162 '^'' "'-''' 



Saalas (U.). — " Die Fichtenkiifer Fiunlands. Stiidien iiber die Entwick- 

 lungsstadien, Lebensweise und geog'iaphische Verbreitung- der an Picea excelsa, 

 Link., lebenden Ooleopteren nebst einer Larvenbestimmungstabelle." (The 

 Spruce Beetles of Finland. Studies on the Developmental Stages, Life-Flistory 

 and Distribution of tbe Coleoptera living on Ficea excelsa, Link., with a Key- 

 to the Larvae.) "Annales Academiae Scientiarum Fennicae," Helsingfors, 

 Ser. A. viii, No. 1, 1917, 547 pp., 9 plates, 1 map. 



The Coleopterous fauna of Finland has been relatively well worked from 



a systematic point of view, but biological data are almost entirely lacking. In 



this volume, which is the outcome of investigations carried on from 1912 to 



1915, the term " spruce beetle " is used in a wide sense, even such species being 



included as live on other trees and only occasionally occur on IHcea excelsa, 



Link. On the other liand, those beetles are excluded that are not truly 



arboreal, but shelter beneatli the spruce bark more or less by chance. For 



instance, Pi/rochroa pectinicornls , a typical birch insect, has been included 



because the larvae that were examined had apparently spent the entire larval 



stage under the spruce bark, whereas certain Chrysomelid, Cui-culionid and 



other beetles that are found under the spruce bark, especially in Autumn and 



Spring, have been excluded because their true habitat is elsewhere. The 



exceptions to this last rule are justified in the second part of this volume, in 



which, under an arrangement according to families, the species are dealt with 



singly, many details of the life-history, distribution and habitat being recorded 



in each case. The first part covering 27G pages deals generally with these 



beetles, their economic importance, distribution, food, occurrence on various 



parts of the spruce, and contains many tables. A number of beetles frequently 



found under loose spruce bark, but living in moss etc., are included, but species 



that live under the fallen needles on the ground are not. Beetles living in 



fungi growing on spruce are included, but not species that occur in some spruce 



stumps simply because the latter happen to be badly rotted. In a number of 



cases the existing literature did not afford adequate means for identiHcation 



and in many of them the adult had to be bred out. The key at tlie end of this 



work is intended to enable the larvae of all the species known to the author to 



be identified. Of species that he is unacquainted with only a few are included 



owing to the difficulty in finding sure points of comparison. The number 



of species fully dealt with amount to 341, of which 289 were actually 



observed to occur, in more or less abundance, on spruce. This last fioure 



amounts to 9*9 per cent, of the 2,927 species of Coleoptera recorded from 



Finland up to 1900 according to the " Catalogus Coleopterorum Faunae 



Fennicae " of J. Sahiberg, the author's father. 



The South London Entomological and Natural History Socikty: 

 Maij8ih, 1919.— Mr. Stanley Edwards, F.L.S.,F.E.S., President, in the Chair. 



Mr. F. H. Wolley Dod, F.E.S., of Alberta, was elected a member. 



Annual Exhibition op "Other Orders." — Mr. Frisby exhibited 

 (1) Vesna doryl hides, an Eastern species nocturnal in flight, and {2} Foly- 

 rhachis striata, an ant armed with spines, from India. Mr. Ashduwn, a large 



