European genera seem to be found in South Africa than in the much farther distant southern extremity of America, where the list of Butterflies has quite a European aspect, including, besides others of wider distribution, two genera, Argynnis and Vanessa, entirely wanting in South Africa and in the intermediate tropical zones both 'of Africa and America. There appear to be only three European species found in South Africa, and these are almost cosmopolitan in their range. The fauna, therefore, as far as this department is concerned, reveals little in support of the hypothesis of a migration of 'species across the equator consequent on the cooling of the whole earth during the glacial epoch. As might be expected from its geographical position, latitude, and the absence of barriers to migration, the productions of South Africa show a close relationship with those of the neighbouring tropical region; 23 of the genera and 60 of the species being common to South and Tropical Africa: there is, nevertheless, a considerable amount of peculiarity, for one thoroughly distinct and characteristic Cape genus and 38 species are found in no other country. One genus and seven species are common and peculiar to South Africa and Madagascar, with its neighbouring islands, -Mauritius and Bourbon, a fact which strikes us as highly interesting but there is no form that reveals any near connection with the fauna of Australia. The relatively small amount of peculiarity in the South African fauna, as far as these five families are concerned, is shown when we compare it with that of Europe: for whilst South Africa has only one endemic genus and 38 species, Europe has 6 genera and 88 species; the genera of Europe, it must be remarked, ranging over a great part of the North Temperate Zone. This corresponds well with the relative extent of land surface of the two regions; but whether the same relation has been maintained during a long epoch is another question; for the existing productions peculiar to the Southern extremity of the African continent may be the relics of an ancient fauna which peopled a far larger extent of land than now exists in the temperate portion of the Indian Ocean far to the West of Australia.

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Among the many interesting new facts concerning the South African species recorded in Mr. Trimen's volume, we may mention that of the forest habitat of the interesting African section of the genus Danais, to which D. Echeria belongs. What he tells us also of the range and haunts of the curious Cape genus Meneris has an important bearing. We hope, however, to have an opportunity to

notice these and other matters when the second and concluding part is published, which we are glad to see is to be illustrated with coloured plates, and will be extremely moderate in price.

XXIX. HAGEN'S BIBLIOTHECA ENTOMOLOGICA.

BIBLIOTHECA ENTOMOLOGICA. DIE LITERATUR ÜBER DAS GANZE GEBIET DER ENTOMOLOGIE BIS ZUM JAHRE, 1862. Von Dr. Hermann August Hagen in Königsberg. Erster Band A-M., 1862. Zweiter Band, N-Z., mit einem systematischen Sachregister, 1863. Leipzig: Engelmann. London: Williams and Norgate.

In two closely printed octavo volumes of 566 and 542 pages, we have here the labours of many years. Now, a few words on the nature of those labours.

Owing to the enormous number of species of animals included in the entire range' of Entomology, the literature relating to insects is fearfully vast in extent, and not only that, but so large a portion of it has appeared in the pages of scientific periodicals and transactions, and journals of scientific societies, that Entomological Literature is extremely scattered, and every journal relating to general science, or to Natural History, has to be ransacked to see that it contains no Entomological paper before we can feel certain that we may not be overlooking some valuable memoir, the importance of which can perhaps hardly be overrated.

From these circumstances bibliographical works relating to Entomology have always held an important rank, as aids to Entomological research. The student who wishes to ascertain what treatises have been written by such an author, or on such a subject, has, by these means, his investigations very much facilitated.

Eiselt's work on the Literatur der Insektenkunde,' published in 1836, and Percheron's 'Bibliographie Entomologique,' which appeared in the following year, first supplied to some extent this important desideratum. In 1846, Engelman's Bibliotheca Historico-Naturalis' furnished a very complete repertorium of all Zoological (including of course Entomological) publications up to that time. In 1861, this was followed by two large octavo volumes, by Carus and Engelmann, comprising the Zoological Literature which appeared

between 1846 and 1860. This was by far the most elaborately prepared work of the kind that had yet appeared.

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But to recur to Engelmann's Bibliotheca Historico-Naturalis,' In this, ninety pages are devoted to the Bibliography of the Articulata (Insecta, Arachnida, and Crustacea), the first fifty pages containing the works of German authors, simply arranged alphabetically, accorded to the writers' names, and the remaining forty pages comprising the publications of those living beyond the pale of the Fatherland. The titles of the works are fully given, their dates and places of publication, and their sizes, whether quarto, octavo, or duodecimo, but no indication whatever is given of the number of pages. The index to the volume is twofold, one according to the authors, the other according to the subjects; but as an instance of incompleteness, if we refer in the latter index to find what has been written on the Thysanura, a singular group of insects, which has lately again been brought before the notice of the Linnean Society of London, we find that word is not even mentioned.

