CURRfiNT NOTES. 151 



men of Kent, who will find matters of interest connected with their own 

 immediate neighbourhoods dealt with in a manner at once interesting 

 and attractive. Paragraphs, with an old-world flavoui-, about those 

 charming old-world towns and cities which Dickens so dearly loved ; 

 quaint sayings and old-time records ; accounts of some of the strange 

 ai'chajological remains wliicli still occur among the glades and hills 

 we love so well ; these are mixed together in a charming hotch-potch. 

 Many a jjleasant hour may be spent looking over these odd remnants, 

 and it is well that in most of our counties there are to be found a few 

 disinterested men and women who delight in collecting these stray 

 records for our delectation. We cannot suppose that such work ever 

 pays ; probably the pleasure of doing it is as gTeat to the writer as is 

 the i^leasure of reading it when done to the reader. But at any rate 

 such productions as that under review should not leave the author out- 

 of-pocket, and we trust that many nature lovers in general, and Kentish 

 naturalists in particular, will get their interest raised to a sufficiently 

 high pitch, to lead them to send Mr. Howell a postal order for 10/-, for 

 The Kentish Note-book, at which price the book is issued. 



It would appear to be the opinion of many of our Micro-lepidopterists 

 that LithocoUetis dunningieUa is only a form of L. nirellii. A well-known 

 lepidopterist says : — " The series in the collections of Messrs. Sang, 

 Gregson, Shields, Bond and Shej^pard shoAved an insect darker, smaller, 

 and perhaps with the fore wings narrower, which naturally appeared to 

 make two of the opposite spots unite into a thii'd fascia, but Stainton, 

 in the Manual, describes the larger as dimningieUa, the smaller moth as 

 niceUii, evidently an anachroism ! " Here, then, is something for our 

 energetic Micro-lepidopterists to clear up. 



It is with a certain amount of pleasure that we learn that Prof. 

 C. V. Riley has resigned his office of Entomologist of the U. S. Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, although we regret to find that considerations of 

 health and peace of mind are among the reasons that have induced him 

 to take this step. Prof. Riley stands out 2^^'' excellence as the practical 

 entomologist among the officials in the service of the United States, as 

 the man who knows the subject from personal observation and is not 

 content to regard the naming of insects as the be-all and end-all of 

 entomology. The almost entire absence in the United States of work 

 in the more scientific branches of entomology done by the professional 

 entomologists, is really remarkable. We rejoice to think that, set free 

 from the unnecessary red tape and the needless restrictions, which 

 seem to characterise departmental life in the United States as well as in 

 this country, Prof. Riley hopes, in connection with his honorary cura- 

 torship of the Department of Insects in the U. S. National Museum, 

 to do some long contemplated work of a purely scientific character. 



Of what does the family Tineid.e consist in America ? Prof. 

 Fernald (Eat. Neics, p. 138) writes : — " The family Tineidaj or Leaf- 

 miners, is one of the largest of the Lepidoptera The members 



of this family are principally vegetable feeders, yet a few of them feed 

 on hair, feathers and woollen fabrics, often causing great injury. Many 

 of those living on vegetable matter are of economic importance, since 

 they feed on such plants as are of direct value to man, while a large 

 number of the species feed on plants that arc of little or no value. The 

 larvaj of the larger species feed under ground, on the roots of plants ; 

 between leaves rolled or drawn together ; or burrow in stems, fungi or 



