1903.] 229 



on birch trees on Chat Moss ; they wei'e very variable, but all belonged to one 

 species, C. ruficorn'm. Mr. Chappell took the species many years ago in the same 

 locality and under the same conditions.— W. W. Fowler, Peppard Rectory, Henley- 

 on-Thames : August \.?>th, 1903. 



John Sanders Stevens, F.E.S., died at his residence at Woking on July 15th, 

 after a short illness from pneumonia, aged 59. He was elected a Member of the 

 Entomological Society of London as long ago as 1862, vehen he must have been 

 about 18. He was a younger son of J. C. Stevens, of King Street, Covent Garden, 

 and assistant to his uncle Samuel Stevens, in the Natural History Agency so long 

 carried on by the latter. When the agency was relinquished he became partner in 

 a mechanical engineering business, and was very successful in connection therewith. 

 There are few entomologists now living who remember "Johnny" Stevens of times 

 gone by, but he retained an interest in Entomology to the last ; he inherited his 

 uncle's British Collections, and was a constant attendant at the invariably genial 

 meetings of the Entomological Club at his uncle's house at Norwood. Those who 

 knew him from boyhood will testify to his amiability of character, and regret that 

 his death at a too early age severs a link between the past and present in the annals 

 of the old Society. 



A Catalogtje of the Coccid^ of the World : by Mrs. Maria E. 

 Fernald, A.m. : forming Bulletin No. 88 (Special Bulletin) of the Hatch Experi- 

 ment Station of the Massachusetts Agricultural College. Pp. 360, large 8vo. 

 Amherst, Mass., U.S.A. 1903. 



The compilation of Catalogues such as this may be likened to the marking of 

 milestones on a road until recently very little used, and the length of which is an 

 unknown quantity. The serious study of CoccidcB is quite modern. Signoret, in 

 his well known " Essai," may be said to have set the ball rolling, but he did not 

 arouse much immediate enthusiasm — the subject was too obscure, and the time was 

 not quite ripe. Then our venerable colleague Douglas began writing on Coccida 

 in this Magazine, and it is practically to him that the impetus initiated by 

 Signoret was developed. But the impetus is largely due to the Economic En- 

 tomologists : sometimes these are blamed for over-estimating the value of their 

 work from the purely economic standpoint; it is impossible to over-estimate it 

 from the scientific. In 1896, when Prof. Cockerell issued his " Check List of the 

 CoccidcB" he enumerated 773 species. Mrs. Fernald in 1903 nearly doubles the 

 number, a feat we venture to think unprecedented in the annals of Entomology; 

 and the bibliography has increased to what may be termed by systematists an in- 

 convenient extent, inasmuch as it embraces the study of a side branch of literary 

 research not often considered necessary. It has been said truly of work such as 

 this that the better it is done the sooner it becomes obsolete : at the present rate 

 a new edition will be necessary in another half-decade or less ; the vvisli that it 

 may be compiled by the same hand will be echoed by all workers. 



