124 
SPOLIA ZEYLANICA. 
NOTES. 
1. Review: Indian Insect Life, a Manual of the Insects of 
the Plains {Tropical India), by H. Maxwell-Lefroy, assisted by 
P* Hewlett.—Published under the authority of the Government 
of India for the Agricultural Research Institute, Pusa, by Thacker, 
Spink & Go., Calcutta and Simla, 1909, pp. 786, with 536 text- 
figures and 84 plates. 
This richly illustrated volume will be welcomed by those who 
take a general interest in Indian entomology. The majority of the 
plates have been executed in three colour process by the Calcutta 
Phototype Co., and are particularly successful, as indeed are most 
of the text-figures. 
Ki lt may be useful for a future edition of this attractive work to 
point out that the figures of the Cetoniid beetle, Thaumastopoeus 
pullus, on pp. 252 and 257, do not bear much resemblance to each 
other ; and some of the diagrams are not so good, often imperfectly 
explained. The differences of neuration of the wings in the dipterous 
families, Trypetidse (Fruit Flies) and Ortalidse, are figured and 
described on pp. 632 and 635, but as the figures are without index 
letters the description is useless, except to the specialist, for whom 
the book is not intended. The opposite treatment is meted out to 
the diagrams of the lepidopterous wing on p. 400, where the figures 
are provided with abundant index letters and numbers without 
an explanatory description. The diagram of the Gryllid on Plate I. 
is very poor, and that of the Mantid on the same plate is confusing. 
All these are minor defects, easily remedied, which do not impair 
the value of the work. 
Special prominence is given to the habits, of insects in their 
bearing upon agriculture, and numerous references to other sources 
of information are scattered through the text. Such a work as this 
is badly wanted in Ceylon ; but since many of the species, or closely 
allied forms, are found in Ceylon, Mr. Lefroy’s book should satisfy 
the demand here meanwhile. 
On p. 431 brief mention is made of the common Hesperid butterfly, 
Suastus gremius, Fabr., the Caterpillar of which feeds upon palm 
leaves, It is equally the commonest skipper in Lucknow and in 
Colombo. In “ Indian Museum Notes,” Vol. I., 1889-1891, p. 10, 
L. de Niceville published the first record of its earliest stages. He 
bred it repeatedly (often from the egg) in Calcutta, where it feeds 
on the date palm. After describing the egg and larva, he goes 
on to say that “ the pupa is enclosed in a rolled-up leaf, the inside 
of which is lined with soft silk, out of which flies when opened a 
