192 



THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



series. He then read a paper dealing with the named forms, and 

 summarising the Hues of variation. — Hy. J. Turnrr {lion. Report 

 Editor). 



EECENT LITERATURE, 



The Diptcra of Devon. By C. W. Br.\cken, B.A., F.E.S. From the 

 ' Transactions of the Devonshire Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science, Literature, and Art,' 1917, xHx, pp. 341-362. 



Mr. C. W. Bracken has followed up his account of the Orthoptera 

 of Devon hy a very interesting paper on the Diptera of tlie county, 

 read at Barnstaple on July 25th, 1917. The author states that lie is 

 not equally conversant with all the families of this great Order, con- 

 sequently his paper is, to some extent, a preliminary one. After refer- 

 ring to the literature of the suhject and giving a short account of the 

 Order as a whole, certain families of the Brachycera are dealt with in 

 detail — Stratiomyidte, Tahanidte, CEstridte, Leptidao, Asilidte, Bom- 

 hylidae, Therevidte, Scenopinidae, and Cyrtidae. There is evidently 

 much good work left for Mr. Bracken to do before the bulk of the 

 Diptera of Devon can be said to be well known. — W. J. L. 



Dix Ans de Chasse entoviologique aux Colonies (Senegal, Cote d'lvoire, 

 Madagascar). Par G. Melou. Tananarive. January, 1918. 



I have received from M. Melou a brochure whicii should be useful 

 to entomologists interested in the investigation of the Lopidoptera 

 peculiar to the regions indicated. M. Melou is a sciioolmaster in the 

 French Colonial Service, and he occupies his leisure in the study and 

 in the field on a grand scale. By organising the natives he claims 

 to have collected 170,000 Heterocera and 30,000 other insects in a 

 period of eight months, and by way of assurance that these wholesale 

 methods do not jeopardise the existence of species, he tells us that 

 a single small bat will destroy 200 moths in a single night, and 

 this regularly throughout the course of its natural life. He has 

 declared war, therefore, on the Cheiroptera. M. Melou states that 

 the natives take kindly and quickly to the work, and are special 

 adepts at packing for postage, the majority of his captures finding 

 their way to England. He is, however, not merely a collector. \n 

 this pamphlet he poses several interesting problems, and sets out the 

 results of his experiments in connection therewith, among them 

 whether certain heterocerous females, which remain more or less 

 stationary, attract the males by means of the fluid excreted on 

 emergence frotn the pupa. He asks for observations on the subject, 

 but I am not aware that it has been handled by British lepidopterists, 

 at all events. If so, perhaps some reader of the ' Entomologist ' will 

 oblige with a reference. Finally, M. Melou asks to be put into direct 

 communication with students and amateurs. His desire is to dis- 

 pense with the intermediary dealer and to establish a Cabinet ento- 

 molocjique of the rich French colonial fauna whei'e his operations are 

 conducted. His present address is Mananjary, Madagascar. — H. R,-B. 



