Hemiptera-IIeteroptera near Lowestoft. — Last summer I recorded the capture 

 of Nobis hoops at G-omshall ; it has been my good fortune to meet with the insect 

 again this year in Suffolk. In August I found a single specimen at the roots of the 

 tall grass on the sandhills near Lowestoft ; several hours' diligent search, howercr, 

 failed to yield any others. The commonest Nabis there was major, which was 

 abundant ; but, owing to the lateness of the season, by the beginning of August 

 they liad not got beyond the nymph stage, and many were still quite minute larvfB. 

 Four fully grown nymphs I enclosed in a box, hoping to see their transformation ; 

 but they soon attacked one another, and in a day or two there was but a single 

 living one standing victorious amongst three corpses sucked dry. It was curious to 

 note that to save itself the trouble of perforating the skin of its victims, the survivor 

 availed itself of their anal opening iu order to suck out tliL-ir juices. This habit I 

 have noticed in other cases also, and it gives them a means of attack which is suc- 

 cessful even against hard skinned beetles. On the sands at Gorton I found a 

 macropterous ? of Globiceps dispar running about just above the margin of the sea. 

 No others could be found in that neighbourhood, but at Fritton, about five miles 

 inland, I came across the species plentifully in a marshy field covered with tall grass 

 and rushes. They occurred at the roots of the vegetation, the females (brachypterous) 

 being far more numerous than the males. The latter, like the same sex in Cyrtor- 

 rhinus caricis, were very agile, and readily took to the wing. One macropterous 9 

 also fell to my lot here. I have a number of duplicates of the brachypterous ? 

 which are at the service of any Hemipterists who may want the species. Nabis 

 Uneatus was fairly common in the same field, which also yielded a single specimen 

 of Cyrtorrhinus Jlaveolus (macropt.). A few Eroticoris rufescens occurred at 

 Lowestoft and Herringfleet, and a single Salda orthochila at the foot of the cliffs at 

 Gorton. But everything was late, and many species which are usually fully de- 

 veloped by August were still young and immature. — E. A. Butleb, 39, Ashby Road, 

 Grouch Hill, N. September, 1891. 



A Synonymical Gatalogue of the Lepidoptera Rhopaloceba (Butteb- 

 FLiEs) OF Australia : by W. H. Miskin, F.L.S., F.E.S. Forming No. 1 of the 

 Annals of the Queensland Museum. Pp. 93, 8vo. Brisbane : J. G. Beal. 1891. 



Mr. Miskin's name has been long and favourably known in connection with the 

 Lepidoptera of Australia, and he has done good service in compiling this Catalogue. 

 It is on the plan of Mr. W. F. Kirby's general Catalogue, but the " old fashioned " 

 sequence from PapilionidcB to ITesperidre is maintained. Especially valuable are 

 the columns devoted to distribution, which give precisely the range of each species 

 so far as is known. In some cases the aulhor treats as " species" forms which are 

 often considered as only varieties in a more general sense. About 360 species are 

 listed, and naturally the northern (or inter-tropical) portion of the continent swells 

 the list very considerably. A few new species are described for the first time. The 

 bibliography and synonymy are very full, so much so as to be occasionally appalling 

 in extent. With regard to generic nomenclature, the author says, " I have in many 

 cases preferred to retain names, which have become so familiar by long use, as to 

 make it inexpedient, in my opinion, to discard them," and he avows himself " an 

 uncompromising opponent of the species makers," and says further, that " the practice 



