180 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Early Appearance of Lyc.exa argiolus and Pararge egeria. — 

 On March '^(ith I captured a very fine specimen of L. anjiolus. It had 

 evidently only just euierj^ed, and was flying round a Cedrus deodora in front 

 of this house. The "azure blue " is a common butteifly in the woods of 

 Curraghniore, the demesne of the Marquis of Waterford, in my parish. It 

 occurs regularly every spring, but some years it is far iiiore plentiful than 

 in others. I have often looked for it during the summer months, but it 

 does not make a second appearance here. I saw a specimen of P. egeria 

 in my garden on the 8th of this month. These two dates are the earliest 

 respectively on which I have seen these butterflies. — (Rev.) William W. 

 Flemyng ; Coolfin, Portlaw, Co. Waterford, April 10th, 1894. 



Early Appearanok of Lycj:na argiolus. — On Saturday afternoon, 

 April 7th, I captured a freshly-emerged female L. fl;v//o/»s, flying round a 

 variegated holly in the garden. Can anyone give ati earlier date for the 

 appearance of this insect '? — H. W. Shepheard Walwyn ; Bidborougli, 

 near Tunbridtje Wells. 



KECENT LITERATURE. 



Transactions of the City of London Entomological a7id Natural History 



Society for the year 1893, pp. 59, xxii. The Loudon Institution, 

 Finsbury Circus. 

 Among various other matters of interest which form the contents of 

 this modest little publication are some excellent papers, which are well 

 worth the attention of those entomologists who may not yet have read 

 them in the journals in which they were originally published. Dr. 

 Buckell'slearneddissertationon" Specific Nomenclature — Past, Present, 

 and Future," and instructive essay entitled "The History of Butterfly 

 Classification," will be of great value to the student seeking knowledge 

 on these matters. Mr. Robson's paper, " Is Moisture the Cause of 

 Melanism?" is interesting, and a useful contribution; whilst Mr. Tutt's 

 diatribe " Melanchroism in British Lepidoptera " is characteristic but 

 not convincing. Coleopterists will be interested in " Notes on certain 

 Coleopterous Insects found in City Warehouses," by Mr. G. A. Lewcock ; 

 and " The genus Silpha, LinuL," by the Rev. W. F. Johnson. 



Chinese Central Asia : a Bide to Little Tibet. By Henry Lansdell, 



D.D., M.R.A.S., F.R.G.S., Author of ' Through Siberia,' ' Russian 



Central Asia,' 'Through Central Asia.' &c. With 3 maps and 



80 illustrations. London : Sampson Low, Marston & Co., Ltd. 



1883. 



Ax interesting nan'ative of the more important portion of Dr. 



LansdelFs third great journey of 50,000 miles, dtu-ing which he visited 



every kingdom of Asia, five of Europe, and four of Africa. Although 



the traveller's primary objects were missionary, he did not neglect 



science ; and the Appendix to the second volume contains an important 



list of the Lepidoptera of Chinese Turkistau, compiled by Mr. Bethime- 



Baker, partly from German and Russian sources. 



