^Q I February, 



The appearance of this volmue, delayed by tlie War since 1914, coines at 

 a time when interest in the group has been renewed by the recent discovery 

 in the Permian and Triassic deposits of Australia, not only of true Mecoptera, 

 but also of related forma belonging to new Orders. Indeed, Dr. R. J. 

 Tillyard, to whom we are indebted for our knowledge of these discoveries, sees 

 in these earliest endopterygote insects something very near to the common 

 ancestors of the Diptera, Lepidoptera, and other recent Orders possessing a 

 complete metamorphosis. 



The author of the monograph is the well-known writer on the so-called 

 " neuropterous " or " neuropteroid " insects, Mr. P. Esben-Petersen, of Silke- 

 borg, Denmark, and entomologists in this country will be gratified to learn 

 that English has been adopted as the language of the text. Mr. Esben- 

 Petersen is also responsible for the excellent illustrations which add so largely 

 to the scientific value of the monograph. In addition to two well-executed 

 plates, exhibiting many remarkable and interesting forms, the text is enriched 

 by no fewer than 188 iigui'es of wing-venation and male genital armature, 

 from the author's own photographs and drawings. — Herbert Campion. 



(©bituariT. 



Di'. Thomas Algernon Chapman, F.R.S., etc., as announced in our last 

 issue, died at lieigate, Surrey, on December 17th, 1921. lie was born at 

 Glasgow on June 2nd, 1842. At an early age he qualified as L.R.C.S. 

 Edinburgh and M.D. Glasgow (with honours), and was resident physician and 

 surgeon of Glasgow Royal Infirmary for a time. He then joined the staft" of 

 the Abergavenny Asylum, remaining there till 1871. During his 2o years at 

 Hereford, 1871-1896, he was medical superintendent of the County and City 

 Asylum. After his retirement he went, in 1897, to reside at Reigate, but up 

 till then he was not known personally to many of us resident in the south. 

 His cheery manner and attractive personality soon brought him many friends, 

 and from that time onward, till failing health prevented, he was a constant 

 attendant at the meetings of the Entomological Society of Loudon, often 

 taking part in the discussions on these occasions. 



In the obituary notice of Mr. T. Chapman, published in this Magazine 

 (xvi, p. 138, 1879), the following remarks were made concerning his son : " It 

 may safely be presumed that early training under a parent genuinely devoted 

 to natural history has developed in Dr. Algernon Chapman that talent for 

 biological work which has hitherto so eminently characterized liis writings." 

 In writing a memoir of the junior man, 42 years later, we can add that his 

 subsequent work was even more thorough, and that this standard was main- 

 tained till the last. 



From 1897-1914, when war put an end to travel, it was his practice to 

 spend some considerable time each year on the Continent for entomological 

 purposes — in the spring occasionally to the Riviera, and in the summer to various 

 places in the Alps or Pyrenees, Sicily, Spain, Norway, etc. When the French 

 army was mobilised in 1914, he was at Gavarnie with the present writer, who 

 had also had the privilege of accompanying him on his five visits to Spain, and 

 on various occasions to places in the Alps, and a better field-companion than 



