322 Bibliographical Notice. 



segment with a narrow yellow fascia at its basal margin, 

 usually more or less interrupted in the middle; the fifth 

 segment has a similar fascia ; the apical segments are reddish 

 yellow ; the fascia on the fourth segment is frequently ob- 

 solete. 



Hab. Brazil (St. Paulo, Para). 



[To be continued.] 



BIBLIOGEAPHICAL NOTICE. 



Synopsis of the Acrididae of North America. By Ctrtjs Thomas, 

 Ph.D. Being Part I. of the Fifth Volume of the ' Report of the 

 United-States Geological Survey of the Territories,^ issued by the 

 Department of the Interior. 4to : Washington, 1873. 



There is one particular in which the Government of the United 

 States puts those of European countries to utter shame. This is the 

 liberality shown in America in the promotion of scientific research, 

 both by the central Government and by the Legislatures of the 

 various States. All over the States geological surveyors are hard at 

 work ; and the results of their labours are given to the world in a 

 constantly increasing series of valuable volumes, which are most 

 liberally circulated gratuitously in other countries. With a breadth 

 of view which deserves all praise, the geological surveyors do not 

 confine themselves to mapping the geological formations of various 

 districts, and describing tbe fossils obtained from them, but they de- 

 vote a good deal of attention to the recent productions of the regions 

 traversed by them ; and the results of their investigations are j^ub- 

 lished from time to time at the public cost, and as an integral part 

 of the work properly belonging to the surveys. 



Dr. Thomas's " Synopsis of the Acrididae of North America " is 

 one of these publications, and it forms the first part of a volume 

 which is to be devoted exclusively to the recent zoology and botany 

 of the United States. After giving a list of works on the Ortho- 

 ptera referred to in his monograph, the author describes, in consider- 

 able detail, the external and internal structure of the insects belong- 

 ing to the family the American species of which form its subject- 

 matter. This introduction, which is illustrated with two outhne 

 wood-engravings, furnishes a guide to the terminology of the parts 

 in these insects. 



With regard to the oviposition of the Acrididae, Dr. Thomas states 

 that the destructive migratory species of the West (Caloptenus 

 spretus), like the migratory locusts of Europe, deposits its eggs, to 

 the number of 50 or 100, in a cocoon-like mass, covered with a 

 tough glutinous secretion, but that this method is by no means 

 followed by all other American species. Even the red-legged locust 

 {Caloptenus femur-rubrum) waa found by him to lay its eggs loosely 

 in rotten wood. 