In the subsequent volumes by Carus and Engelmann, the Bibliotheca Zoologica,' 317 pages are devoted to the Insecta alone, and these are thoroughly classified; first, the works treating of insects in general, then those treating of the individual orders, each being subdivided into 'general and miscellaneous information,' 'anatomical,' and Faunas,' and the separate orders containing a further division for individual families, genera, and species.'

In the first three of these subdivisions the arrangement is alphabetical, according to the authors' names; in the fourth subdivision the arrangement is alphabetical according to the names of the subjects; thus, the first publication noticed on the 'individual families, genera, and species,' of the Hemiptera is Ödmann on Acanthia lectularia, an interesting insect too well known to most of us.

In this work the number of pages in each volume, or memoir, are given, so that we can at a glance see whether the title appertains to a bulky volume or to a brief paper. Titles per se are often deceptive, being frequently-very frequently-in inverse proportion to the length of the treatise. The index given at the end of Vol. II., like that in the 'Bibliotheca Historico-Naturalis,' is twofold, one arranged according to the subjects, the other according to the names of the authors. If in the 'Sach-Register' we refer here for Thysanura, we find a reference to two pages in which works are mentioned, treating of that group, and also to a work by Walckenaer, catalogued in the

volume of 1846, which, as already remarked, did not itself contain the word Thysanura in the index.

Thus, in every respect, this later publication of Engelmann's was a vast improvement on its predecessor, and one might well have thought that that enterprising publisher would have been willing to rest for a time from further bibliographical publications. But in that very year, 1861, in which these two bulky volumes made their appearance, Dr. Hagen was already at work scouring Europe in search of Entomological Libraries, in order to complete his Bibliotheca Entomologica,' which Engelmann had undertaken to publish.

This work of Hagen's is arranged throughout alphabetically, according to the names of the authors, the works of each being enumerated in chronological order, the size, date, and number of pages and plates being always given, and with the view of eliminating one essential source of error, those publications which Hagen had himself seen and examined are indicated by an asterisk.

The assurance of a personal examination by an accurate observer which we thus obtain, is invaluable. For, as is well pointed out by Dr. Hagen in his preface, all bibliographical publications are, to a greater or less extent, compilations; in some cases the sources whence the compilations have been made are themselves not trustworthy. "Thus even the better works show a considerable number " of errors, arising from compilations and from copying incorrect "notices out of catalogues. By this means we find a considerable "number of works, and even of writers, who never existed, arrayed "in Bibliographical lists, and then transferred Taenia-like from one "to another. Many of these are extremely laughable. Thus, out "of the notice 'Correspondance Entomologique, by J. K. broch' " (meaning brochirt or stitched), has arisen the name of the author, "Broch, which we find gravely set forth by Percheron, and thence "copied by Agassiz, &c., &c., whereas the author of the work was "J. Koechlin."

The classification in Hagen's work is effected by the Index, which is so extensive-two hundred and seven pages, in double columnsthat it is followed by a more concise key to the Index; if in this Index we refer to the Thysanura we find half a column devoted to the references alone to the authors' names, and to the number of their respective publications which treat of that little noticed tribe of insects.

It should perhaps be explained that the publications of each

author are numbered seriatim from the first essay of the incipient author down to the latest publication of the matured man of science; thus the voluminous French writer, Guérin Méneville, has 320 publications following his name, and is even exceeded by our own Westwood, 379 of whose publications are here chronicled, ranging from 1827 to 1861.

In short, to every Entomological student the Bibliotheca Entomologica' is a necessity-the saving of time and the saving of labour obtained by being able at once to extract from these volumes-the precise reference to any Entomological treatise to which we may wish to refer, is a relief which those who henceforth habitually use this work will fully be able to appreciate. We have ourselves often spent an entire day in searching through extensive libraries for some particular treatise to which we had only an imperfect reference. In such searches, no doubt, we often stumble upon valuable notices, but still we felt then, and have felt since, that we were losing much of our time.

Henceforth, thanks to Dr. Hagen, such days of research will never be needed, till the constantly accruing heap of Entomological publications issued since 1862, attains such an extent that similar difficulties are again felt, which will only be removable by the appearance of new volumes supplementary to those we have now before us.

XXX.-PARTHENOGENESIS IN A DIPTEROUS Laeva.

Beitrag zur LEHRE VON DER FORTPFLANZUNG DER INSECTENLARVEN. Von Nicolas Wagner. Zeitschr. f. Wiss. Zool. 1863, pt. 4, p. 514.

THOUGH there are many well authenticated cases of Agamogenesis among Insects, still, in all those which have hitherto been made known to us, the embryo has originated from an egg, or, at any rate, from egg-like bodies, which are developed in the ovaries, and in the present state of our knowledge, can only be distinguished from ordinary eggs by their inherent power of development. It follows as a corollary from this, that the parthenogenesis has been confined to perfect insects, in which alone the generative organs have come to maturity.

Professor Wagner of Kasan, however, has now published in Siebold and Kolliker's Zeitschrift some very remarkable observa