96 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



NOTES FROM CURRENT ENTOMOLOGICAL LITERATURE. 



Entomological Anatomy. — There appears in * Psyche ' (vol. iii., 

 No. 87), by Mr. George Dimmock, of Cambridge, Mass., a carefully pre- 

 pared paper upon the " Anatomy of the Mouth-Parts of the Suctorial 

 apparatus of Culex," with a plate illustrating the parts under discussion. 

 This paper is founded upon one, more elaborate, communicated by Mr. 

 Dimmock to the University of Leipzic. Those of our readers who wish 

 to make a nearer acquaintance with the —happily rare in this country — 

 mosquito, will find in Mr. Dimmock's paper much to interest them. 

 The drawings of the anatomical preparations are excellently rendered. 



Exotic Lepidoptera.— In the ' Annals and Magazine of Natural 

 History,' (vol. ix., 5th series, p. 84), Mr. Arthur G. Butler, F.L.S., &c., 

 refers to a small collection of Lepidoptera from Melbourne, collected in 

 that part of Australia by Dr. T. P. Lucas. Several of the species described 

 are new to Science. In the same volume of ' Annals and Magazine of 

 Natural History,' p. 206, Mr. Butler also gives the results of an examina- 

 tion of a collection made by Lieut.-Col. C. Swinhoe, chiefly near Candahar. 

 There were forty-one species. Of the ubiquitous Pijramels cardui, Col. 

 Swinhoe says it occurs in the gardens about Candahar in regular swarms 

 in March and April, and in great numbers again in October and November. 

 Mr. Butler notes that the Afghan specimens appear smaller than their 

 European types. 



Moths attracted by Falling Water. — Upon this subject Mr. J. 

 Starkie Gardner, writing recently to ' Nature,' (vol. xxv., p. 436), says, — 

 " Whilst watching the great horse-shoe falls of the Skjalfandafljot near 

 Ljosavatn in Iceland, I saw moth after moth fly deliberately into the 

 falling water and disappear. Some which I noticed arriving from a dis- 

 tance fluttered at first deviously, but as they neared the water flew straight 

 in. The gleaming falls seemed at least as attractive as artificial light, and 

 if the fact has not been observed in this country, I should suppose it is 

 because the moths likely to be attracted fly by night, whilst in Northern 

 Iceland there is no night during the summer. The preference trout show 

 for pools near falls is more likely to arise from the extra food they find 

 there than from the more aerated state of the water. The latter supposition, 

 seeing the number of species of lake trout, always seemed to me a lame 

 one, invented for want of a better, whilst the former explains why broken 

 water is always inhabited by insectivorous fishes. The instinct of self- 

 destruction in moths must be older than the introduction of artificial light, 

 and cannot be of use exclusively to collectors, but though its benefits to 

 salmon and trout are obvious enough, its advantages to the moths are not 

 so ajjparent, unless this self-destruction checks an increase that otherwise 

 would be disadvantageous. 



American Ants. — ' The Honey Ants of the Garden of the Gods, and 

 tlie Occident Ants of the American Plains ' is the title of a book lately 

 published in Philadelphia (Lippincott & Co.), the author being Henry C. 

 McCook, D.D. The work, which is illustrated by thirteen plates, forms a 

 very valuable contribution to our knowledge of this group of the aculeate 

 Hymenoptera. The importance of Dr. McCook's work deserves more 

 notice than can be given on this page, and those naturalists who have as 

 yet paid little attention to the interesting insects studied by the author, 

 will find much pleasure in perusing his account of these American ants. 



J. T. C. 



