96 THE entomologist's record. 



F.Z.S., F.E.S. Price 1/-. These are all most useful works by 

 practical men. — R.P. 



From the Report of the Agricultural Research Institute, Pusa,. 

 Bengal, 1918, the followmg suggestion is extracted : — " I would 

 suggest that an expert entomologist should settle down at Karachi 

 until some method of reducing the awful destruction wrought by the 

 grain pests there, has been found and put in operation. In December 

 last (1917), I saw vast numbers of wheat bags outwardly alive with 

 grain pests at the Karachi railway siding. W. Robertson Brown, 

 Agricultural Officer, North-West Frontier Province." — R.P. 



Parts iii. and iv. of the Trans. Ent. Soc. London for 1918 are to 

 hand. There are five plates and a map, with four memoirs and nearly 

 150 pages of the Proceedings of the ordinary meetings. (1) " New 

 species of Staphyliniilae from Singapore," by Malcolm Cameron, R.N., 

 F.E.S. ; (2) " Notes on Australian Sawfiies, etc.," by the Rev. F. D. 

 Morice, M.A., F.E.S., with five- plates ; (3) " The Hvmenoptera of 

 Fiji," by Rowland E. Turner, F.Z.S., F.E.S. ; and {A) " Notes on a 

 large Heliconine collection made in French Guiana in 1917," by J. J. 

 Joicey, F.E.S., and W. J. Kaye, F.E.S., with a sketch map. The 

 Proceedings are so full of interesting and important facts and observa- 

 tions that ere long it will be necessary to have an index of the items- 

 dealt with, say, in each decade. The association of ants and mosquitoes^ 

 the " false head " of Li^caenidae, etc., the mimetic association of 

 Ithomiine butterflies and a Dioptid moth, lice and trench fever, 

 seasonal forms of butterflies in East Africa, races of Pararge aegeria, 

 giantism in male bees, the pairing of Stylops and the "assembling" of 

 the males, bud-and-flower-like Flatidae (Homoptera) from E. Africa, 

 mimetic forms of Charaxes ethalion and C. etheocles, African butterflies- 

 and their relation to the season, descriptions of ex-German East 

 Africa from an entomological point of view, observations on the 

 production of " cuckoo-spit," etc., are a few of these items. 



The Imperial Entomologist of India, Mr. T. Bainbrigge-Fletcher, 

 has sent the Report of the Year 1917-18, dealing with the Insect 

 Pests which have been more or less obtrusive during that period. 

 Naturally under the conditions then prevailing it was not possible to 

 produce a report such as has been brought out hitherto. Yet an 

 admirable summary of the work done has been made, and the remarks 

 have been illustrated by a series of nearly twenty large black and 

 white plates of imagines, larvae, pup^e, enlargements of details, methods- 

 of attack, results, etc. Supplementary to the observations recorded 

 previously are numerous fresh observations on the pests attacking the- 

 crops of cotton, rice, sugar-cane, indigo, mulberry and general fruits. 

 A curious fact is that the land crabs, which damage rice so 

 extensively, burrow to a depth of 11 and IB feet below the surface of 

 the ground for aestivation. " A good deal of work has been done 

 during the year on borers and other insects occurring in Saccharuni a.nd. 

 other grasses." An important feature of the work done is the rearing 

 in suitable surroundings, of various borers and root-feeders of cane 

 and rice, to ascertain their true life-histories in detail, and to find if 

 possible to what parasites they are subject, and test the suitability of 

 such to effectually control the number of the species dealt with, 

 A section of the work was to continue the experiments previously 

 made on the Indian bee [Ajns indica), another dealt with the " lac " 



