1889.] 309 



the hairs of only the under-side of the leaves, never on the upper ; but if they go 

 there merely to rest, it is odd why only one sex should be caught, and also why they 

 should be in clusters. Has any one else observed this habit ? One $ that managed 

 to disengage itself from the hairs flew about my dining room, but in a stupid manner, 

 quite different from the ordinary flight of the insect. — W. C. Boyd, College Road, 

 Cheshunt : May 15th, 1889. 



[I think I once expressed an idea that this peculiar habit and effect might be 

 due to sudden fall in temperature : search for shelter in the first instance and subse- 

 quent death. But it seems probable that the insects (possibly seeking shelter) 

 become entangled in the hairs of the leaves, and cannot release themselves. Why 

 they should practically be all males I do not comprehend, unless there be (as is often 

 the case in insects) periods when the males fly in abundance and the females not at 

 all. It is a curious question meriting further investigation. — R. McLachlan.]. 



August Emil Holmgren. — It has only been lately announced in entomological 

 periodicals that this celebrated Swedish Hymenopterist died quite at the end of 

 1888. At this moment we have no particulars as to his history other than his tvork, 

 which mainly concerned Ichneumonidce, and has universally been acknowledged of 

 the highest order, mainly concerning the Swedish Fauna, but supplementing the 

 laborious monograph of his predecessor Gravenhorst for the whole of Europe. 

 Almost all his published papers, from the first in 1852, were devoted to his special 

 subject. His survivor, and fellow-worker, Dr. Kriechbaumer, has paid a generous 

 tribute to his memory in the " Entomol. Nachrichten," 1889, p. 144. 



Br. Victor Signoret died at Paris on April 3rd last, at the age of 72. For 

 more than forty years he has been a most indefatigable worker in scientific 

 entomology, his labours having been almost exclusively devoted to Hemiptera, and 

 the results, with few exceptions, have been published in the " Annales de la Societe 

 Entomologique de France." The value of his many papers is too well known and 

 appreciated to require any eulogy ; it may be permitted, however, to mention the 

 principal of his Memoirs, all elaborated with most conscientious care, and illustrated 

 by himself with the greatest delicacy of drawing in the minutest details. Such are his 

 "Revue iconographique des Tettigonides," " Essai sur les Cochenilles," and "Revision 

 du G-roupe des Cydnides," the last having appeared as lately as 1884. For the last few 

 years he has suffered from insidious and progressive paralysis, and now he has been 

 removed from his many friends to whom he was endeared by a most obliging 

 disposition, always ready to put his entomological knowledge and acquisitions at 

 their service. He was a member of many learned Societies; and an Honorary 

 Fellow of the Entomological Society of London since 1882. He became a member 

 of that of France in 1843, and was on the honorary list of the Society since 1882. 

 At present we are without details as to his early history, &c. ; these will be fully 

 given by his old and faithful friend and fellow-labourer, M. Leon Fairmaire, to whom 

 has been entrusted the task of writing his " necrologe " for the French Annales j it 

 could not be in better hands. 



