560 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVI. No. ( 



Dr. F. V. Theobald has issued another 

 volume of his monograph of the mosquitoes." 

 This is the second supplementary volume, and 

 we are told in the preface that another volume 

 is in active preparation. This volume con- 

 tains the descriptions of 160 species described 

 since the publication of Volume III. and the 

 descriptions of seventy-three new species, none 

 of the latter being from our country. There 

 is a review of the classifications that have 

 been proposed since Volume III., and he 

 clings to his former methods, with the addi- 

 tion of some characters derived from the 

 pafiers of Lutz. Most of the plates represent 

 portions of wings showing the nature of the 

 scales; others show genitalia and larvae. 

 There is no bibliography included in this 

 volume. 



Dr. Otto Sohmeidkknecht has published a 

 work' of great usefulness, not only to Euro- 

 peans, but to Hymenopterists throughout the 

 world. Many of the European genera occur 

 in our country, and their careful tabulation 

 will assist us in recognizing them. The book 

 contains 800 pages and 120 text figures; more 

 of the latter would materially strengthen the 

 work. Synoptic tables are given to the spe- 

 cies in all groups except the three large 

 families of micro-Hymenoptera, the saw-flies, 

 certain Ichneumonidse, and some genera of 

 bees, as Colletes and Sphecodes. 



The tiny blood-sucking flies of the genus 

 Phlebotomus, as little known as the mosquitoes 

 were twenty years ago, now come into promi- 

 nence through a paper by Professor B. Grassi.' 

 He has obtained an Italian species, worked 

 out its life history, studied its anatomy both 

 external and internal, and presented the re- 

 sults 9n four beautiful double plates. The 

 previous record of a larva of this genus was 

 for an African forin found in cesspools, but 



'"A Monograph of the Culieidse of the World," 

 Brit. Mm. Nat. Hist., 1907, pp. 639; 16 plates, 

 297 figures in text. 



° " Die Hymenopteren Mitteleuropas, nach ihren 

 Gattungen und zum grossen Teil auch nach ihren 

 Arten analytiseh bearbeitet," Jena, 1907. 



'"Ricerehe sui Flebotomi," Mem. Soc. Hal. 

 Seienze (3), Vol. XIV., pp. 353-390, 1907, 4 pis. 



the Italian species lives in moist soil. This 

 larva has four long terminal bristles, and 

 differs greatly from the larva of Psychoda, 

 and would seem to warrant a still greater 

 separation of this genus from the true Psycho- 

 didse. Grassi gives a long account of the 

 previous writings on the genus. 



Mr. E. E. Austen's recent work on the 

 blood-sucking flies is chiefly remarkable for 

 the beauty and accuracy of the plates;" these 

 are comparable only to the plates issued by 

 the same author on the tsetse flies. Thirty- 

 five species are figured, and several others are 

 referred to in the test ; eight of these are mos- 

 quitoes, and seventeen are Tabanidae. He 

 states that our " horn-fly " known to us as 

 Hosmatohia serrata should be called Lyperosia 

 imtans Linn. 



Mr. E. E. Burdon has given us an in- 

 teresting historical account of the origin of 

 two generic names." He shows that as 

 " Kermes " the dye-insect of the oak was well 

 known in Southern Europe, and so used by 

 Linnseus in the second edition of his " Sys- 

 tema Naturae." Later, in the seventh edition 

 he put this insect in Coccus, and used Ghermes 

 for other Hemiptera. Geoffrey used Chermes 

 for Coccus or the original Kermes of Linnaeus. 

 Then Boitard went back to the original spell- 

 ing, using Kermes, while Hartig retained 

 Chermes for the aphid genus. 



One of the largest general works on ants 

 has recently been published, but entirely in 

 the Eussian language.' It includes an exten- 

 sive bibliography of 915 numbers, an intro- 

 duction in which he discusses the structure 

 and classification of ants, and a systematic 

 treatment of the Eussian forms. Tables to 

 the genera are followed by the characters, 

 habits and distribution of each genus in detail. 

 Then the species are described, with keys 



" " British Blood-sueking Flies, with Notes," 

 Brit. Mus. Nat. Hist., 1906, 74 pp., 34 plates. 



" " Note on the Origin of the Name Chermes or 

 Kermes," Jour. Linn. Soc. Land., Zool., XXX., 

 pp. 5-9, 1907. 



' " Formiearioe Imperii Rossioi," Kasan, 1906, 

 800 pp., 176 figs., by M. Ruaky. 



