RETROSPECT OF A COLEOPTERIST FOR 1904. 33 



oothecfe of some eight species, full accounts are given of the nature 

 and habits of the larva; of these species ; one of them, Cassida iimrana, 

 is a species new to science, and a description of it is given. The hitter 

 part of the paper deals with several points of general interest in 

 connection with the subject, such as the protection the oothecte oti'er 

 to attacks from parasites and other enemies. The paper is illustrated 

 by a set of beautiful plates of oothecfe, larvae, etc., of these species, 

 drawn by Miss M. A. Sharp, who must be warmly congratulated on 

 her work. Mr. Champion has (p. 81) a paper on similar lines to the 

 one he published last year on " An entomological excursion to Moncayo, 

 N. 8pain," with long lists of Coleoptera and Hemiptera taken during 

 the month spent on the trip, and Dr. Chapman contributes, as a supple- 

 ment to this paper, a note on "The life-habits oi Xi/lcboniK dispa}-,Fiihi-.,'' 

 a colony of the beetle having been found at Moncayo. It may be re- 

 membered that Miss Ormerod, at one time, feared that this insect was 

 likely to become an orchard pest in this country ; fortunately this has 

 not come about, and the beetle has never occurred in any numbers again 

 in this country since the sudden outbreak in the orchards at Toddington, 

 near Cheltenham, in 1889. Mr. Champion and Dr. Chapman, by 

 their repeated visits to Spain, are doing much to make known the 

 insect fauna of that country to British entomologists, and their papers 

 probably do much to stimulate interest in the wider continental aspect 

 of our subject as opposed to the purely insular study to which so many 

 of our workers are inclined to limit themselves. The last piece of 

 work of that indefatigable, exact, and conscientious entomologist, the 

 late Mr. F. Bates, is contained in a paper on " A revision of the sub- 

 family Pelidnotinac of the coleopterous family Ruti'lidae, with description 

 of new genera and species " (p. 249), which, having been left by the 

 death of its author not quite complete, was prepared for publication by 

 Mr. G. J. Arrow. A table of the genera of Pdidnotinae is given, and 

 of the species of the genus Pdidnota, with full descriptions of thirteen 

 new species of the genus ; types of all of these (except three in the 

 Royal Museum at Brussels) are in the British Museum. The paper 

 concludes with the description of three new genera to the subfamily 

 and four new species belonging to these new and other genera. Mr. 

 A. M. Lea has (p. 329) a long paper, " Notes on Australian and 

 Tasmanian Cryptocephalides with description of new species." The 

 author in his introduction enlarges upon the difficulties introduced into 

 the study of this subfamily by the way in which genera have been 

 proposed on the slightest of grounds. After his examination of 

 probably the largest collection both of species and of specimens ever 

 studied by any one entomologist, he states that he did not consider it 

 advisable to attempt to apportion previously described species into 

 genera, preferring to refer to them by the genus in which they were 

 originally described. A complete tabulation of the 173 species dealt 

 with is given, and then detailed accounts of habitats, and reference to 

 previous descriptions ; the author himself describes, for the first time, 

 no fewer than 75 species. It will be seen, therefore, that this paper is 

 one of the most valuable on Australian coleoptera which have appeared 

 for some years, and it will be indispensable for workers at the beetle 

 fauna of the great island continent. In Part IV, the last so far issued, 

 is Mr. G. J. Arrow's most interesting and valuable article on " Sound 

 production in the Lamellicorn beetles," a model of careful Avork and 

 accurate deductions, and a perfect storehouse of information on this 



