issw.] 237 



Plusia nioneta, Fah., at Cuckjield. — A good specimen of this fine species has 

 been taken by Miss A. Edwards at Cuckfield. It came to light in the house on 

 July 17th. Miss Edwards describes its flight as very slow and fluttering. — E. N. 

 Bloomfield, Guestling Rectory, Hastings : August 2oth, 1899. 



Unusually large specimens of Liparis di.tpar. — This season my specimens of 

 i. dispar were unusually large : the females measuring as a rule over three inches 

 from tip to tip, and in one instance, at least, three and a quarter inches ; the males 

 were over two inches. The larvae were fed on very juicy sallow, and were shut up 

 in air-tight tins until nearly full grown ; the tins were cleaned out and refilled with 

 leaves twice a day. To complete their growth they were turned into very large 

 cages ; the temperature of the room was generally 80° P. It is curious that my 

 correspondent who sent the ova had bred them continuously from 1895, and had 

 never obtained anything at all like these in point of size. — W. H. Tunley, Row- 

 land's Castle : August, 1899. 



[These are believed to be of the old British strain. — C. G. B.]. 



The CocciDiE of Ceylon : by E. Eenest Geeen, F.E.S. Part i, pp. i — xii 

 and 1—103, with 33 plates (1896) ; Part ii, pp. xiii— xli and 104—169, with 30 

 plates (1899). London : Dulau and Co. 



It is now somewhat over thirty years since Signoret commenced his " Essai sur 

 les Cochenilles," in which he demonstrated by pen and pencil that these to many 

 eyes very unattractive insects, the females of most of which live under a sort of 

 fixed carapace (the " scale ") for most of their lives, possessed, when examined 

 microscopically, beautiful structure, and that the outline of the pygidium, with 

 its curious denticulations (together with the spinnerets, &c.), furnished valuable 

 generic and specific characters. For many years Signoret found few disciples, and 

 died before the full effects of his work manifested themselves. We think we may 

 fairly claim that to our venerable colleague Mr. Douglas (now in his 85th year) 

 by his papers in this Magazine, was due the initial movement that has since 

 spread over the whole world by leaps and bounds, and has in several instances 

 (such as leery a Furchasi and Aspidiotus perniciosus) occasioned government 

 solicitude, and the establishment of paid ofiicial entomologists, whose duty largely 

 it is to look after these apparently insignificant scale-bugs. There are at the 

 present time many workers in this field, and their publications are distributed over 

 nearly every medium, and must number thousands of pages annually, whereas about 

 thirty years ago there was nothing. Prominent amongst the workers at the present 

 day is Mr. E. Ernest Green, the author of the book now under notice. Members 

 of Mr. Green's family have long been associated with Ceylon, and have also been 

 known as entomologists : they saw the ruin of the coffee-trade in the island (by a 

 fungus), and the substitution of tea-planting ; it was but natural that our author, 

 as an entomologist, and with a knowledge of the disastrous results of the ravages of 

 CoccidcB in other parts of the world, should have watched with much care their 

 effects on the tea-plants, and in so doing his attention has been directed to the group 

 as a whole. Mr. Green, at the solicitation of the Planters' Association, wliile 



