RECENT LITERATURE. 361 



Trimen as an " aberration." Mr. Feltham succeeded in taking several 

 specimens on the summit of the mountains overlooking Minzenberg, 

 and was inclined to consider it a distinct dark variety. He requested 

 that the specimens exhibited sliould be placed in the British Museum 

 collection. — C. J. Gahan and H. Eowland-Brown, Hon. Sees. 



EECENT LITERATURE. 



Aug. Lameere. La raison d'etre des metamorphoses chez les Insectes ; 



Discours dii President a VAssemhUe Generate de la Societe Entom. de 



Behjique (1900, Ann. Soc. Ent. Belg. xliii. (for 1899) pp. 619-36). 



Aug. Lameere. Notes pour la Classification des Coleopteres (1900, I. c, 



xliv. pp. 355-76, and Classificatory Table). 



Whatever may be the ultimate reception afforded to the views pro- 

 pounded in these two papers, no one will be disposed to deny their — in 

 great part — boldness and originality, or the intimate knowledge of en- 

 tomology upon which they are based. 



The author considers that the ancestors of other winged insects 

 cannot be found among the Amphibiotica — and consequently that 

 wings have not been developed from tracheal branchiae — for they, as 

 well as their near allies the Orthoptera and Embioptera, have a large 

 number of malpighiau tubes, while almost all the other winged insects 

 have but few, and a vanished organ (according to the " law of irre- 

 versibility of evolution") never reappears, nor does a perfected organ 

 return to a former simple state. 



Five orders are embraced by the Holometabola, viz. : — Neuroptera 

 (Planipennia and Plicipennia), Coleoptera, Diptera, Lepidoptera, and 

 Hymeuoptera ; these are all closely allied, and are probably mono- 

 phyletic, the last four being specialised Neuroptera. The Rhipiptera 

 are considered to be evidently the last term of evolution of the Rhipi- 

 phoridae, therefore coleopterous, while the Fleas (Pulicidas), which up 

 to the present have been universally regarded as either dipterous or — 

 according to the recent researches of Brauer and Heymons — forming 

 a separate order (Aphaniptera), are positively stated to be coleopterous, 

 belonging without doubt to the group of Staphylinoides of Ganglbauer. 

 It is noted in passing that the antennae are composed of eleven, and 

 not three, segments, as formerly supposed. 



On one point we are not altogether certain of Prof. Lameere's 

 meaning. On page 622 the Cicadidae are cited as an exception to the 

 rule that the Rhynchota have a direct development ; and on page 627 

 it is stated that this family possesses a true larva, adapted to a sub- 

 terranean life, and offering especially this peculiarity, viz. that the 

 anterior legs are, during this period — sometimes very long — of the 

 insect's existence, curiously modified into digging apparatus." 



Now we do not think that these statements are borne out by the 

 actual facts. It is true that the terms "larva" and "pupa" are 

 loosely used by many entomologists in speaking of Rhynchota, Ortho- 



- Les Cicadides ont una veritable larve adaptee a una via souterraine, et 

 offrant notamment cetta particularite que ses membres anterieurs sont 

 pendant catte perioda, parfois tres longue, de I'existence de I'insecte, 

 curiausemeut modifies en appareils fouisseurs." 



