1881.] 187 



Unseasonable weather : Lepidoptera in December. — After some sharp weather in 

 November (sent doubtless for the benefit of the Q-eraniums and Tropeeolums in the 

 garden), we are having, in Pembrokeshire, what can only jocularly be called winter. 



On the 3rd inst., when starting on a journey in the morning twilight, a moth 

 came fluttering down from the trees and alighted on the ground. It proved to be 

 Cidaria russata in perfect condition — evidently just emerged — but sufficiently 

 smaller than usual to prove it a third-brood specimen, forced by the mildness of the 

 season. On the 4th, Vanessa urticce was flying briskly along the streets and over the 

 houses at Pembroke Dock, and on the night of the 5th, Scopida ferrugalis came to 

 light at my window. All these were casually noticed, without any attempt at 

 collecting or searching. — Chaeles Q-. Baeeett, Pembroke : December 9th, 1880. 



letimtjs. 



AVIS PEELIMINAIEE D'UNE NOUVELLE CLASSIFICATION DE LA FAMILLE DES 



Dytischle, par D. Shaep. Extrait des Comptes-rendus de la Societe Entoino- 

 logique de Belgique, Seance du 4 Septembre, 1880. Bruxelles : 8vo, pp. 5. 



We have received from our old and valued correspondent, Dr. Sharp, a copy of 

 this important outline of the scheme of the larger work upon Dytiscida on which 

 he has been occupied for some six years ; and we -willingly give it all the publicity 

 in our power, though regretting that such original matter by a British writer should 

 not have, in the first instance, found a place in some English publication. 



This outline is constructed somewhat on the plan of inverting the usually 

 accepted arrangement of things, which the author originally adopted in a discussion 

 of the terms genus and species ; and ordinary readers will, by turning to the last 

 page, obtain a readier view of the larger aims of the author. 



The great family of Dytiscida is divided into two series : the first, Dytisci 

 fragmentati, — the second, Dytisci complicati. No precise explanation is given for 

 these terms, but corresponding series are 6tated to occur in the Carabidai, the first 

 of which is equally " fragmentary," both "fragmentary" series having in common 

 the same structure of the articulating cavities of the intermediate legs, the outer 

 side of which is composed by parts of three principal pieces of the skeleton. But 

 the Carabici complicati and Dytisci complicati are opposed to the two "fragmentary 

 and central " series in the fact of only two pieces forming the outer edge of the inter- 

 mediate cotyloid cavity in the former, whilst four pieces contribute to its formation 

 in the latter. And the Dytisci complicati are distinguished from all other beetles by 

 their metathoracic episternum penetrating to the intermediate cotyloid cavity. 



Following Thomson and Le Conte, the Haliplides are excluded altogether, and 

 it is left for students of Carabida to decide if they are to be ranged in the latter 

 group or form a separate one. Pelobius is only admitted by conventional right ; it 

 is intermediate between the Carabidai and Dytiscidce, with a predominance of the 

 external structure of the former, and is put at the head of the latter, but with no 

 hint of any group for its reception. The Dytisci peagmentati are composed of 

 (presumably) Pelobius ; a tribe Noterides, composed of two genera, Notomicrus 

 and Hydrocoptus, and also of three groups, Noterini, Suphisini, and Hydrocanthini 

 (which three are formed of the genera Pronoterus, Synchortus, Noterus, Colpitis^ 



