RECENT LITERATURE. 229 



capsincola. — Mr. Newman demonstrated a method of killing Anthro- 

 cerids (Zygsenids) by immersion in petrol for a few moments, which 

 appeared to be quite successful. — Mr. H. Moore, a Hving specimen of 

 ASgrotera phyviateiis, a large Orthopteron from the Cape. — Mr. 

 J. Piatt Barrett, living male crickets, Gryllotalpa vulgaris, small 

 larvae and ova shells of Melanargia plierusa, a large centipede, &c., 

 all from Sicily. — Mr. W. West (Ashtead), the Phylloxera of the oak, 

 P. punctata. — Mr. Step, several Hemipterous pests, including 

 Phyllaphis fagi in masses under leaves of beech, and Phyllopsis 

 fraxini in a similar manner under leaves of ash, with P. fraxinicola 

 and Pediopsis tilice — Mr. E. Adkin, a bred series of Celastrina 

 [Gyaniris) argiolits, from 1913 autumn larvae on ivy, one or two of 

 which were of the facies of the autumn emergence. — Mr. Hy. J. Turner, 

 the whole of the plates of Eosel's Insekten belustigung, 1746 (1)-1761, 

 with Kleemann's additional volumes of plates, and an autograph 

 letter re the volume from W. Spence, 1812. — Mr. A. E. Gibbs, a 

 drawer of species and forms of Parnassius, including P. mnemosyne, 

 P. apollo, P. stubbendorfli, P. delpliius, P. ap)oUonius, P. imperator, 

 P. hardtoickii, P. discobolus, P. romanovi, &c. — Mr. Step read a 

 Eeport of the Congress of the S. E. Union of Scientific Societies, held 

 at Bournemouth, June 10th-13th, and which he and Mr. Hy. 

 J. Turner attended as the Society's delegates. — Hy. J. Turner, Hon. 

 Bep. Sec. 



RECENT LITERATURE. 



Studies on the Mecoptera of Japan. By T. Miyake (Journal of the 

 College of Agriculture, Imperial University of Tokyo, vol. iv, 

 No. 6, pp. 265-400). Tokyo : December, 1913. 



No Neuropterist can well afford to miss this paper, in which Mr. 

 Miyake gives a full and interesting account of his studies in connec- 

 tion with the Scorpion flies and allied insects to be found in Japan. 

 Though he gives them ordinate rank, as do some other entomologists, 

 it is probably more usual to consider them as a subdivision of the 

 Neuroptera. All are placed in one family, Panorpidse, which is 

 divided into four genera : — Panorpa (including Aulops) with twenty- 

 seven species, Panorpodes with four, Leptopanorpa with two, and 

 Bittacus with six. Thus there are thirty-nine (or forty with the 

 doubtful Panorpa hageni) species in all, as compared with four to be 

 found in Britain and but twenty in either Europe or America. One 

 species only, Panorpa communis, Japan shares with us. We have 

 no example of the peculiar Tipula-\]ke genus Bittacus, of which 

 Japan has six but, on the other hand, Japan does not possess a 

 Boreus, one species of which peculiar genus of tiny insects is found 

 with us. 



Distinctive wing-markings, prolongation of the mouth-parts into 

 a beak, and scorpion-like extremity of the male abdomen make, 

 Panorpa, Panorpodes, and Leptopanorpa very distinctive insects, while 

 the beak and Tip^da-Y^kQ build differentiate the genus Bittacus. That 

 the " beak '' is a recent acquisition seems clear, for the head of the 

 larva of Panorpa is of quite normal form. The beak reaches its 



