128 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



which eleven are peculiar, so far, to the islands, nearly all the others 

 being cosmopolitan. 



Our previous knowledge of this fauna was very meagre, four 

 papers only being cited. The same remarks apply to the Diptera, 

 only four short papers having been published previously. Mr. Grim- 

 shaw records 150 species — ^106 new to science — but regards the Diptera 

 as still imperfectly known, as 134 species have as yet been noted from 

 a single island. The great families Tipulidre (s. s.), Tabauidfe, Bom- 

 byliidae, and Empidre, are entirely absent, while the Orthorrhapha 

 Brachycera are very sparsely represented. The Anthomyiidte and 

 Drosophilidse furnish the bulk of the forms, Drosophila, Fallen, being 

 represented by nearly fifty species. 



G. W. K. 



Economic : A. D. Hopkins, " Insect Enemies of the Spruce in the 

 North-East" (1901, U.S. Dept. Agric. new series, Bull. 28, 

 pp. 1-48 ; Plates i-xvi). 



Db. Hopkins is well known as the leading American authority on 

 forest -tree insects, and has produced what must prove a valuable aid 

 for practical measures in combating the damage occasioned to spruce 

 by (principally) certain Coleoptera. An excessive death of spruce 

 occurred in the Northern United States during the last century, to the 

 extent of many billions of feet of timber, much of it a total loss. 

 The principal depredator was a hitherto uudescribed Scolytid beetle 

 {Dendroctonits piceaperda, Hopkins), which attacks even apparently 

 healthy trees, the largest trees and best stands of timber being most 

 affected. The broods of the beetle do not remain in a tree more than 

 a year after it commences to die, and out of one tree from five to seven 

 thousand adults, on an average, may emerge. Their principal 

 enemies are woodpeckers — which destroy from fifty to seventy-five per 

 cent, on many trees in one year — aided by an ant-like predaceous 

 beetle (Thunasiiiins) a,nd a parasitic Hymenopteron {Bracon simplex). 

 Remedies are also indicated and discussed. The beetles described are 

 figured detailedly, and photographs of their mines and galleries, and 

 of the trees in various stages of health and decay, are added. 



Economic : E. P. Felt, " Scale Insects of Importance, and List of the 

 Species in New York State" (1901, Bull. N. Y. State Mus., ix. 

 pp. 289-377 ; 15 plates (7 coloured) ). 

 An account, with beautifully executed illustrations, of the principal 



Coccidae of New York State, prepared in the detailed and careful 



manner usual with these Bulletins. 



C. Darwin. — The issue (by John Murray, 432 pp., crown 8vo) of a 

 shilhng edition of the ' Origin of Species,' is a noteworthy event in the 

 history of natural science ; the printing is clear and good, and the 

 volume is a marvel of cheapness. The same firm has issued a 2s. 6d. 

 edition of the 'Descent of Man,' in which so much entomological 

 information occurs. 



G. W. K. 



