i»oi.j 19 



is twice the size of oui* L. carlince, Oliv., and has a shoi'ter, flatter, and very much 

 stouter rostrum ; this latter has o;i the upper-side an anteriorly abbreviated median 

 carina and two less distinct divergent carinee extending forwards from the median one 

 on each side towards the base, and on the under-side it is clothed with lon^ hairs. 

 M. Bedel (Faune Col. Bassin Seine, Rhynch., p. 88) records the capture of an 

 example at Paris, in July, 1876, upon a flower of Cynara cardunculus (a spiny plant 

 allied to the artichoke, C. scolymus), from Algeria, transplanted to the Botanical 

 G-arden of the Museum. I have taken the insect myself in the south of Spain, at 

 Algeciras, whence Mr. Walker has also sent me specimens. — GI-. C. Champion, 

 Horaell, "Woking : December Qth, 1900. 



»i 



Classification of the Ichneumon Flies of the Super-Family Ichneu- 

 MONOIDEA. [Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., xxiii (1900), pp. 1—220.] By William H. 



ASHMEAD. 



Under the above title we have a really concise and workable diagnosis of the 

 families and genera of a huge mass of the neglected insects. Little or nothing is, 

 generally speaking, at present known in this country of its parasitic flies, and it will 

 come as a revelation to the majority that, while we have relied upon out-of-date 

 works for our superficial platitudes, with the occasional break of a llaliday, a Mar- 

 shall, or a Bridgman, progress is elsewhere being made at no inconsiderable rate in 

 this section. As the author remarks, from 109 genera, known to Burmeister in 1835, 

 we of to-day have to cope with 1140, most of them stable and many still further 

 sub-divisible. This work of Mr. Ashmead is what has so long been needed — a 

 coalition of the superficial Gravenhorstian method with that more truly scientific, 

 though less applicable, of Forstcr, the recently re-awakened interest in which has 

 been voiced by Thomson. Though we are at issue regarding the systematic position 

 of the Xoridoid Hybophancs, and a few such minor points, the main conspectus is 

 wonderfully clear, and there is no residue of doubt that the present is a work 

 destined to advance the natural classification and general study of our friendly 

 parasites more than any publislied for many a long day. — Claude Moeley. 



The Structure and Life-History of the Harlequin Fly (Chirono- 

 Mus) : by L. C. Miall, F.R.S., and A. R. Hammond, F.L.S. 8vo, pp. 304, with 

 a plate and 130 illustrations in the text. Oxford, at the Clarendon Press ; London, 

 Edinburgh, and New York, Henry Frowde ; 1900. 



This book is a Monograph in the widest sense of the " Blood Worm " Chiro- 

 nomus. But it goes far beyond that. There may be, no doubt are, some points in 

 which the subject chosen for the title of the book differs from anything else : on the 

 other hand, there are multitudes of species that have very much in common, therefore 

 the work is a Monograph within a Monograph, and as such will prove of very great 

 service. The results of the mass of microscopic work undertaken in the preparation 

 of the book are detailed in a very clear manner, and there is a capital bibliography. 

 The ensemble is much after the same style as Prof. Miall's and Mr. Denny's " Cock- 

 roach." It is quite possible that Prof. Huxley's " Crayfish " gave the impulse that 

 has resulted in books like these ; in any case it has had many imitators. 



