1896.1 113 



Studie o Coccidech, i (a Study in Coccicis) : by Karel Sulc. F. Riondce, 

 Prague. 1895. 8?o, pp. 1-27 ; 3 plates. 



This publication is an extract from the Transactions of the Institute for Comp. 

 Anat. and Zoology, Bohemian University, Prague, and is issued separately. It 

 consists of a descriptive essay of three species of Coccids found in Bohemia, one of 

 which also occurs in Britain. 1. Syngenaspis (n. g. allied to Parlatoria) parlatorim 

 (n. sp.), on the leaves of Pinus abies. 2. Mytilaspis Neiosteadi (n. sp.) on the 

 leaves, never on the twigs, of Pinus sylvestris. 3. Crt/ptococcus (Dong.) fag i, Baeren- 

 sprung, on and under bark of beech trees, the description of this obscure species 

 being amended from that given by Baerensprung and Douglas. Of the jjlates one 

 illustrates the magnified appearance of the scales of the first two species, the other 

 two, of double size, give still more enlarged views of the distinctive characters of 

 the new genus and of each of the three species mentioned, all from the fine drawings 

 of the autlior. The whole constitutes a valuable addition to the scientific knowledge 

 of the Coccina. 



This work is one of many signs tliat the number of the students of the Coccids 

 is increasing, and that this Division of the Homoptera, now that the wonders of its 

 minute structures and its functions are being discovered and illustrated, is no longer 

 to be regarded as neglected. The publication is in the Bohemian language, but a 

 full translation of it in English is appended, and this will make it more extensively 

 welcome and useful. 



Our Coxjntet's Butterflies and Moths, and how to know them : by 

 W. J. Gordon, with 1000 examples in colour by H. Lynn, and many original 

 diagrams. 150 pp., crown 8vo. London : Day and Son, and Simpkin, Marshall, 

 Hamilton, Kent and Co. 



Yet another " popular " work on British Lepidoptera ! The author informs us 

 that " it is a book of identification," so we turn to the 33 ehromo-lithographic 

 plates on which are 1000 crowded figures. Down to the end of the OeometridcB it 

 is probable that fully half the figures will serve for identification ; some are excellent ; 

 the di'awing is mostly good, the fault lies in having attempted to make a limited 

 number of colour-stones serve for all the figures on a plate ; sometimes (Eupithe- 

 cia, for instance) a whole series of figures are useless. But the book is dirt cheap 

 at the price. The three plates devoted to Pyralidm and some Tortrices and Tineina 

 had better have been omitted, the ensemble is not satisfactory. As to the text : we 

 are told by the author that " at least half of the accepted species " (of Lepidoptera) 

 " are of no more relative value than the varieties of the horticulturist," so, although 

 we do not remember to have heard his name pi'cviously, we abstain from criticism, 

 for no one but a profound student would be justified in making such a statement. 



oiitiities. 



The South London Entomological and Natural History Society; 

 March 2Gth, 1896.— E. South, Esq., F.E.S., President, in the Chair. 



K 



