2G2 [April, 



Rhyacophila munda in West' Central France. — In a box of Trichoptera just 

 received from my esteemed correspondent M. Rene Martin of Le Blanc (Indre), I 

 find a single <J example of this insect, which thus loses its claim to be peculiarly 

 British. It was described by me in 1862 in the Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond., ser. 3, toI. i, 

 p. 309, from examples found in 1861 at the streams in South Devon originating on 

 Dartmoor, where I have since taken it on several occasions. In September, 1863, I 

 found it, in company with Rh. obliterata, in certain localities in North Wales. These 

 localities represented the extent of its known distribution. I could hardly imagine 

 it really was peculiarly British ; nevertheless, during more than a quarter of a 

 century no one had recorded it on the continent, nor, until now, have I ever seen an 

 example in the multitudinous collections from all parts of continental Europe for- 

 warded for examination during that period. And it is a species with special structure 

 so remarkable as to constitute a distinct group of the genus. If once again our 

 insular amour propre has been wounded in no longer being able to claim a certain 

 species as peculiar to our country, there is more than sufficient compensation in the 

 addition gained to the knowledge of its distribution ; personally, I rejoice ; it is 

 what I hoped for, and what I felt sure mv^t happen some day. But I had looked 

 for the record from some locality (probably in Britanny) further north than Le 

 Blanc. Who is there that collects Trichoptera in Britanny ? 



M. Martin is located in a wonderfully rich (and peculiar) district. On the one 

 hand he finds certain species there formerly known only from Portugal ; on the 

 other he is able to take from us the exclusive right to almost the only Tricliopteron 

 we could claim as distinctly British. He also finds Rhyacophila Pascoei, McLach., 

 in his district, but that, although unique a few years ago, has proved to be wide 

 spread ; even the Seine at Paris produces it. — R. McLachlan, Lewisham, London : 

 February 25i&, 1888. 



Jlcuiciu. 



An Account of the Insects Noxious to Agriculture and Plants in 

 New Zealand: The Scale-Insects (Coccidid.s:). By W. M. Maskell, F.R.M.S., 

 Registrar of the University of New Zealand. Wellington : By authority : G-. 

 Didsbury, Government Printer. 1887. 23 plates, pp. 1 — 116. 8vo. 



This work consists of a revised collection, in classified order, of the descriptive 

 papers on CoccidcB, which have been contributed by the author during several years 

 to the " Transactions of the New Zealand Institute." Now summarized and brought 

 into a compendious form, this volume will doubtless prove useful to the persons for 

 whom it is primarily intended — the cultivators whose trees and plants often suffer 

 greatly from the attacks of Coccids, — by teaching them the nature of the insects, 

 and the best methods of destroying them ; and it has also a general scientific value 

 in the masterly way in which the subject is treated from an entomological point of 

 view. The primary groups, the genera of the whole world, as well as the species 

 indigenous to, or introduced into. New Zealand, are concisely differentiated and 

 described. The excellent figures, well lithographed from the author's drawings, 

 those of the perfect insects being coloured, efficiently realize the wonderful forms, 

 and are particularly illustrative and interesting to residents in other countries, of the 

 genera Lecanochiton, Ctenochiton, Inglisia, Friochiton, and Ccelostoma, all hitherto 

 special to N. Zealand ; there is also a full-page plate of the notorious Icerya 



