Ixxi 



the dimorphic, polymorphic and seasonal variation of species ; 

 and Mr. M'Lachlan's monograph of the Trichoptera, which when 

 finished on the plan its author proposes, will be as near as 

 possible a perfect model for this class of works. To these two I 

 might add, as of a similar elevated character, Saiissm-e's 

 ' Melanges Orthopterologiques ' and Eeuter's Hemiptera, both of 

 which have been continued during the year. 



New Entomological Societies still continue to be formed ; the 

 latest being that of Munich, in 1877, which already consists of 

 seventy-three members, and publishes its Transactions in half- 

 yearly parts of about eighty pages each, containing beautifully 

 coloured plates, and given for an annual subscription of six 

 shillings. The Museo Civico of Genoa, founded by our eminent 

 associate the Marquis Giacomo Doria, has become, through its 

 handsomely got-up 'Annali,' one of the most considerable of om- 

 publishing institutions. The numerous and important papers on 

 our Science appearing in this periodical relate chiefly to the 

 insects of the Eastern Ai'chipelago and Tropical Australia, in 

 which the Genoa Museum is exceedingly rich, owing to the 

 acquisition of part of the large Collection formed by the Count de 

 Castelnau, and the great stores accumulated by Signor D'Albertis 

 during six years of travel in those regions, as well as part of Dr. 

 Beccari's collection made in New Guinea and the neighbouring 

 islands. The authorities of the museum have had the wisdom to 

 entrust the examination and description of these collections to 

 the specialists of different countries, and hence their 'Annali' 

 have been enriched with a series of excellent monographs of 

 many difficult minor groups ; and their museum has been 

 increased in value and importance by the accurate naming of 

 the species. 



It is not my mtention to review in further detail the Ento- 

 mological literature of the year, information regarding which the 

 earnest student will naturally seek for, not in a general notice 

 like the present, but in the Zoological Record and similar 

 exhaustive works. As in previous years its collective volume is 

 immense. But if we except a few contributions of limited extent, 

 on subjects of general biological interest, similar to those I have 

 named from our own Transactions, — such as Sir John Lubbock's 

 elaborate and instructive experiments on the mental qualities of 

 ants, bees, and wasps (of which a continuation has appeared in 



