CURRENT NOTES. 75 



Eeigate, and to assist them a shilling fund has been arranged for 

 which Mr. T. H. Grosvenor, F.E.S., 8, Gloucester Road, Red Hill, is 

 acting as Hon. Secretary. It will be remembered that in the past 

 entomologists have had much reason to thank the Trust for the 

 benefits they have conferred on us by preserving in perpetuity such 

 localities as Burwell Fen, 30 acres, Wicken Fen, 4 acres, Hindhead, 

 1,412 acres. East Sheen Common, 30 acres, Leigh Woods, Bristol, 

 80 acres, in addition to about 18 other properties in the most 

 interesting parts of Great Britain. Colley Hill is annually visited by 

 entomologists, who visit it for the many local species of Lepidoptera 

 that occur there. There have been some very generous donations, 

 and collections were made at recent meetings of the Entomological 

 and South London Entomological Societies with very gratifying 

 results. The need is great, and there only remain a few weeks to 

 raise a considerable sum. 



In No. 18 of the Jyull. Soe. ent. ile France, recently received, there 

 is a series of biological notes on the larva of Mj/elois cribrella by M. 

 Etienne Raband. He describes in interesting detail the feeding of the 

 larvfe in the heads of flowers of thistles, etc., their migration from 

 head to head, and their final penetration into the stem for pupation 

 with the construction of an operculum backed by a "cork" of debris 

 and excrement. M. Raband states that he has actually seen the larva 

 migrate from capitulum to capitulum,and again finally from capitulum 

 to stem for pupation. 



" To the making of books there is no end " is a statement of fact 

 with which the man in the street is only too famihar. The 

 lepidopterist is inclined to parody this phrase and say "To the naming 

 of varieties there is no end." We scarcely open a magazine, a bulletin, 

 a transactions, etc., without immediately meeting with a new-named 

 form of some well known species. In a separatum entitled Lepidoptera 

 of the Zoolocfical Museum of the I nirersitij of Naplex just received from 

 Conte Emilo Turati, the author lists the forms of J'arnassius a polio to 

 the amazing number of 84 named forms, of which 53 are local races 

 or subspecies and 31 are aberrations. In a supplementary note some 

 11 more racial and aberrational forms are mentioned, so that of this 

 one well-known species we have nearly one hundred named forms. 

 Verily nomenclature is proving its suggested reputation to the hilt. 

 Count Turati has gone carefully through the Naples collection of 

 Lepidoptera, described all the distinctive forms especially of the 

 Rhopalocera, and added numerous valuable critical notes. 



The entomological work of the New York Agricultural Experimental 

 Station at Geneva is always highly commendable for its thoroughness. 

 We have received a copy of a PreliiDinanj Report of Grape Insects, 

 consisting of about 100 pages with 15 photographic plates and 

 numerous diagrams and tables, containing an account of five insect 

 pests from the depredations of which the grape area in the Chautauqua 

 belt had gradually declined in productiveness. The grape flea-beetle 

 {Haltica chab/bea), the rose-chafer (Macrodacti/liis subspinosiis), and the 

 grape-root worm {Fidia riticida), are Coleoptera, the grape- blossom 

 midge {Contarinia johnsoni) is a Dipteron, and the grape leaf-hopper 

 {Typldocijba comes), is a Hemipteron. These are each dealt with from 

 an economic and historical standpoint, the areas of their distribution 

 and references to the literature concerning them are given. The 

 various plants they attack, the character and extent of the injuries 



