50G Bibliographical Notices. 



in the middle. Pro- and mesothorax strongly rugosely punc- 

 tured, covered thickly with white hair ; the pronotum is 

 transverse at the base, its sides triangularly projecting ; on 

 the posterior half of the mesonotum are two shallow furrows. 

 Apex of postscutellum rounded. The apex of the median 

 segment has an oblique slope and is transversely aciculated ; 

 it is bounded above and at the sides with a stout keel, which 

 is bent down towards the centre above ; from this a narrow 

 keel runs down the middle. Pro- and mesopleura? strongly 

 punctured ; the punctures large and distinct ; there is a some- 

 what triangular red mark at the tubercles. Metapleuraj 

 finely and closely longitudinally aciculate ; the upper half 

 irregularly longitudinally striated. Legs black; the anterior 

 tibiae entirely in front and the middle pair at the base testa- 

 ceous. Wings fuscous-violaceous, the posterior pair paler; 

 the second cubital cellule above not quite one half the length 

 of the third. Abdomen black ; the first and second segments 

 lined with black on the apex ; the petiole has an oblique 

 slope on the base and is sharply keeled above ; it is some- 

 what strongly but not closely punctured ; the other segments 

 are obsoletely punctured ; the base of the second is crenulated. 

 Allied to 0. sikhimensis. 



Note. — At p. 415 antea } for Polistes khasianus read 

 P. lepcha. 



[To be continued.] 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 



Catalogue of Eastern and Australian Lepidoptera Heterocera in the 

 Collection of the Oxford University Museum. — Part II. Noctuina, 

 Oeometrina, and Pyralidina. By Colonel C. Swinhoe, M.A., 

 F.L.S., F.Z.S., F.E.S. Pterophoridie and Tineina by the Bight 

 Hon. Lord Walsingham, M.A., LL.D., F.B.S., &c, High Steward 

 of the University of Cambridge, and John Hartley Dttekant, 

 F.E.S., Mernb. Soc. Ent. France. With eight Plates. (Oxford, 

 Clarendon Press, 1900.) Pp. vii, 630. 



The importance of public collections of insects depends partly on 

 the number of species accurately named, and partly on the possession 

 of types, by which the descriptions of the original describers of a 

 species can be checked or verified. The original specimens on 

 which species are founded should always find their way eventually 

 into public collections ; for private collections are not always easy 

 of access, and their contents are almost sure, sooner or later, to be 

 lost or dispersed. Great Britain is peculiarly rich in public col- 

 lections, and may boast of a considerable number of the types of 

 Linne, preserved by the Linnean Society ; though Queen Ulrica's 

 collection, from which Linne likewise described many species, 



