Article beginning on page 117.
Psyche 6:117, 1891.

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July 1891.1
PSYCHE.
darker brown depressions. The tongue-case was a sharp ridge extending to the apex of the wing-cases. At its base, on each side, was a dark, rough tubercle; on each eye-cover was another; and on the apex of the head
another. The anal hook was long and
pointed, with a little spur near the tip. Caroline G. Soule.
ON THE FOOD-HABIT OF TELEA POLYPHE-
~us.-On June 10th emerged in one of my
boxes a $ Telea folypkemus of normal size and specially brilliant coloring. Its larval his- tory was an experiment in food. The larva was found just before the third moult, on a small oak tree. Its food was varied every day, and consisted of the following leaves, given in the following order :-
Oak, maple, willow, pine, white birch,
apple, chestnut, moosewood, wild grape,
poplar, walnut, elm, cherry, and then began with oak again. The only leaf it refused was sassafras.
Chestnut, pine, and wild grape were new
to me as food-plants of T. folyphemus and were suggested by finding larvae on them several times last summer.
The larvae on pine were especially large and clear in color; those on wild grape, markedly smaller. Caroline G. SouZe.
RECENT LITERATURE. -Mr. J. W. Tutt,
who edits a journal whose special function is to record all sorts of variation in insects has just published the first volume (16, 164 pp.) of "The British Noctuae and
their varieties" in which over 100 species and an enormous number of varietal forms are described and named ; scarcely a single species escapes division, and some show ten or fifteen varieties (Afantea didyma for in- stance), while a distinction is further made between varieties and subvarieties. Only the imago is considered. A large amount of the material is new, but the author has care- fully collated all fragmentary notes in the literature of the subject. In the introduction, which treats of variation in Lepidoptera generally, its nature, extent and probable causes, no reference is made to the claim the author elsewhere refers to (Ent. rec., I, 55-56) that melanism has in some instances be-
come a prevailing feature in those parts of England where manufacturing plants have
given a grimy aspect to nature. If this be really true, and it would seem to be difficult to prove incontestably, then natural selection by elimination of the unfittest has certainly produced a sensible degree of protective mimicry within recent historic times.
A painstaking, detailed account of the
postembryonal development, habits, and an- atomy of Encyrtus fuscicollis has just been given by Dr. E. Bugnion in the Recueil zoo- logique suisse, accompanied by half a dozen folding plates. The species investigated is claimed to be parasitic on different caterpil- lars, and among others on a Hyponomeuta
attacking the spindle tree in which the
author studied them. He raised 21 different lots, and they usually yielded males or fe males exclusively, and in half the other time? one sex was in excessive abundance. This Encyrtus appears to lay its eggs (50-129) at one thrust in the form of a single chain which floats in the perivisceral cavity. At the end of the embryonal period, or rather after the first moult, the larvae pierce this tube, and live on the lymph of the host till they are ready for their change, when they devour the viscera, form separate cocoons which pack the body of the host to the utmost, and ap- pear in the imago state in about three weeks ; they at once pair. Whether they are double brooded and in the second generation infest some other insect is still a question; if not, the maintenance of the species depends on the life of fertilized females from early in August to sometime in April or May of the succeeding year.
The most considerable and valuable work
that has appeared for fifteen years on the tertiary insects ofEurope, has just been pub- lished at Strassburg as part of the Abhand-



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[July 1891.
lungen zur geologischen specialkarte von Elsass-Lothringen. It is on the insects of the middle oligocene of Brunstatt, Alsatia, by Dr. B. Foerster, and describes 159 species, all but one belonging to the Coleoptera, Hemiptera, Diptera, and Hymenoptera to
name them in the order of their abundance. Six excellent plates, including 171 figures, all drawn by the author, accompany the
work. Two of the beetles, a Dorcatoma and a Bruchus, the latter rather imperfect, pre- sented no features by which they could be distinguished from living European species. The mass of the species are of a small size. Interesting comparisons are instituted with the insects of other tertiary localities. PERSONAL NOTES. Entomologists every-
where will deeply regret to hear of the death of Mr. Henry Edwards who loved his favorite studies quite as much as he did the stage and brought to both an ardor and freshness con- tagious and perennial. "Do mention," writes one of his correspondents, "his unwearying kindness and unfailing help to entomologists who were more ignorant than himself. I owe n~uch to his help and encouragement and
shall miss him sorely, though I never saw his face," and these qualities which so en- deared him to a large circle of friends were indeed consp&uous in that face.
Two entomologists have recently received appointments at Harvard university though not in the field of entomology : Dr. Roland Thaxter as assistant Professor of crypto- gamic botany and Mr. J. G. Jack as Arboretum lecturer for 1891-1892.
PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES.
CAMBRIDGE ENTOMOLOGICAL CLUB.
13 DECEMBER, 1889.-The 150th meeting of
the Club was held at 156 Brattle St., the pres- ident in the chair.
Dr. H. A. Hagen said that from a recent
study of the species of Anax he thought that A. concolor and A. longij5es were identical and that the number of species so called should be reduced.
Mr. S. H. Scudder, referring to the fossil plant-lice found at Florissant, said that most of the species belonged to the Aphidinae and a very few to the Schizoneurinae. As a whole the species differ notably from modern types in the length of the stigmatic cell and ib this respect they agree with the species from amber and a form figured by Brodie from the secondary rocks of England.
Mr. Scudder said that in a psocid from the tertiary rocks of White River, the ocelli were very large and encroached upon the
eyes.
He also showed a photograph of the fossil butterfly (Barbarothea) mentioned at the last meeting and called attention to the com- parative shortness of the palpi.
10 January, 1890.-The 150th meeting of
the Club was held at 156 Brattle St., the president in the chair.
The secretary read a letter from Mr. B.
Pickmann Mann of Washington, in which,
after wishing the Club and its members a happy and prosperous new year, he detailed an account of the financial condition of vol- ume four of Psyche.
The report of the retiring secretary, Mr. Roland Hayward, was then read, accepted, and ordered to be placed on file. The retir- ing treasurer, Mr. Samuel Henshaw, then
presented his report, which was laid on the table for action, till the report of the audi- tors should be received.
The Club next proceeded to ballot for offi- cers for 1890, with the following result: President, C. W. Woodworth of Fayetteville, Ark. ; Secretary, Roland Hayward ; Treas- urer, Samuel Henshaw ; Librarian, George Dimmock. Members at large of Executive
Committee, Holmes Hinckley and Samuel
H. Scudder. Messrs. George Dimmock and
*
Samuel Henshaw were elected editors of
Psyche.
The retiring president, Mr. Samuel H.
Scudder, then read his annual address,
en-
titled, "The work of a decade on fossil in- sects." (See Psyche, 1890, v. 5, pp. 287- 295-1




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