132 the entomologist's record. 



is often present in the $ , and occasionally absent in the 2 ', all these 

 spots are sometimes pupilled and sometimes blind. H. semele is usually 

 of the var. pallida, I have also taken a $ of the ab. addenda. With 

 regard to Erebia medusa, the var. hippomedusa was common in 1905 ; 

 last year it was scarce, nearly all the specimens being almost typical. 

 E. aethiops, as usual, varies, but the predominating form is violacea. 



While speaking of E. medusa, I should like to mention that, in the 

 Bex district, and also at Caux, I have taken a form having three white 

 pupils in the upper eye-spot of the forewings ; for this form, which 

 occurs in both sexes, and sometimes on the under, as well as the upper, 

 side, I propose the name ab. eviades. 



There is a village of Eclepens, but much nearer to La Sarraz 

 station, on the Pontarlier line, than to its own. The station inn, 

 mentioned by Mr. Lowe, has no rooms to let, and is quite impossible. 

 La Sarraz, which is quite habitable, is under two-and-a-half miles 

 from Eclepens station, and half the intervening distance is good 

 hunting ground. 



The derivation of European faunas and floras.! 



In this, his most recent work on a subject in which he is an 

 acknowledged authority, Dr. Scharff reviews at considerable length, 

 and with abundance of detail, such evidence as the present distribu- 

 tion of the European floras and faunas affords of their past 

 migrations and original derivation. 



Those who are acquainted with Dr. Scharff's previous contribu- 

 tions to this subject, or heard the Swiney course of lectures at South 

 Kensington last autumn, will not require to be told how peculiarly 

 well equipped he is for such a task, what an immense mass of 

 faunistic data is within his knowledge, or how complete is his grasp 

 of the various geological and biological factors which are involved in 

 the problem. Nor will it be necessary to explain to those who have 

 touched however superficially the subject of the derivation of existing 

 floras and faunas, how complicated those problems are, and how 

 difficult, often, indeed, impossible, to disentangle the intricate web of 

 original elements which combine to make up the feral population of 

 even the smallest parish. 



In the present work Dr. Scharff analyses the faunistic constituents 

 of each of the great European areas seriatim, and suggests their 

 derivation ; thus are treated the British Isles, the Iberian Peninsula, 

 Scandinavia, the Alpine region, the great plains of eastern and of 

 western Europe, and the Mediterranean east and west. 



Within the limits of this notice it is impossible to do more than 

 briefly refer to that which will be most interesting to the readers of 

 this magazine — the British Isles, and more especially to the inverte- 

 brate population of that area. Data derived from these, and espe- 

 cially from the Insecta, are indeed conspicuously in evidence through- 

 out the whole book, and, in the British section, excellent maps are 

 given of the distribution of the beetles Pelophila borealis and Rhopalo- 

 mesites tardyi, of the moth Anarta melanopa, and of the wood-louse 

 Platyarthaus hoffmarmse'ggii. Dr. Scharff, with most biologists, con- 



f European Animals, by R. F. Scharff, Ph.D., B.Sc, Swiney Lecturer on 

 Geology. (Constable and Co., Ltd., 1907. 7s. 6d.) 



