328 



Cataloguesof Oriental Insects.— Oar esteemed correspoiideut in Bengal, 

 Mr. E. T. Atkinson, C. G., Accountant-Geiieral of the Treasury at Cal- 

 cutta, has undertaken the gigantic task of preparing catalogues of the 

 Class Insecta belonging to the Oriental Eegion. It is intended to 

 include therein all described species up to date. These catalogues 

 will be of great use to workers everywhere. The first one, which em- 

 braces the Cicindelidse, Mr. Atkinson writes us, under date of March 

 12, will appear in a few weeks. 



A new Government Publication.— We have received the first number of 

 the Journal of the Board of Viticulture, a publication just inaugurated 

 by the Agricultural Department of the colony of Victoria, Australia. 

 This first number is a small octavo of 80 pages and contains the minutes 

 of the proceedings of the Board of Viticulture for Victoria, an account 

 of a conference of viguerons, held in August, 1888 5 of a conference of 

 fruit-growers held in September, 1888; a number of papers relating to 

 vine growing in Califoruia and the British colonies, and a notice of a ? 

 proposed college of viticulture. The number contains considerable * 

 matter of interest to entomologists, and we notice that in the discus- 

 sions it seems to be an accepted fact that the Grape- vme Phylloxera has i 

 obtained a hold in Australia. There is also the report of some discus- j 

 sions regarding the apj)ointment of a qualified entomologist and of the 

 introduction into Parliament of an insect pest act. The journal is to | 

 be published monthly at the expense of the government, provided the*! 

 vine-growlers show their interest in the matter by joining a central 

 vine-growers' association, and subscribing to the association half a 

 guinea annually. 



NOTE ON THE GENUS LESTOPHONUS.* 



By S. W. WiLLiSTON, M. D,, New Haven, Conn. 



In the abstract of the Proceedings of the Linnsean Society of New 

 South Wales for February 27 of the present year Mr. F. A. A. Skuse 

 states that he has recognized two species in what I had erroneously 

 considered one, and described, rather too briefl}' I may say, as Lesto- 

 phonus iceryce. He is also of the opinion ^' that the genus Lestophonus 

 can be included in the family Oscinidce onl}' as an anomalous genus. 

 Not only is the arista of the antennae entirely wanting, and the anal cell 



* This genus Lestophonus, it ^vill be remembered, -was erected by Dr. Williston iu 

 No. 1 of tlie current volume of Inskct Life for the Australian parasite of Icerya pur- 

 chasi — the Fluted Scale of California. It is the same parasite -which Professor Riley 

 has had imported into California iu such numbers from Australia during the past 

 winter months. The question of the identity of the form bred from Monophlo^bus , 

 and that bred from Icerya is of extreme practical importance for the reason that 

 owing to the comparative rarity of Icerya iu Australia a large portion of the Lesto- 



