1902.] 271 



it having specialized in different, directions, so that no existing form can be supposed 

 to be derived from any form now existing. I am so thankful for the great labour 

 which has been expended by the author and his coadjutors in obtaining and re- 

 cording, with the necessary accuracy required, the detailed information contained in 

 the work, that I do not like to suggest that if even more labour could have been 

 given the value of the work might have been greater still. But when I find that 

 such a common and widely distributed species as C. potatoria has more than five 

 closely printed pages devoted to dates and localities of capture in the British isles, 

 I cannot help thinking that a compressed and classified summary, which need not 

 have occupied more than half a page, would have been preferable. There are other 

 eases also in which it appears to me that compression and condensation would have 

 been usefully employed. Even if Mr. Tutt agrees in this opinion, his answer might 

 be that of the accomplished letter writer who accounted for the length of his com- 

 munication by saying that he had not time to write short ; if this be so, it is greatly 

 to be regretted, and one is all the more glad that he has had, and will we hope for 

 the succeeding volumes have, the valuable co-operation of such excellent and 

 thoughtful observers as Dr. Chapman, Mr. Bacot and Mr. Prout, whose aid he ac- 

 knowledges so heartily. — F. Merrieield. 



Second Report of the (Natal) Government Entomologist, 1901 : by 

 Claude Fuller. Pp. 72, 8vo. Pietermaritzberg. 1902. 



At ante p. 134, we had occasion to notice Mr. Fuller's First Keport. Like it 

 the Second is fully one half occupied by fungi and kindred subjects. We think it 

 a great improvement on the First, got up more in the official Blue Book style, better 

 printed, and with much better illustrations. Its thinness compared with its pre- 

 decessor the Reporter explains by saying that, to a large extent, it is supplementary 

 thereto. One or two points are of special interest. When writing on the 

 " Mealie " grub (larvae of Sesamia fusca, Hampson), it is stated that one of them 

 lived 193 days without food, and then commenced burrowing into the soil as soon 

 as an opportunity offered. The chapter on the fruit moths (of which Sphingomorpha 

 chlorea, Cramer, is figured as an example) is very important ; in the First Report 

 the author appeared to show a leaning towards the idea that the moths do not 

 puncture the fruit, but take advantage of the punctures made by flies. In this 

 Report the leaning is quite the other way ; nevertheless, he says the evidence is 

 still not sufficient to enable him to form a definitive opinion ; but lie figures a 

 section of a peach, in the skin of which punctures made by the moth and cavities 

 containing eggs of the fly both exist in the same fruit. Appendix A consists of a 

 draft of a Bill to check the introduction of Insect Pests and Plant Diseases. 



Societies. 



The South London Entomological and Natural History Society, 

 August lith, 1902.— Mr. F. Noad Clark, President, in the Chair. 



Mr. Edwards exhibited ova of Anthrocera trifolii from Bylleet. Dr. Fremlin 

 said that during a recent visit to the Isle of Man, he had taken Dianthcecia casta 

 and larvae of Folia xanthomista, v. nigrocincta. Dr. Chapman, specimens of 

 Nemoptera bipennis (lusitanica) from Bejar in Spain. 



