1889.] 327 



Beiteage zttb Kenntniss dee schweizeeischen Teichopteeen : by 

 Fe. Bia. Mittheilungen der schweizerisclien entomologischen G-esellschaft, Band 

 8, pp. 102—145 (also separately, 43 pp.). 1889. 



A CONTEIBUTION TOWAEDS A CATALOGUE OF THE NEUEOPTEEOUS F ATTN A OF 



Ieeland : by James J. F. X. King. Transactions of the Natural History Society 

 of Glasgow, vol. ii, pp. 259—292 (also separately, 38 pp.). 1889. 



It is refreshing to find so much energy devoted to the working out of local 

 Neuropterology. Local lists, some original, some revisional, have been lately 

 appearing to an extent we scarcely anticipated a few years ago. 



M. Bis, one of the most astute and critical workers on European Trichoptera, 

 gives us a revisional List of the Swiss Caddis-flies ; revisional, because it supplements 

 and corrects the List published by the late M. Meyer-Diir in 1882, which latter 

 supplemented an earlier work by the same author in 1874. M. Bis now raises the 

 number of known Swiss Trichoptera to 225 species (including several indicated, but 

 not described, species of Hydroptilidee that are, perhaps, new). There is proba- 

 bly no other country in Europe that could show such a List, with the exception of 

 France ; but such a comparison would be unfair to Switzerland. We think M. Bis 

 recognises the apparent impossibility of reducing Trichoptera to synoptical tables on 

 the plan of the "Fauna insectorum helvetise" now in course of publication in the 

 " Mittheilungen." His local information is very full, and there are many biological 

 notes of great value, such, for instance, as the remarks on larvae believed to be those 

 of Rhyacophila tristis, tending to show Pictet was right when he asserted that the 

 external branchial tufts usual in the larvae of Rhyacophila may be wanting in some 

 species of the genus as it now stands. 



In noticing Mr. King's Irish Catalogue we cannot do better than quote his 

 words at p. 291 : " This List is designed as a first attempt to supply an outline of 

 the local distribution of an Order of Insects, which, in Ireland at least, has hitherto 

 been almost wholly neglected. If it should awaken fresh interest and stimulate 

 further investigation, the objects designed by its publication will have been fully 

 attained." 



Mr. King's List embraces the whole of the Linnean Neuroptera ; and the 

 distribution of each species is given, according to the four provinces of the island, 

 with more minute county details as regards the various localities quoted. It is not 

 more than a List with localities, but will serve as a foundation upon which to extend 

 information ; and it is original to the extent that, with few exceptions, it is based 

 upon the compiler's own experience and investigations. Mr. King enumerates 26 

 Psocidce, 11 Perlidce, 23 Ephemerida, 25 Odonata, 23 Planipennia and 103 Trich- 

 optera, as Irish (a most remarkable feature is that no species of Panorpidce is 

 included), or 211 species as compared with 350 for the United Kingdom and 327 for 

 Belgium. We once heard it said that in Irish local lists of insects, occasionally 

 appearing in our pages, some species so generally common as not to be worth notice 

 were included. Possibly ; but, on the other hand, it must not be lost sight of that 



