RECENT LITERATURE. 147 



Birmingham Entomological Society. — April 18th, 1898. — Mr. E. C. 

 Bradley in the chair. Mr. P. W. Abbott showed a very fine series of 

 Heiluthis peltigera, taken in South Devon last year. Mr. B. C. Bradley 

 showed a small lot of insects collected during a holiday spent in 

 Norway last year. He spent most of his time cruising in the fiords, 

 &c, and was only able to collect a very little at times when on shore ; 

 amongst his captures were Buarmia repandata with pale blotches in 

 the disc of the fore wings, and very fine varieties of Bombus agrorum. 

 Mr. Martineau showed a fine large Sirex gigus (female), taken in a 

 grocer's shop at Solihull. — Colbran J. Wainwright, Hon. Sec. 



RECENT LITERATURE. 



Revision of the Orthopteran Group Melanopli (Acridiidm), with special re- 

 ference to North American forms. By Samuel Hubbard Scudder. 

 [From the ' Proceedings of the United States National Museum,' 

 vol. xx. pp. 1-421 (with Plates i-xxvi.)] Washington: Govern- 

 ment Printing Office. 1897. 

 Got up in the usual lavish style of the American State publi- 

 cations, and being illustrated by twenty-six well-executed plates, each 

 containing numerous figures, this Revision cannot fail to satisfy and 

 be useful to the student of a branch of the Orthoptera so numerously 

 represented in North America. This group, in fact, forms the 

 prevailing type of Orthopteran life throughout its area, and is almost 

 confined to that continent. But one genus, Podisma, Latr. [Bezotettix, 

 Burm.), is found in the old world, where, however, it is more abun- 

 dantly represented than in the new ; it encircles the globe north of 

 the 35th parallel. The Melanopli are a part of the Acridiidce (to which 

 family the locusts of the East belong), of generally small or medium 

 size, never very large. The best known representative, though luckily 

 only by repute to dwellers outside America, is the " Rocky Mountain 

 locust" (Melanoplus spretus), so destructive sometimes in the western 

 half of the Mississippi valley. w 



Gynandromorphous Macro- Lepidoptera of the Palaarctic Region, vol. ii. 

 On the Physiology of Hermaphrodite Macro-Lepidoptera. Oskar Schulz. 

 The German notice of these books is a very favourable one. It 

 appears that all the records of gynandromorphous species in the 

 Pala3arctic Region are tabulated in a convenient form for purposes of 

 reference ; while in the second book, concerning the structure of 

 hermaphrodite forms, the characters of the genitalia are discussed. 



W. M. 



The Pterophoridce of North America. By C. H. Fernald, A.M., Ph.D. 

 Pp. 80, plates i-ix. Massachusetts Agricultural College. 1898. 

 Dr. Fernald considers that, with the removal of the genus 

 Chrysocorys from the group, the Pterophortdie should be placed in the 

 vicinity of the Pyralids, and in this opinion he is probably in agree- 

 ment with the majority of entomologists. We note that in very few 



