Maech 26, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



505 



has been bom tbere. The period of gestation 

 was 401 days; in another instance it was 395 

 days. The little tapirs have been strong and 

 were raised with comparatively little trouble. 



NOTES ON ENTOMOLOGY 

 Three more volumes have been issued by 

 the Indian government in the series " The 

 Fauna of British India." Two are on the 

 Coleoptera. Volume I. is on the Ceramby- 

 cidffi, by C. J. Gaham (329 pp., 107 figs.), and 

 deals with nearly one half of the longicorn 

 beetles of India. They are arranged in four 

 subfamilies — Cerambycinse, Lepturinte, Dis- 

 teniinsB and Prioninse. Nearly 400 species are 

 described. Vol. II. (Coleoptera), on the 

 Chrysomelidse, is by the late Martin Jacoby 

 (534 pp., 172 figs., 2 colored plates). He ar- 

 ranges the forms' in five divisions: Eupodes, 

 Cyclica, Camplosomes, Trichostomes and 

 Cryptostomes. The species of the last two 

 divisions are not treated in this volume; the 

 Trichostomes include the Halticinse and the 

 Galerucinse. Over 900 species are described, 

 many of which are new. Volume IV. of the 

 Rhynchota (Homoptera and appendix, 501 

 pp., 282 figs.) is by Dr. Distant. It contains 

 the families MembraeidaB, Cercopidse and 

 Jassidse; the appendix is mostly on the Pen- 

 tatomidse. In this volume 665 species are 

 described, bringing the total number of 

 Hemiptera described from India up to 2,768. 



Me. Edward Connold has published on the 

 British oak galls a companion volume to his 

 work on British vegetable galls.^ There are 

 chapters on the growth of galls, characters and 

 habits of the Cynipidfe, the British oak, and 

 collecting and mounting oak galls. There is, 

 under each species, a succinct statement com- 

 prising the English name of the gall, the 

 position of the gall, the manner of growth, 

 color, size, time of year, whether with one or 

 many larvse, where larva pupates, time of is- 

 suance of fly and parasites and inquilines. 

 The insects are not described. Eifty-four 

 galls of Cynipidse are treated, and two of 

 other insects. The plates are photographs of 



^"British Oak Galls," London (Adlard & Son), 

 pp. 170, 68 plates, 1908. 



the various galls, often showing much varia- 

 tion in shape. 



Mr. E. E. Turner has completed a revision 

 of the Australian species of a peculiar family 

 of Hsrmenoptera, the Thynnidse.^ This family 

 is extremely abundant in Australia, about 400 

 species being known, over 120 of which are 

 described as new by Mr. Turner. Very little 

 is asi yet known of their life history; a few 

 bred from underground pupse of Lepidoptera 

 or Hymenoptera. The author severely criti- 

 cizes the classification of Ashmead, but 

 adopts most of the genera of Guerin and 

 Westwood. The characters , at present used for 

 the genera are found mostly in the sexual 

 organs; a better classification must await the 

 discovery of characters associating the sexes. 

 Mr. Turner excludes from this family the 

 genus Anthobosca, which he considers more 

 related to Myzine. With the exception of the 

 genus Mlurus the South American Thynnidse 

 are of different genera than the Australian. 



Professoh Wheeler has written a most in- 

 teresting comparative study of the ants of 

 Europe and! North America.' He shows that 

 there are fully twice as many kinds of ants in 

 the United States as in Europe. In both 

 countries the ant-fauna is composed of two 

 elements, the boreal and the tropical. The 

 former is very similar in the two regions, but 

 the latter is very divergent, owing to differ- 

 ent origins. The difference in nidification of 

 similar ants in Europe and North America is 

 considered due to the amount of sunshine; 

 and it is shown that nests are more abundant 

 in the interior of our country than in the 

 eastern states. There is a summary of the 

 fossil ants of the two countries; a chapter on 

 the parasitic ants of Europe and on the 

 myrmecophilous insects. 



Mr. W. Schultze has an interesting article 

 on the young of certain leaf-beetles of the 



" " A Revision of the Thynnidae of Australia," 

 Proc. Linn. Soo. N. 8. Wales, XXXII., pp. 206- 

 290, 1907; XXXIII., pp. 70-256, 1908. 



° " Comparative Ethology of the European and 

 North American Ants," Journal f. Psychologie u. 

 Neurologie, XIII., pp. 404-435, 1908, 2 double 

 plates. 



