33 



the day they are found huddled close together on the lower part of the 

 trunk in larjre companies, fifty-six specimens and more having beeu 

 counted in a single flock, all with the heads turned in the same direc- 

 tion. Doctor Gundlach speaks only of the more mature larva and leaves 

 us in doubt about the mode of oviposition and habits of the young 

 larva. Pupation does not seem to take place on the trunk, for a large 

 number of full-grown larvae purposely left on the trunk of a particular 

 tree were entirely lost sight of. 



REMARKABLE CASE OF RETARDATION. 



Dr. A. Speyer relates (Stett. Entom. Zeit., 3 888, p. 205) that of two 

 larvae of Bomhyx (Gastropacha) la7iestris, collected in June, 1882, and 

 which pupated shortly afterwards, the one did not produce the imago 

 until April 4, 1887, after a pupal rest of five years. He now informs us 

 (1. c, 1889, p. 140) that the other pupa produced the imago two years 

 later, on April 9, 1889. It had thus been in the pupa stage seven years. 

 In this particular species of Bombycids retardation in development has 

 frequently been observed, specimens often remaining two years in the 

 pupa stage, and Dr. Speyer had previously noted retardation of three 

 and four years duration. The remarkable thing in these five and seven 

 years' instances of retardation is that the imagos were not inferior in 

 size to those hatched after a normal pupal rest of one year. 



AN IMPORTANT WORK ON EUROPEAN GRAPE-INSECTS. 



Professor Val6ry Mayet's work, " Les Insectes de la Vigne " (Paris, 

 1890), to which has just been awarded the Dollfus prize by the French 

 Entomological Society, forms a stately volume of 470 pages, with 

 eighty-one figures in the text, and five plates (four of them colored), 

 and is the most noteworthy recent publication in the domain of eco- 

 nomic entomology. To the entomologist, as well as to the viueyardist, 

 this work will for a long time remain a reliable source for the study of 

 the economy of all insects injurious to the grape-vine. 



The Grape Phylloxera naturally claims most attention of all grape- 

 insects, nearly 120 pages or about one-fourth of the whole work being 

 devoted to it, the bibliography alone occupying nearly 17 pages, and 

 the chapter on remedies and modes of prevention (very fully illustrated) 

 50 pages. A full enumeration of the insects treated by Professor 

 Mayet would occupy too much space, but would be of great interest if 

 placed side by side with the insects injurious to the grape-vine in our 

 own country. The insects infesting grape-vines in Europe are as follows, 

 distributed among the various orders : Diptera, one species ; Homop- 

 tera, thirteen species (three Coccid(e, two ApMdida^, one Fulgoridw, four 

 Cicadidce)', Eeteroptera, six species; Lepidoptera, seventeen species 

 (twenty-two species have been observed in fact but five have never 

 proved to be injurious to any extent) ; J^europtera, one species; Ortho- 



