1895.] Uo 



swarms as in the previous season. As 47 out of 50 specimens taken by myself last 

 year in the same locality were males, I was on the look out for females, but all the 

 captures proved to be males, so that one is inclined to think that either the females 

 come out later, or the males largely outnumber their partners. — Ralph C. Bradley, 

 Sutton ColdBeld : May, 1895. 



Abundance of Bombylius major.— On April 12th I visited Epping Forest for 

 Diptera, and found B. major abundant, hovering over the sallows in the hot sun- 

 shine, or sunning itself with outstretched wings on the hedge banks. I hear that it 

 has been swarming all over the Forest. On the 16th I worked Box Hill and 

 Mickleham Downs, and found it as abundant as in the Forest, but on quite different 

 plants, namely, Viola sylcatica and Nepeta glechoma, the latter, with its strongly 

 scented blossoms, attracting many more insects than the almost odourless Viola. I 

 noticed the Bomhylii continued at these plants right up till sunset, and I believe 

 there were more feeding at 4 o'clock in the afternoon than at mid-day, and they 

 were certainly much less shy. The sexes were about equally distributed. — F. B. 

 Jennings, Meadow Cottage, Tanner's End, Edmonton, N. : April \%th, 1895. 



Die Kafer von Mitteleuropa. Bearbeitet von Ludwig Ganglbauek. 

 Zweiter Band. Familienreihe Staphylinoidea. I Theil Staphylinidse, Pselaphidse. 

 Vienna : Carl Gerold's Sohn. 1895. VI and 880 pp. 38 cuts. 



This volume is interesting in two aspects : 1, as being not a mere compilation, 

 but the result of original work ; and 2, as an attempt to produce a work that will 

 enable the collector to determine his species in one of the most extensive and difficult 

 of the Families of Coleoptera by the aid of tables and descriptions. 



Herr Ganglbauer has worked at the classification of the StaphylinidoB, and de- 

 votes some pages to the examination of the systems previously proposed by others. 

 He finds himself compelled to reject the method of C. G. Thomson, and to simplify 

 Erichson's system by uniting into one the five tribes by wliich that systematist 

 terminated his arrangement of the Family ; while, on the other hand, Oxyporus 

 and EvcEsthetus and some others have subfamily rank assigned to them. These are 

 pretty nearly the results that were arrived at in the last work, the Biologia Centrali 

 Americana, in which the Family Staphylinidce was dealt with as a whole. Ganglbauer 

 suggests that a further reduction in the number of subfamilies may be effected by 

 uniting the AleocharlncB, Trichophyince, Habrocerinm and Tachyporin<B, thus re- 

 ducing the number of subfamilies found in Europe to nine ; the Micropeplincs being 

 included as one of these. The number of subfamilies for the whole world would 

 then be eleven, there being two subfamilies that have no representatives in Europe. 



The Staphylinidce arc undoubtedly the most trying of all the European beetles 

 to the collector ; they are much more difficult to mount satisfactorily than other 

 beetles are, and the determination of their species requires a trained eye and careful 

 use thereof. Granted these, Herr Ganglbauer's book will be found the most useful 

 that has yet been published for the purpose of upccios determination. The tables 



M 



