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THE FAUNA OF INDIA— INSECTA. 



The latest addition to" this series is Mr. Distant's "Khynchota," 

 Volume III, containing the Aquatic Bugs, the Cicadids and Fulgorids, 

 which the student of Indian entomology will find as useful as its prede- 

 cessors. It is, however, an extraordinary commentary on the state of 

 Indian entomology, and reveals in a striking manner the almost abso- 

 lute lack of interest taken in insects, excepting butterflies, by residents 

 in India. As usual, we went through the Volume to prepare a list of 

 species recorded from localities not in the hills, that is recorded from 

 localities in the plains, which are typically Indian. The result is 

 simply amazing • if we except such useless records as " Bombay," 

 " N. Bengal " and the like, which may mean Mahableshwar and 

 Darjiling, a total of thirteen species will be found, according to this 

 Volume, outside of such localities as Simla, Mussoorie, Darjiling, 

 Ootacamund and Ceylon. Two conclusions may be drawn ; it is an 

 extraordinary exception to find any person — not a professional natu- 

 ralist — collecting in India at all (such an exception is Mr, Mackinnon, of 

 Mussoorie), and all collecting naturalists go to the hills and do not 

 collect in the plains. Yet we have been frequently told that residents 

 in the plains do not collect because the insects are worthless. The 

 truth is we do not know what they are, and, while this is the state of 

 things, every insect, whether described or new, common or rare, is of 

 value as showing what the fauna of the plains really is. We believe 

 that if members of the Bombay Natural History Society realise this fact, 

 the almost utter ignorance of our real Indian fauna would disappear as 

 soon as the collections of "plains" insects were worked ont. Appeals 

 for insects of special groups have been frequently made and probably 

 produce little result ; possibly it will be of more value to point out the 

 groups in which work can be readily done which will be of value in later 

 volumes of the Fauna. Every possible specimen of the earwig tribe is 

 wanted ; these are not uncommon, are quite harmless and inoffensive, 

 and if put into a box and posted to my address with a slip giving date, 

 locality and collector's name, will be set, pinned, labelled and sent on. 

 The same applies to grasshoppers of all sorts, to cockroaches, to the pray- 

 ing mantids ; an excellent method for keeping and sending them is to 

 roll paper round a pencil, ruler or other object of the desired bore, gum 

 up the paper and so make a cylinder, into which the insect slides. We 



