252 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



season promises to be a good one. There was some cloudy, warm, showery 

 weather about the 10th, which ought to have attracted good" things to sugar 

 for collectors favourably situated. — J. Arkle ; Chester. 



SOCIETIES. 



Birmingham Entomological Society. — Juhj 19i/i, 1897. — Mr. G. 

 H. Kenrick in the chair. Mr. Bradley showed cocoons and imagines 

 of Apanteles formosas, an ichneumon parasitic on Urapteryx sambucata, 

 the cocoons being suspended from leaves, &c., by means of long 

 filaments ; also a male Sirex fjiyas from Sutton. Mr. Kenrick showed 

 some Lepidoptera from Inverness-shire. Anarta melanopa, which he 

 said was not long ago supposed to be confined to Rannoch, is now 

 known to occur thoughout Inverness-shire, about 3000 feet above the 

 sea-level ; and also he had seen it in another locality. The specimens 

 exhibited came from a spot nearly on the borders of Inverness-shire 

 and Perthshire, where the species is common. He also showed, from 

 the same county, Hadena glaiica, which was common ; Scodonia helgi- 

 aria ; a Xemeophila plantaginis, with dark females, which he said were 

 probably var. kospita. Mr. Chase exhibited living larvae of Eriogaster 

 Lanestris. — Colbran J. Waxnwright, Hon. Sec. 



RECENT LITERATURE. 



Descriptive List of the British Anthomyidce. By R. H. Meade, P.R.C.S., 

 &c. Two Parts. 8vo, pp. 79. London : Gurney & Jackson. 1897. 



Although the order Diptera is gradually attracting more students, 

 it has always been strangely neglected in England ; and while France, 

 Holland, Austria, Italy, and even Lapland possess good monographs, 

 we have nothing beyond one or two introductory works, lists, and the 

 obsolete and avowedly incomplete volume in the ' Insecta Britannica,' 

 by Walker. Hence every fresh contribution to the literature of British 

 Diptera by a competent author is likely to be very useful to the student; 

 and Mr. Meade, who has been working at the Diptera many years, has 

 done well to publish a series of descriptions of the British genera and 

 species of the interesting and extensive family of Anthomyidse, of which 

 he published a preliminary list, in the ' Entomologist's Monthly Maga- 

 zine,' some years ago. We hope that other dipterists may be encouraged 

 to do the same good service for other families ; and that by and bye 

 one of them may take courage and give us a complete book on the 

 dipterous fauna of Britain, for which there could be no more admirable 

 model than Schiner's two volumes on Diptera in the ' Fauna Austriaca.' 

 — W. F. K. 



