Article beginning on page 150.
Psyche 5:150, 1888.

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peratui-e and great humidity succeeded
during which time no beetles were
observed, but on 2 June it became warm
again and so continued, and these same
beetles again occurred, but much less
abundantly, and continued till 23 June,
after which no more were observed.
Mr. Klages collected during a few even-
ings at the electric lights suspended
opposite the large plate-glass windows
of some of the stores in Pittsburgh with such success, that he sent to Europe
seven hundred specimens of C. willcoxi
and three hundred of C. scrutator (his
correspondents there write for more !) . Where these beetles came from is a
matter of speculation, but it is scarcely supposable that all were raised in the
city. The number of individuals must
have been immense as the collecting
done by Mr. Klages ancl myself was
only at a few places, and for a very
brief period, and that in face of the
small boy, etc., etc., difficulty. Of Cdo- soma calidum, which has always been
moderately abundant, not over a dozen
specimens were taken at light the whole
season. C. externurn yielded five spec-
imens, Diplochita major four speci-
mens, Polymoechus brevi$es six spec-
imens, Erycus å´pmcticoZZi four spec-
imens, none of which had been taken
elsewhere.
To show the great distances to which
water beetles fly, I may state that at
the same place on the evenings of May
mentioned I picked up twenty-three 9
and four 8 Cybister fimbriolatus, one
8 Dytks fasciventris, twenty-four
$ ancl seven $ Hydrophzlus hi-
angularis. The great hemipteron,
Belostoma americanum could have
been taken by the peck. The nearest
point to the river is more than three-
fourths of a mile.
The number of coleoptera and insects
of all orders that are attracted to the
electric lights in these cities is beyond computation.
150 PSYCHE. [January 1889.
EFFECT OF CONSANGUINITY IN
LEPIDOPTERA.
The late M. Pierre Millikre contributed
an article, entitled, "Des rdsultats varies que donnent chez les leJpidopt&res les accou- plements consanguins," to I/ naturalisfa siciliano for May 1887, which contains facts interesting to the biologist.
He writes :
"When, among lepidoptera bred in captiv- ity. pairings continue from one generation to another, without interrupting the series of consanguineous unions by the i~itroduc- tion of new blood, there occurs for each spe- cies a particular result, in such manner that the consanguineous and successive unions not only do not produce, for the lepidoptera in general, identical results, but, on the con- trary, each species conforms to an influence which is peculiar to itself."
As illustrating this variety of effect of con- sanguineous unions in lepidoptera the author obtained fertile eggs for two successive years from Hadena solieyi; the third year only about half the eggs hatched, while the fourth



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January 1889. j PSYCHE. 151
year, of an abundance of eggs from different females, none hatched. Ninety eggs of S-pil- osoma zatima, obtained after a consanguin- eous union failed to hatch. Of Crocallis day- doinka, which has a single annual brood, the first year 480 eggs, and the second year about 500 eggs, all proved fertile, but the third year not an egg hatched out of a large number obtained.
Eucrostis indigenata and Cidaria vittaia failed to produce fertile eggs with consan- guineous parents.
He adds : "On the contrary Ncmoria au-
~eliaria raised in captivity, has not, during more than ten years, ceased to be fertile, both for spring and fall generations."
"I could multiply these examples, but the facts which I give suffice to show the inter- est which pertains, from the point of view of the establishment of specific characters for lepidoptera, to the verifying that, in each species, the continuance of the reproductive power varies when the pairings are between consanguineous individuals and without the introduction of new blood.
As Crocallis, Eucro.s/i.<;, Cida ria, and Nemoria all belong to the geometridae, the variability of reproductiveness in close- breeding in a single family is very marked. Experiments on such biological subjects need multiplication. G: Dimmock.
PACKARD'S " ENTOMOLOGY FOR
BEGINNERS."
In A. S. Packard's '& Entomology for be- ginners " appears, for the first time from an American publisher, possibly the first time in the English language, a work on general entomology which presents the subject in accordance -with modern scientific progress. Instead of being a systematical classification and enumeration of insects to which the
study of their anatomy, physiology, and
biology is subordinated or appended, as is generally the case with entomological works, the systematic part of this work occupies only about one-third of its pages, and is sprinkled with allusions to habits, and to internal as well as to external anatomy. The great number of species of insects make it necessary to fill a larger proportion of the work with details of classification than would be the case in considering any other division of the animal kingdom. The chapter devoted to "insects injurious and beneficial to agri- culture" is short, but contains as many de- tails, proportionally to the size of the whole book, as seems necessary in a general ento- mological work.
Of special importance and value are the
chapters devoted to modes of collecting, pre- serving, and rearing insects ; to their dissec- tion:
and to the cutting and mounting of
sections of insects, whole insects, or their organs, for n-iicroscopical study.
Here Pro-
fessor Packard has brought together a good number of methods from widely separated
sources. The directions for dissection and for microscopical research must prove very useful to the younger students in America who
are beginning to turn their attention from unwieldy entomological collections to the comparative anatomy and histology of
insects. At first reading of Professor Pack- ard's work, I was inclined to believe that these methods should hive been revised and more thoroughly combined in his work, but a second examination convinced me that the nearer each description retained the words of the originator of the process the better, leav- ing the student or investigator to select for himself the method or parts of methods best suited to his special requirements.
The list of periodicals and works on ento- mology which occupies ten pages, near the end of the work, is well selected, but there is a lack of uniformity in typographical matters in this list, and in the numerous bibliogi-aph- ical references in the body of the work. Slight inaccuracies of statement are notice- able in places in the work, which is not won- derful when its scope and extent are consid- ered, but it will prove most useful not only to beginners but to all entomologists.
G: Dimmock.




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