42/ THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Biirmah and Java, and has been noted as occasioning consider- 

 able mischief in India. The life-history is worked out. 



Among papers on American insects that will be useful to 

 European workers may be cited : — 



J. D. Evens : " List of Canadian Coleoptera," commenced in 

 * Canadian Entomologist,' xxxv. (1903) pp. 239-43. 



W. T. Clarke: "A list of Californian Aphididee," I.e., pp. 

 247-54. 



J. E. DE LA Torre Bueno : " Notes on the Stridulation and 

 Habits oi Ranatra fasca , Pal. B., I.e., 235-7. 



Prof. C. H. Fernald states that graduate students in en- 

 tomology in the Massachusetts Agricultural College are tested 

 for colour-blindness, to prevent possible errors in descriptive 

 entomology {I.e., p. 206). 



H. F. WicKHAM has two short papers {I. c, pp. 205-6, fig. 7, 

 and p. 207, fig- 8) on gynandromorphism in Lucanus elaphus, and 

 on a remarkable instance of duplication of part of the left pos- 

 terior leg, which bears a bifurcate tibia, two tarsi, one of which 

 is also bifurcate and carries two pairs of claws, thus six in all 

 on one leg. 



John H. Lovell : " The Colours of Northern Gamopetalous 

 Flowers" (1903, 'American Naturalist,' xxxvii. pp. 365-84 and 

 443-79). On pp. 472-9 are discussed the relations between 

 flowers and insects of the orders Coleoptera, Diptera, Lepido- 

 ptera, and Hymenoptera. The author believes that "the colours 

 of flowers, both in general and particular, have been determined 

 by their utility rather than by an aesthetic colour-sense in insects. 

 Insects distinguish between different colours, but they do not 

 receive greater pleasure from one hue than from another. Any 

 preference they may manifest has arisen from the association of 

 the colours with the presence of food substances. Conspicuous- 

 ness, or contrast of the inflorescence with the foliage, has been 

 induced by insects. It is of advantage to insects, since it enables 

 them to find nectariferous flowers quickly, and to plants because 

 it aids in securing cross-fertilization." 



K. Nagano continues his descriptions and figures of imagines 

 and larvae of Japanese Sphingididae [Lepidoptera]. Two of the 

 latest are Cephonodes hylas, Linne {0-sukashiha) , and CJuerocampa 

 ZMcasii, Walker {Beni-suziime), both from Formosa ('Insect World,' 

 1903, vii., nos. 8 & 9, English page). In the former number is 

 a plate (viii.) of the Lepidopteron Zephyrus taxUa, Brem., and 

 its metamorphoses ; in the latter, one (ix.) representing an ex- 

 hibition of insects used in secondary education. 



(To be continued.) 



