1885.) Zoology. 609 
ferring especially to the Zygænidæ. It seems to us that Mr. 
Smith in this essay fails to take a comprehensive view of the 
group ; his families are sub-groups, and to base families wholly on 
the venation is carrying matters to an extreme ; the venation in 
this family seems to us to be mainly useful in defining genera. 
Mr. Smith is led to throw Endryas out of the family, whereas by 
its larval, pupal and head and trunk characters it is a true Zyg- 
enida, the characters Smith uses are, we think, superficial. The 
two closing articles of the first number of the volume are by Dr. 
Horn, on the North American species of Cryptobium and Studies 
among the Meloidze. Interesting notes on oviposition in 
Agrion and insect migration appear in the Extomologists’ Monthly 
Magazine for February. Mr. T. L. Casey’s Contributions to the 
descriptive and systematic Coleopterology of North America con- 
tains carefully prepared and lengthy descriptions of new genera 
and species of American beetles which will be of permanent value, 
We trust that the time for sub-lined descriptions of Coleoptera 
has gone by.——At a meeting of the Entomological Society of 
London, held Feb. 4, Mr. W. L. Distant exhibited a series of wings 
of Indian butterflies, showing the differences between broods of the 
same insect in the wet and dry seasons respectively, which had 
hitherto been generally regarded as distinct species. Professor 
Packard desires specimens of Nola and of the Notodontians, with 
aview to preparing a revision of these groups of Bombycide. 
L. R. Meyer Dir, a well known Swiss: entomologist, died at 
Zurich, March 2d, aged 73. On November 28th, G. A. Kefer- 
stein died at Erfurt, aged 91, at the time of his death the oldest 
entomologist in Europe. 
ZOOLOGY. 
. DISTRIBUTION OF COLOR IN THE ANIMAL Kincpom.—L. Came- 
rano discusses this subject at length. Colors may be arranged in 
accordance with the frequency of their occurrence, thus: (1) 
Brown; (2) black; (3) yellow, grey and white; (4) red; (5) 
green; (6) blue; (7) violet. Black, brown and grey are more 
common in Vertebrata than in Arthropoda, while red and yellow 
met with, but they occur in all groups of the animal kingdom. 
White is irregularly distributed, but more characteristic of aquatic 
animals. The colors of animals bear a relation to the mediums in 
which they live; parasites are less varied in color than free-living 
animals. Aquatic animals are commonly more evenly and less 
brilliantly colored than land animals; pelagic animals, as might 
be predicted from their transparency, are not strikingly colored. 
Among birds the strongest flyers are most soberly tinted. Of in- 
habitants of the sea, those that live among Algæ are more vividly 
