78 
THE ENTOMOLOGIST’S WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER. 
Agdistes Bennettii. — Mr. S. Ste- 
vens stated that he had discovered the 
larva of this species on Statice limoniutn, 
and exhibited a pupa of the insect. 
Pupa of Smebinthcs Tili.e in a 
silken cocoon. — Captain Cox men- 
tioned that under the bark of the plane- 
tree, four feet from the ground, he had 
found a large pupa enclosed in a firm 
silken cocoon : to his extreme surprise 
this had produced Smerinthvs Tilice : 
the skin of the pupa was much less 
rugose than ordinary. 
The President read a paper on the 
transformations of insects in Natal, 
discovered by Mr. Plant. 
Mr. Westwood read a paper on the 
wing-veins of insects, completely proving, 
to his own satisfaction, that Mr. New- 
man’s views on the subject were erro- 
neous. 
A paper by Mr. Adam White was 
read, descriptive of five Homoptera from 
Borneo, Celebes and Ceylon. 
NOTICES OF BOOKS. 
On the Yabiation of Species ; with 
especial reference to The Insecta ; fol- 
lowed by an inquiry into The Natube 
of Genera. By T. Vernon Wol- 
laston, M.A., F.L.S. 8vo, cloth. 
Price 5s. London : John Van Voorst, 
Paternoster How. 
A compact portable hook, by Mr. 
Wollaston, will be a boon to many : it 
would have been eagerly hailed by ento- 
mologists whatever had been the subject. 
To entomologists, the question “ what 
constitutes a species?” must ever be an 
interesting one ; the fact that a variety 
may be constant, and yet still not be 
specifically distinct, is one we cannot ig- 
nore. 
In the volume we have now before us, 
Mr. Wollaston has undertaken to show 
how species may be subject to variation 
owing to climatal causes generally ; to 
temporary heat or cold of an unusual de- 
gree ; to the nature of the country and 
the soil ; and lastly to isolation and ex- 
posure to a stormy atmosphere. That a 
work treating on a subject of such vast 
importance to those who are intent upon 
adding a species to their collections, will 
be eagerly scanned by many we cannot 
doubt. We will endeavour to epitomize 
Mr. Wollaston’s views on the different 
headings we have noticed. 
Variation from climatal causes gene- 
rally. — Climate, taken alone, does not 
appear to produce any very decided mo- 
difying effect on insect form ; hence nu- 
merous species of comparatively wide 
distribution are totally unaffected by it. 
But climatal operation has an amount of 
influence on certain species; thus A 7 e- 
bria complanala assumes a more pallid 
hue in the neighbourhood of Bordeaux 
than it does on the sandy coasts of 
Devonshire and Wales. Bembidium ob- 
tusum is shorter and less parallel in our 
own latitude than it is in the Madeiran 
group and along the Mediterranean 
shores ; and Madeiran specimens of Ly- 
cwna Phlceas are invariably darker and 
more suffused than the English ones. 
Temporary heat or cold of an unusual 
degree . — This frequently affects the de- 
velopment of the wings. Many Coleop- 
tera, especially the Carabidce, are sub- 
ject to great inconstancy in their rneta- 
thoracio organs of flight. Our common 
Calathus mollis has the hind wings at 
one time ample, at another rudimentary, 
and a third nearly obsolete, and it will be 
found on examination that the greater 
or less development of them may fre- 
quently be explained by the unusual 
severity of the seasons. T he common 
bed-bug is almost invariably apterous; 
yet Scopoli mentions its occurrence with 
perfect wings, and Westwood remarks 
