1881 .] 
187 
Unseasonable weather : Lepidoptera in December. — After some sharp weather in 
November (sent doubtless for the benefit of the Geraniums and Tropseolums in the 
garden), we aro having, in Pembrokeshire, what can only jocularly be called winter. 
On the 3rd inst., when starting on a journey in tho morning twilight, a moth 
came fluttering down from tho trees and alighted on tho ground. It proved to be 
Cidaria russata in perfect condition — evidently just emerged — but sufficiently 
smaller than usual to prove it a third - brood specimen, forced by the mildness of the 
season. On the 4th, Vanessa urticce was flying briskly along the streets and over tho 
houses at Pembi’oko Dock, and on the night of the 5tli, Scopula ferrugalis came to 
light at my window. All these were casually noticed, without any attempt at 
collecting or searching.— Charles G. Barrett, Pembroke : December 9th, 1880. 
fhumus. 
Avis preliminaire d’une nouvelle Classification he la Pa will e des 
DYTisciDiE, par D. Sharp. Extrait des Comptes-rendus de la Societe Entomo- 
logique de Belgique, Seance du 4 Septembre, 1880. Bruxelles : 8vo, pp. 5. 
We have received from our old and valued correspondent, Dr. Sharp, a copy of 
this important outline of the scheme of the larger work upon Dytiscidce on which 
he has been occupied for some six years ; and wo willingly give it all the publicity 
in our power, though regretting that such original matter by a British writer should 
not have, in the first instance, found a place in some English publication. 
This outline is constructed somewhat on the plan of inverting the usually 
accepted arrangement of things, which the author originally adopted in a discussion 
of the terms genus and species ; and ordinary readers will, by turning to the last 
page, obtain a readier view of the larger aims of the author. 
The great family of Dytiscidce is divided into two series : tho first, Dytisci 
fragmentati , — the second, Dytisci complicati. No precise explanation is given for 
these terms, but corresponding series are stated to occur in the Carabidce, the first 
of which is equally “fragmentary,” both “fragmentary” series having in common 
the same structure of the articulating cavities of the intermediate legs, the outer 
side of which is composed by parts of three principal pieces of the skeleton. But 
the Carabici complicati and Dytisci complicati are opposed to the two “ fragmentary 
and central ” series in the fact of only two pieces forming the outer edge of the inter- 
mediate cotyloid cavity in the former, whilst four pieces contribute to its formation 
in the latter. And the Dytisci complicati are distinguished from all other beetles by 
their metathoracic episternum penetrating to the intermediate cotyloid cavity. 
Following Thomson and Le Conte, the Haliplicles aro excluded altogether, and 
it is left for students of Carabidce to decide if they are to be ranged in the latter 
group or form a separate one. Pelobius is only admitted by conventional right ; it 
is intermediate between the Carabidce and Dytiscidce, with a predominance of the 
external structure of the former, and is put at the head of the latter, but with no 
hint of any group for its reception. The Dytisci fragmentati aro composed of 
(presumably) Pelobius-, a tribe Noterides, composed of two genera, Notomicrus 
and Eydrocoptus, and also of three groups, Noterini, Suphisini, and Hydrocanthini 
(which three are formed of tho genera Pronoterus, Synchortus, Noierus, Colpius , 
