56 THE entomologist's record. 



miportant work upon "Amber diptera" of the families CecidtnnyiJae 

 — Cliirononiidae — has been issued by Meunier, a well-known authority 

 upon the subject {Bru.relles, 264 pp., 16 pis.), and a minor article upon 

 the Syrphidae in amber, by the same author [Jalirb. Preuss. Geol. 

 Landesanst.). The Aphaniptera or Fleas have been dealt with at 

 considerable length by such writers as Wahlgren [ArJdvf. ZooL, Ent. 

 Tidskr.) \ Wagner (BeiK Riifise d' Ent.) \ and Rothschild [Nocit. Zool., 

 etc.), and contributions towards our knowledge of the Hippohoscidae are 

 given by Speiser {Zeitsc/ir. Hi/)ii. ii. iJipt.). 



American dipterologists have been largely interested in the 

 (Jidicidae, and many minor publications upon that family have 

 appeared. The chief descriptive works upon other groups have been 

 Baker's " Revision of the Siphonaptera or fleas" [Proc. U. S. Nat. 

 Mks.), and Brues' " Monograph of the Plmridae " (Trans. Am. Ent. 

 Soc, Dec. 1903). It is to be regretted that several American students 

 are content to publish short articles containing miserably inadequate 

 descriptions of species in difficult groups, thereby raising stumbling- 

 blocks in the way, rather than assisting the progress, of the science in 

 which they are supposed to be interested. Austen has published a 

 Fiei'iscd Synopsis of the Tsetse Flies, and Miss Ricardo " Notes on 

 the smaller genera of the Tabatiinae" [Ann. May. Nat. Hist.). 

 Theobald has published the descriptions of several new Cidicidae 

 {Entoinoloyist), and was the author of the article on Cidicidae in 

 Wytsman's Genera Insectorntn. The third part of Baron Osten- 

 Sacken's Record of tny life work in Entomoloyy, containing a list of 

 his entomological publications from 1854-1904, has also appeared 

 during the past year. Bishof has described new species of the 

 Miiscaria scldzoiiietopa [Verli. (res. Wien), and Bezzi has published an 

 important paper on Indo- Australasian Einpididae (Ann. Mas. Nat. 

 Hnnyarici). 



Holmgren's " Zur Morphologic des Insektenkopfes," I. (Zeitschr. 

 Wiss. ZooL), and Meijere's " Beitrage zur Kenntniss der Biologic und 

 der systematisehen Verwandtschaft der Conopiden " are among the 

 more important contributions upon this branch of the subject. 



In conclusion it cannot be said that dipterologists have been idle 

 during the past year, though probably the amount of work published 

 is rather below than above the average. 



Lepidopterological notes from the Beyrout district. 



By PHILIP P. GRAVES. 

 In July, 1904, being anxious for a short change from the damp 

 heat of Alexandria, I paid a visit to the Lebanon, and was able to do a 

 fair amount of collecting between July 7th and August 3rd. Of course 

 I was rather late, much of the country had been burnt yellow and the 

 grassland was eaten bare by goats, but, none the less, I took or saw 

 some 60 species, and acquired some useful knowledge of where to look 

 for butterflies, which will, I hope, be of value to myself, and, perhaps, 

 to other collectors in the coming years. My first collecting trips, on 

 July 7th and 8th, were directed to the mouth of the Dog River (Nahr 

 el Kelb), about 70 minutes by train from Beyrout. Arrived there 

 before 9 a.m. on the 7th, I began by exploring the rocks at the entrance. 

 A few Syrichthiis orhifer and Carc/iarodus alceae, approaching var. 

 anstralis, with worn Polyonnnatns icarus and ragged ( lirysophanns 



