i88i.] 279 



§eumt\ 



Monograph op the British Aphides, Vol. iii ; by George Bowdler 

 Buckton, F.R.S., F.L.S., F.C.S., &c. : pp. 1—142, 28 plates, 8vo. London : Bay 

 Society, 1881. 



The issue by the Bay Society to its subscribers of this concluding volume of Mr. 

 Buckton's work gives an occasion, which we gladly take, to confirm the generally 

 favourable opinion of the result of the author's labours in a difficult field, which we 

 gave on the appearance of the first volume (vol. xiii, p. 238) ; and the merits of the 

 work are enhanced by the references made to the recent researches in the biology of 

 Aphides by Lichtenstein, Biley, Courchet, Kessler, and others. In an introductory 

 chapter, the author briefly discusses recent views of variation, development and 

 evolution, coming to the conclusion that " Some inscrutable force is connected with 

 the secret of life, with its metamorphotic powers, and its attributes of irritability, 

 assimilation, reproduction, and final death," which — a verbal amplification of Cuvier's 

 dictum that "Life is a state of force " — contains the gist of the whole matter. 



While we acknowledge the merits of the work and anticipate that great advan- 

 tage will result to British Entomologists from the knowledge thus brought within 

 their reach, we cannot but regret that so little heed has been given to the defects 

 noted by several reviewers on the first occasion. It is true that the author has so 

 far attended to his critics as to give "A List of Authors, with the approximate date 

 of their Memoirs on Aphides," but this is a poor substitute for the usual indication 

 in its place, of the work, volume, page and plate where the description or figure of a 

 species is to be found ; and endless labour is still entailed on those who would follow 

 in the track of research. Another of the more important omissions is indication of 

 the species, or reputed species, of Britain not accounted for in the work. We miss 

 also a combined index to the contents of the three volumes. 



At page 61 is characterized anew genus termed "Stomaphis, Walker," although 

 it is acknowledged that Walker did not publish any of the generic characters, and 

 only suggested the name. The genus will, of necessity, be always cited as Stomaphis, 

 Buckton. Other similar instances might be referred to. In connection with the 

 species on which the genus Stomaphis is founded {Lachnus quercus) is the following 

 note, derived from Mr. Walker, containing errors which deserve to be corrected. 

 " I think Tugall was the first person to discover Aphis quercus in England, and he 

 mentioned it to Stephens, who published a notice thereon about 1847, but I do not 

 find it mentioned in the list of writings of the latter author. About that time 

 Tugall directed me to an oak near Dulwich where I found it ; and some years after, 

 the late Mr. Alfred Smee told me of an oak near Weybridge, where I found it 

 again ; and subsequently I met with it at Finchley. The male is mouthless, or 

 rather, it has no rostrum." The true story is to be found in the "Transactions of 

 the Entomological Society of London," vol. v, Proceedings, where, at page xx, it is 

 recorded, that at the Meeting on the 2nd August, 1847, " Messrs. J. F. Stephens and 

 Ingall exhibited specimens of Lachnus quercus, an Aphideous insect new to this 

 country, found in crevices of bark of oak trees near Dulwich, thrusting its long proboscis 

 nearly up to the base in the wood of the tree, so that it cannot be withdrawn without 

 great difficulty and fear of injuring the insect, in which case the ants immediately 



