1 5 2 General Notes. [February, 



corded. The present year (1881) has afforded several striking ex- 

 amples, as Cra UttS, which has seriously injured 

 pastures, and . which has proved destructive 

 to clover in the State of New York. 



A new Pyralid has also very generally ravaged the corn plants 

 in the Southern States. These new destructive species may either 

 be ( 1 ), recently introduced species from some foreign country; 

 (2), native species hitherto unobserved, or unrecorded, and new in 

 the sense of not being described; (3), native species well known 

 to entomologists, but not previously recorded as injurious. 



The author argues that in the two last categories, more particu- 

 larly, we frequently have to deal with newly acquired habits, and in 

 the second category with newly acquired characters that in many 

 cases systematists would consider of specific value. In short, he 

 believes, that certain individuals of a species that has hitherto fed 

 in obscurity on some wild plant may take to feeding on a culti- 

 vated plant, and with the change of habit undergo in the course 

 of a few years sufficient change in character to be counted a new 

 species. Increasing and spreading at the rapid rate which the 

 prolificacy of most insects permits, the species finally becomes a 

 pest and necessarily attracts the attention of the farmer. The 

 presumption is that it could not at any previous time have done 

 similar injury without attracting similar attention; in fact, that the 

 habit is newly acquired. The author reasons that just as variation 

 in plant life is often sudden, as in the " sport," and that new char- 

 acters which may be perpetuated are thus created, so in insects 

 there are comparatively sudden changes, which, under favoring 

 conditions, are perpetuated. In this way characters which most 

 systematists would consider as specific, originate within periods 

 that are very brief compared to those which evolutionists believe 

 to be necessary for the differentiation of specific forms among 

 the higher animals. 



New Entomological Periodicals. — We are in receipt of a 

 circular from M. Constant Vanden Branden, Rue de la Made- 

 leine, 69, Bruxelles, Belgium, announcing the monthly publication, 

 beginning with February 1st, 1882, of a "Revue Coleoptero- 

 logique." This Review will be divided into five parts : 1. Bibliog- 

 raphy ; 11. New species described during the past month (latin 

 diagnosis and precise reference) ; in. Synonymical remarks ; iv. 

 Necrology (if there be occasion for it); v. Sundry communica- 

 tions (sale of collections and books). Subscription price 10 francs 

 for foreign countries. We have also received the prospectus of the 

 Wic net- lititomologischi Zeitung, a journal to be devoted to general 

 entomology, and to appear in 1882. It will be published " chez le 

 libraire de la cour I. R. et de l'Universite Alfred Holder:' and the 

 editorial staff, which consists of Louis Ganglbauer, Francois Low, 

 Josephe Mik, Edward Reitter and Franz Wachtl, is of a character 

 to guarantee excellence. Price 8 marks. There is also a pros- 



