234 [October, 



the parasites. The numbers of the scale and the area over which it is spread 

 seems to point to a disturbance of the conditions under which it previously was 

 kept in checlc. Has the military occupation of Eichmond Park had any effect 

 on the bird life, and this reacted on the Kernies? On September 9th, 1919, 

 Mr. K. G. Blair brought me several examples of Orthezia urticae (Liun.), 

 which he had obtained at Shoeburyness, feeding on Artemisia maritima. 

 Newstead seems to think it a local insect, recording it on Olaux maritima and 

 Statice armeria, both maritime plants ; while Douglas found it on Stellaria 

 holostea. In August I found Orthezia cataphracta (Shaw) under stones amongst 

 beech leaves under beech trees on the Experimental Estate of the North of 

 Scotland College of Agriculture, Craibstone, near Aberdeen. Over 100 females, 

 many with the marsupium fully developed, were bottled in a few minutes. 

 Several were found on the roots of seedling beeches, the leaves of which had a 

 sickly and wilted appearance. This species has been fouEd under beech trees 

 in several other localities in tlie same district. On September 7tli, 1919, 

 Mr. S. A. Brokenhouse sent to the Natural History Museum several specimens 

 of Eriopeltis festucae Fonsc. on Fcstina ovina. He says that this species is 

 common on the coast road between Ilfracombe and Combe Martin. — F. Laing, 

 British Museum (Nat. Hist.) : September I8th, 1919. 



"Catalogue Systematiquk et Bescmptip pes Collections Zoolo- 

 GiQXTES DU BARON Edm. de Selys Longchamps." Libellulineu : fasc. xvi 

 (deuxieme partie). Pp. 1043-1278, figs. 605-(392. By-Dr. F. Ris. Brussels, 

 1919. Price 00 fr. 50. 



Notwithstanding a long and laborious life, mainly devoted to the study of 

 the Odonata, that great master of dragonfly-science, Baron Edmond de Selys 

 Longchamps, had to leave to another hand the revision of the large and im- 

 portant subfamily of the Libellulinae. That task was carried out, with a 

 substantial measure of success, by Mr. W, F. Kirby, who in 1889 published 

 a revision of all the genera then known, and added to them 40 more of his 

 own. At the same time he described 55 new species (not 42, as stated by 

 Kirby himself) from the material in the British Museum (Natural History). 

 Further contributions to the scientiric study of the group were made by later 

 writers, but it was not until Dr. F. Ris, of Rheinau, Switzerland, undertook 

 to monograph the Libellulinae for the Selysian Catalogue that a thorough- 

 going revision, both as to genera and species, came into being. The first 

 fascicle of this monumental work was published at Brussels in 1909, and 

 succeeding instalments followed one another at short intervals until virtual 

 completion was attained in 1913. There still remained to be issued the index 

 and the descriptions of a large number of new species which had come into the 

 author's hands during the progress of the work. Although the printing of this 

 additional matter was fiuished in 1916, publication could not be proceeded with 

 during the continuance of the War, and, according to the postmark, the copy 

 imder review did not leave Brussels until 6th August, 1919. The title-page 

 bears two dates — the actual year of printing, 1916, and the nominal date of 

 distribution, 1st March, 1919. A circular-letter, signed by Monsieur G. 

 Severin, explains the reasons why publication did not follow immediately upon 



