222 September, 



highest order. Some years ago he relinquished active business life in favour of his 

 son (known as an Hemipterist), and during the summer months it was his custom 

 to retire to a cottage he possessed at Champrosay (Seine et Oise), where, surrounded 

 by forests, he devoted himself entirely to Entomology, of which he was passionately 

 fond from his youth, but which in early life could only be pursued on holidays. He 

 gradually amassed a fine collection of European Lepidoptera, and latterly paid much 

 attention to Economic Entomology generally, and especially to sericiculture. Possi- 

 bly he never wrote any extensive work, but his minor communications to the 

 Entomological Society of France (of which he became a Member in 1858) would fill 

 a bulky volume. His unfailing modesty and amiability endeared him to his colleagues 

 in France, and there have been, and still are, those on this side who regarded him as 

 a personal friend. The task of drawing up an extended notice of his life and works 

 for the Ann. Soc. Ent. de France has been confided to his old friend Dr. Laboulbene, 

 who will no doubt do full and sympathetic justice to his memory. 



Transactions of the New Zealand Institute, 1894 (Extract from). 

 Wellington, 1895. 



Art. i. — Synoptical List of Coccidrs reported from Australasia and the Pacific 

 Islands up to December, 1894. By W. M. Maskell, Registrar of the 

 University of New Zealand, Corr. Mem. Koy. Soc. of South Australia, 

 pp. 1—35. 

 Art. ii. — Further Coccid Notes: with Description of New Species from N. 

 Zealand, Australia, Sandwich Islands, and elsewhere, and Remarks upon 

 many species already reported. By the same Author, pp. 36 — 75, and 7 

 plates. 

 No. i will be very useful as bringing into one view references to the descriptions 

 and accounts of all the Coccids of the regions mentioned that have during many 

 years been published in different places. 



No. ii is in the author's usual lucid style, and if his criticism and remarks are 

 at times ti'enchant and emphatic, he gives good reasons for the faith that is in him. 

 Under the head of Frenchia semiocculta, n. sp., which inhabits a species of Casuarina, 

 in Australia, the author reverts to " the production of cavities in plants " (a subject 

 first brought under notice by him in this Magazine, vol. i, 2nd ser., p. 277, 1890), 

 saying, " Can anybody suggest an explanation of the burrowing powers of insects 

 such as this ? Here is an insect absolutely, in its adult state, devoid of any visible 

 organs, except its rostrum and setse, and yet it is precisely in that adult state that it 

 works its way deep into hard wood and digs out a cavern for itself. Before impreg- 

 nation by the male it lies scarcely buried by the outer bark of a twig ; at gestation 

 it is found deep down in the wood. It is, of course, easy to say that the thing must 

 be done ' by some chemical action ;' but what action ? what chemical product ? 

 what secreting organ exists for the purpose?" 



The Natural History of Aquatic Insects : by Prof. L. C. Miall, F.R.S. 

 with illustrations by A. E. Hammond, F.L.S. 8vo, pp. 395. London: Macmillan 

 and Co. 1895. 



We commend this book to our readers, and especially to those with a taste for 



