92 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



be affected by these as well as the flora. A series of careful 

 observations regarding the distribution and consequent variation 

 of our indigenous insects would not only be very interesting, but 

 extremely useful to science. The importance of such observations 

 has been well shown by Mr. Wallace in his last book, ' Island 

 Life.' Entomology is far too apt to degenerate into mere 

 collecting; and any note, however trivial, that brings out a fact 

 with regard to the structure, habits, or localities of insects, is far 

 preferable to any note that simply records the capture of a rare 

 species that has very probably been blown over from the Continent, 

 interesting though these communications may often be. — W. W. 

 Fowler ; Lincoln. 



[I have myself always been accustomed to consider Anchomenus 

 marglnatus as a ver}^ common inland insect, having met with it 

 frequently and in abundance. — J. A. P.] 



Stratsigalli quadrifasciata at West Wickham. — Last 

 August I took this beetle, together with *S'. armata, at West 

 Wickham. I send you this note as, besides the rarity of the 

 insect, I believe it has not been noticed in the neighbourhood of 

 London before.— A. Sidney Olliff ; 36, Mornington Eoad, 

 Eegent's Park, March 7, 1881. 



Economy and parasite of a Mycetophilid. — Last May 

 Mrs. Hutchinson sent me, from Herefordshire, a piece of a 

 boletus, growing on a pear tree, with some small pupse enclosed 

 in a white silken web. In June I was successful in rearing from 

 them a pair of Lasiosoma [Sciophila) liitea, Macq., and also a pair 

 of its parasite, which Mr. Bridgman considers to be Holmgren's 

 Orthocentrus corrugator. — C. W. Dale; Glanville's Wootton, 

 Sherborne, Dorset. 



Entomological Nomenclature. — Mr. Briggs's remarks on the 

 name " Bland ieata"' (Entom. xiv. 71) appear inexplicable, except on 

 the supposition that he wished to name the species himself. The 

 first discoverer of a species is clearly entitled to give it any new 

 name he chooses, and Mr. Cooke (Entom, xiv. 43) is perfectly 

 within his rights in naming the species Blancheata, and he is no 

 more bound to concoct a name out of a dictionary than he is to 

 follow the absurd example of Linne, and name it after mythological 

 people who never existed, the more so as the greater majority of 

 English entomologists do not understand Greek and Latin. In 



