RECENT LITERATURE. 321 



has given a memoir on the Fiilgoridse of Japan,* with four new genera 

 and twenty-two new species (of which two genera and fifteen species 

 are obscure Delphacinae [Asiracinae] ). Lastly, the well-known and 

 genial Director of the Budapest Museum has contributed a short 

 paper on some bugs from Yesso, collected by Dr. Matsumura.t 



Of the Fulgoridse enumerated by Dr. Matsumura, only a single 

 species [Stenocranus minutus, Fabr.] is also European or Siberian 

 (although nine of the genera have a European distribution) ; on 

 the other hand, of the fifty miscellaneous species mentioned by 

 Dr. Horvath, thirty also inhabit Eastern Siberia ; while only five 

 genera are not represented in Western Europe, and only one genus 

 [Riptortus) is non-palaearctic. T W K 



E. P. Felt. Fifteenth Report — Insects— State of New York, 1899 (Bull. 

 N. Y. State Mus. VI. No. 31, June, 1900, pp. 531-653). 



The present annual report (Dr. Felt's second) is of somewhat dif- 

 ferent nature to most of its predecessors, as " pressure of other work 

 has prevented the preparation of the usual detailed notices of injurious 

 insects observed during the year." These are promised at some future 

 time. We may briefly note, among the more interesting entomological 

 features, the excessive injuries occasioned by the forest tent caterpillars 

 (Clisiocampa disstria), the elm-leaf beetle [Galerucella luteola), and the 

 "willow butterfly" (Euvanessa antiopa) ; and the occurrence in several 

 counties of seventeen-year Cicada (Tibicen septendecim.)\ 



The stoppage of railway trains by hordes of caterpillars has been 

 regarded usually with a good deal of scepticism ; but an observer, 

 quoted by Dr. Felt (p. 542), states that a train by which he was 

 travelling was stopped three times between two stations about eight 

 miles apart. 



The principal feature of the report is an account of the work of a 

 corps of forty-three voluntary observers (representing thirty-nine 

 counties), established to bring " the entomologist into closer rela- 

 tions with the public, and also to facilitate the gathering of in- 



* We would correct the synonymy of one species, viz. '■'• Poeciloptera 

 distinctissima, Walker," p. 213. The type of Poeciloptera [recte Poekillo- 

 ptera, Latr., 1796] was fixed by the author himself as phalcenoides, Linne, 

 a very distinct neotropical species ; in fact, the genus is (to our knowledge) 

 not found in the Old World at all, although innumerable species under that 

 generic name have been even recently described from India, Ceylon, Java, 

 &c. P. distiiictissima forms probably a new genus near Plata and Ormenis. 

 Dr. Melichar, of Vienna, whose recent important ' Monograpliie der Rica- 

 niiden'was noticed in the 'Entomologist' (1899, p. 263), is now engaged 

 upon a monograph of the Flatidae (more properly Poekillopterinae), so that 

 numerous details, now obscure, in this group, will doubtless soon be 

 elucidated. 



f Dr. Matsumura has also published an account of the Cicadidse of Japan 

 (Annot. Zool. Japon. ii. pp. 1-20, pi. 1 ; see Zool. Record, 1898) ; but we regret 

 that we have not yet been able to see a copy. 



X Most American entomologists refer to this species as Cicada septen- 

 decini. It may well be termed the "seventeen-year Cicada " ; but it is quite 

 as incorrect (if not more so) to write of " Cicada septendecim," as it would 

 be to speak of " Argynnis cardui " or " Vanessa aurinia.'' 



ENTOM. — NOVEMBER, 1900. 2 K 



