1892. 221 



fxtv'nxv. 



FUETHEE CocciD NoTES : with Descriptions of New Species, and Remarlis on 

 Coccids from New Zealand, Australia, and elsewhere. By W. M. Maskell, Corr. 

 Mem. Eoyal Society of South Australia, Registrar of the University of New 

 Zealand. (From the Transactions of the New Zealand Institute, 1891, pp. 1 — 64, 

 PI. i— xiii, 8vo). Wellington, N. Z. : 1892. 



This treatise is as valuable and interesting as any of its predecessors, both on 

 account of the descriptions and excellent figures of new species of extraordinary 

 form and habits, and also of the special and general observations on Coccids by one 

 of the most competent of the students of this Section of the Homoptera. Among 

 the subjects noticed are " parthenogenesis " and " the power of gall making " in 

 some of the species. " It is to be hoped," says the author, " that in time the 

 problems connected with these matters may be attacked systematically ; and that 

 European entomologists, when they get tired of the already dreadfully worn grooves 

 of the Lepidoptera and Coleoptera, will find the Coccids worthy of their best 

 attention." 



©bituarn. 



Prof. Hermann Carl Conrad Burmeister, Eon. F.E.S., was born at Stralsund, 

 January 15th, 1807, and died, from the result of an accident, at Buenos Ayres, May 

 2nd, 1892. He was educated for the medical profession at Halle, and took his degree 

 of M.D. By the advice of Prof. Nitzsch (of whom he was a pupil) he turned his 

 attention to Natural History, and he succeeded his master, Prof. Nitzsch, in the chair 

 of Zoology at Halle in 1842. But long before this he had become well known by 

 his writings, especially on Entomology. His inaugural dissertation on the natural 

 system of insects was written in 1829, and was rapidly followed by other papers, and 

 also by a text book of Natural History. In 1832, when he was only 25 years old, 

 appeared the first vol. of the " Handbuch der Entomologie," embodying the general 

 subject, a monument of patience and knowledge ; in 1836 this was published in an 

 English form, translated by Shuckard, under the title of a " Manual of Entomology," 

 an 8vo vol. of 654 pp., with 32 plates, mostly structural and anatomical. This work 

 alone is sufficient to hand down the memory of its author as one of the most pains- 

 taking and original writers on Entomology that has ever existed. Three more vols, 

 of the " Handbuch " appeared, the last in 1847, dealing with the systematic portion 

 (which, however, was never fully completed), giving a succinct account of all known 

 families and genera, and brief diagnoses of many known and new species. These 

 diagnoses are often almost laconic in their brevily, but the author had a happy knack 

 of defining important characters, in which he was largely aided by a method of 

 analytical grouping. Amongst all his numerous writings we regard this work as his 

 masterpiece, so far as Entomology is concerned. As other comparatively early 

 separate works may be cited several educational books on Natural History, a Hand 

 Atlas of Zoology for Schools, &c. (1835—1843), a History of Creation (1843), which 

 passed through several editions, &c., &c. About 1850 faihng health induced him to 

 spend two years in Brazil, and he published an account of his journey in 1853. 



