l897-] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. IO7 



based not only on the author's twenty-five years' experience of active 

 field work, etc. We would think from the fig. of net frame, on page 89,, 

 that it was the style used by Noah when he rounded up the insects mto 

 the ark before the flood. We really wished this book on account of our 

 regard for the author, but had trouble to get it on account of the business- 

 care (?) of the publishers. They had the cheek to send us about 100 

 circulars to distribute for them, and then when we seat an order for a 

 copy of the book they wrote back that they wished cash in advance. The 

 Academy and the American Entomological Society are not used to such 

 treatment. — H. S. 



4. Die Gattungen der Sphegidex. Von Franz Friedr. Kohl. [Ex- 

 tract from Band xi, Heft 3-4 of the Annalen des k. k. Naturhistorische& 

 Hofmuseums, Wien, 1S96]. — Perhaps no period in the past has been so 

 marked for the activity of entomologists as is to-day. This is especially 

 true of the hymenopterists, some of whom have been turning out tomes 

 of prodigious size and worth. One of the very latest memoirs in this line 

 is the above named, a work of 283 pages, seven lithographic plates and 

 eighty-eight text figures, giving it such an air of completeness that one 

 almost feels convinced that the classification of the Sphegidae {sens lat.) 

 should be no longer a mooted question. 



A history of the genera of fossorial wasps (Sphegidae) occupies page* 

 235-245, and is in itself a valuable contribution to the study. Then fol- 

 lows a very comp'ete and concise synoptical table of the genera and their 

 principal groups. The descriptions are unusually full, and usually accom- 

 panied by one or more text figures. The genus Crabro is treated at 

 length and a synoptic table of the groups of species given, as is likewise 

 done with other genera which are divisible into groups and subgenera. 

 A chapter on the natural groups of the Sphegid genera completes the 

 text. Herr Kohl separates the family into: i. Chief groups; 2, Sub- 

 groups; and 3, Supergenera (Nebengruppen); " the latter either a formed 

 of sharply-defined genera or b of subgenera." Nine groups of genera 

 (Gattungsgruppe) are recognized, viz.: i, Crabro ; 2, Pison ; 3, Misco- 

 phus ; 4, Larra ; 5, Astata ; 6, Benibex \ 7, Alyson ; 8, Philanthus ; 9,. 

 Sphex; 10, Ampulex; 11, Peniphredon. The author's knowledge of the 

 fossorial Hymenoptera and standing as an investigator assure the above 

 classification acceptance among his fellow-workers. 



Herr Kohl has not showed such a tendency of massing names under 

 one head as might have been expected from his past work. Eucerceris 

 is given generic rank, and we are glad to record similar action with Tra- 

 chypiis, Aphilanthops, Microbembex and Anacrabro. Of the other 

 American genera Dienoplus is rightly placed as a synonym of Gorytes^ 

 Niteliopsis is still held to be the same as Solierella, probably because he 

 has never seen specimens of the former. The author is quite naturally 

 in doubt about Larropsis Patton, described as having the second sub- 

 marginal cell petiolated and of which Larrada tenuicornis was selected 

 as the type, a species which has not a petiolated submarginal and is a 

 true Ancistromma. — W. J. F. 



