68 [March, 



prise those who have experienced the difficulty of dealing with the larvse of N. 

 sparganii, that none of them reached maturity.— William R. Jeffrey, Ashford : 

 February 12th, 1902. 



Habits of Lipoptena cervi. — This parasitic Dipteron, attached to deer, was 

 taken here two years ago by W. H. Somerset, flying in plenty, and sometimes set- 

 tling on human beings, on a calm sunny day towards the end of November, on the 

 outskirts of Savernake Forest, which is stocked witli both red and fallow deer, but 

 no deer were very near at the time. The lateness of the season and probably ex- 

 ceptional abundance of the insect seem worthy of record. — E. Meyrick, Elmswood, 

 Marlborough : January 16th, 1902. 



The efficacy of glacial carbolic acid as a preventive of mildew — a severe test. 

 — On opening the current number of the Magazine, I was much shocked at seeing 

 the announcement of the death of my correspondent, Mr. Lionel de Nieeville. Ii 

 seems but " the other day " that I received a particularly kind and interesting letter 

 from him. Seven years ago he wrote to me in great distress as to his collection of 

 Rhopalocera, in the Indian Museum, Calcutta, which were being ruined by mildew, 

 and asking if I could suggest a remedy for the evil. Amongst other measures, I 

 advised him to try carbolic acid, either in the manner suggested by Dr. Sharp, viz. : 

 " Calvert No. 2." on sponge ; or wool saturated in the glacial acid (melted by heat), 

 and wound round the head of a large pin, until a ball the size of a marble was 

 formed. I do not know who originally suggested this method, but it was the one 

 adopted by Mr. de Nice'ville, who thus wrote about it last summer. " For the three 

 last rainy seasons (15th June to 15th September) I have used the glacial carbolic 

 acid on wool, pinned into the bottom corners of my three hundred boxes, and found 

 that no fresh mould has shown itself, I have applied it only once a year, at the 

 beginning of the rains. Perhaps once again, in the middle, would be a greater 

 security, but in this hot country, and on such work one cannot use a punkah, and 

 as the perspiration literally runs off one's nose and chin into the boxes, the labour 

 and discomfort is so abominable that I have only gone through my boxes once. It 

 has been quite successful." 



If this treatment is so effective under the trying conditions of an Indian mon- 

 soon it surely ought to suffice to protect our collections in the dampest situations in 

 this country. It may not be so destructive to micro-organisms as Formol, but it 

 has one great advantage over the latter, namely, that green tints are unaffected by 

 it. — H. Q. Knagqs, Folkestone: February \?dh. 1902. 



A List of British Diptera, 2nd Edition : by G-. H. Verrall, ex-President 

 of the Entomological Society of London. Pp. 47, small 4to. Published by the 

 Author, Sussex Lodge, Newmarket. 1901. 



The author is to be congratulated in being able to say that the first edition of 

 this List, published in 1888, is exhausted, and also that a new edition is necessary, 

 because since then about 300 species have been added, and moreover there have 

 been some 500 changes in synonymy, &c. He deplores the fact that no young 



