NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 287 



On p. 146, Cicada angulata, Hagen, is cited as a synonym of 

 Tibicen aiinulatus ; on p. 168 it is given by Distant as a synonym 

 of Cicndctta hageni. On p. 28, Cydochila australasice var. spreta, 

 God. & Frogg., 570 has been omitted. The genus Tibicen, Latr., 

 has been altogether ignored ! In 1825 (Fam. Nat.) Latreille 

 mentioned it, giving " plebeia" as the type, but not describing 

 the genus. The same was done in 1827 in the German transla- 

 tion. I cannot now refer to Cuvier's 'Regne Animal," vol. v. 

 p. 215 (1829), but apparently Latreille therein founded Tibicen 

 with type j^lebeja {=.h(ematodes, Scop., or perhaps Latreille re- 

 ferred to the species as luematodcs, a matter of no account, how- 

 ever, in this connection). If not, then Burmeister, in 1835, was 

 responsible for its erection ; so that in any case it must super- 

 sede Tibicina, Fieber, used by Distant (who attributes it wrongly 

 to Amyot). 



Girault (57) discusses in an interesting manner the status of 

 Clinocoris lectidarius in the transmission of human diseases. 

 Nothing has as yet been definitely proved against the bedbug, 

 but it is now regarded with deep suspicion as being implicated 

 in the dissemination of syphilis, leprosy, tuberculosis, bubonic 

 plague, and other diseases. 



NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 



PlONEA DECREPITALIS, H.-S., AND HeRMINIA TENTACULARIA, L., VAR. 



MODESTALis, Heyd., IN NORTHERN ScANDiNAViA. — Since the publicatiou 

 of my notes on the insects captured and observed by me in Northern 

 Scandinavia, Mr. L. B. Prout has finally determined the only two un- 

 identified species as belonging to the above. Neither Henninia var. 

 modestalis nor the type occur in Britain, and it is now reported from 

 the Abisko district of Lapland ('? Bossekop also), so far as I know, for 

 the first time. Pionea dccrepitalis is recorded as '-very rare" in 

 Leech's ' British Pyralides,' and the British localities given are all in 

 the highlands of Scotland. From the references in Staudinger's Cata- 

 logue (ed. 1901) it seems to be generally distributed in the mountains 

 of Norway and Lapland. These specimens have now been placed in 

 the British Museum Collection. — H. Rowland-Brown ; Oxhey Grove, 

 Harrow Weald, Nov. 17th, 190G. 



British Setting. — It is to be hoped that no beginner will be misled 

 by the remarks on this subject in the November number to imagine 

 that flat setting-boards are a necessity. In my humble opinion they 

 are an abomination, for not only do they give the insect an artificial 

 appearance, making it look as if cut out of paper, but in a considerable 

 proportion of insects so set there is an invincible tendency for the 

 wings to spring up and meet over the thorax. I think the boards now 

 made with a very slight oval by Watkins and Doncaster (and doubtless 

 by others) are just perfect, and, like the tramp with Pears's soap, 



