110 THE entomologist's RECORD. 



surface. By April 27th the egg had changed to dark bhie, and the 

 young larva emerged shortly after this. — S. Walker, York. Janiion/ 

 iHth, 1904. 



m U R R E N T iToTT E S . 



Mr. Claude Morley has done a great service to British entomology 

 in publishing his treble-titled book, of which we choose the one on the 

 top of the title-page, Jc/nii>iniion/ilo;iia IWitaiinica'-, neglecting the 

 second one here, and that on the cover. The evolution of our know- 

 ledge of every group of insects seems to take a definite course — (1) 

 Muddle. (2) A systematic book of descriptions of the imagines by 

 means of which they can be more or less accurately named by 

 collectors. (3) General references in the magazines to their capture 

 and breeding by collectors. (4) The accumulation and sifting of the 

 records. (5) A scientific treatise dealing with the biology and oecology 

 of the animals dealt with. It is something to have departed from the 

 age of "muddle" in dealing with the Ichneumons, if only in one 

 subfamily. An average man has now a chance of finding out what he 

 has bred or caught, and, as a result, can give details of the economy of 

 the species he has reared in the one case and its habits in the other. iNIr. 

 Morley's glossary is interesting and ranges from the meaning of 

 " abdomen." " head " and '"thorax" to " badious," " cribrary " and 

 " hypopygium," some of the definitions being rather specialised, 

 <'.//., a seta is "a Inntj isolated bristle," quadrate means "square," 

 linear means " narrow and equilateral," etc. Some parts of the intro- 

 duction make interesting reading, and the biological section appears to 

 be taken from reliable sources, although the continued use of " areae " 

 for "areas" reads stiltedly and looks strange. In the history of the 

 study of the [chnein/ioniilac, the separation of the work of British 

 authors from the consideration of that of those of " Pre-Linnean " and 

 " Post-Linnean " times, not only gives us no idea of their work as 

 brought into line with their contemporaries, but suggests, in some 

 measure, to the present-day entomologist, that they must be a future 

 race who will follow the "Post-Linnean" authors. The classi- 

 fication appears to follow that recently published by the American 

 authors, although, in his choice of terminology, he follows the 

 older German authors in the use of the terminal " ides " for 

 tribes instead of " idi," in spite of the fact that the former has 

 been in use for divisions of superfamily value for some three- 

 quarters of a century. In spite of the excellence of the descriptions 

 of the species that Mr. Morley refers to given names, he fails, in 

 not quoting the "original descriptions," to give the clue to students 

 as to whether his species really is the same as that before the original 

 author, when the species was first described. It may be urged that 

 many of the earliest descriptions would cover equally well a dozen 

 species (this is a common statement made by coleopterists), but this is 

 really beside the point, for. in a case like this, the student wants to know 

 that at least the species now being described does not disagree with, or 

 contradict, the original description. The generic synonymy is bald, 

 and gives no clue to the history of the genus and its contained species, 



* Ichiieumonolugia Britcnimca, The Ichiieumotis of Britain, etc., by Claude 

 Movley, F.E.S. Demy 8vo., 31.5 pp. +lpp., 1 pi., many woodcuts, 1908. 

 [I'nbished by .James H. Keys. Whimpk- Sheet, Plymoutli. Price '2.5s. net.] 



