332 



THK ENTOMOLOGIST. 



EECENT LITERATURE. 



Handbook to the Natural History of Cambridrjeshire. Edited by J. E. 

 Mare, Sc.D., F.R.S., and A. E. Shipley, M.A.. F.R.S. Pp. i-viii 

 and 1-260. Cambridge : University Press. 1904. 



This exceedingly useful volume was published in August last, 

 when the British Association held a meeting at Cambridge. 



All lovers of nature will find much to interest them in whatever 

 particular direction their studies may lie. For the entomologist there 

 are chapters dealing with all Orders of the Insecta. This section of 

 the work is edited by Mr. W. Farren, who is also responsible for the 

 account of the Lepidoptera, in which we note that no less than sixty 

 species of butterflies occur, or have been found, in Cambridgeshire. 

 Complete lists of species occurring in the county are given in Ortho- 

 ptera (Malcolm Burr), Neuroptera (Kenneth J. Morton), and Hemiptera 

 (W. Farren). Only local and rare species, or those peculiar to fen-land, 

 are mentioned in Coleoptera (Horace St. J.K. Donisthorpe), Lepidoptera 

 (W. Farren), Diptera (J. P. Collins), and Hymeuoptera (C. Morley). 



There are two coloured maps — one botanical, the other geological. 



Beport of the Superintendent of the Government Laboratories in the 

 Philippine Islands for the Year ended September \st, 1903. Pp. 343- 

 622 (from Fourth Annual Report of Philippine Commission), 

 Bureau of Insular Affairs, War Department. 

 Among the contents, which mainly deal with the treatment of rin- 

 derpest and the history of gutta-percha, is a report by the entomologist, 

 Mr. Charles S. Banks, on Insects of the Cacao. This occupies 

 twenty-three pages, accompanied by upwards of fifty capital plates, 

 and though primarily intended for the use of farmers, should be of 

 much interest to the entomological student. 



Annual Report and Transactions of the Manchester Microscopical Societi/ 

 /orl903. Pp.110. WithePlates. Manchester: The Society, 1904. 

 Issued in July last, but pressure on our space has prevented earlier 

 notice of this excellent little publication. The contents in the way of 

 papers, &c., appeal perhaps to the microscopist chiefly; but those of 

 our readers who are interested in Araneidea, will find the paper on 

 " Spiders," by A. E. Thomson, worth perusal. In his Presidential 

 Address, Prof. Sydney J. Hickson discourses on "Variations." He 

 states : " Many instances are known of the change in the colour of 

 butterflies and moths effected by a change in food." Only one case, 

 however, is quoted ; this is a statement by Koch, " that when cater- 

 pillars of the common tiger-moth are fed from their hatching to their 

 metamorphosis with leaves of lettuce or deadly nightshade, not one of 

 the imagines produced resembles the original form ; when the insects 

 have been fed on lettuce, the white ground-colour of the wings pre- 

 dominates ; when fed on deadly nightshade, the brown markings of the 

 upper wings often coalesce, and the white vanishes ; in like manner 

 the blue markings on the lower wings fuse together and displace 

 the orange-yellow ground-colour." 



Erratum. — P. 284, lines 21, 32, 33, for Lawpides tilicanus read 

 Lnmpides telicanus. 



