368 The Scottish Natiit'alist. 



The Geological Antiquity of Insects. Twelve Papers on Fossil Entomo- 

 logy. By Herbert Goss. London : J. Van Voorst. iSSo. 8vo. Pp. 50. 



Three Papers on Fossil Insects, and the British and Foreign Formations 

 in which Insect Remains have been detected. By II. Goss. Reprinted 

 from the ' Proceedings of tlie Geologists' x\ssociation.' 



Mr Goss has rendered excellent service to the science of entomology in pre- 

 paring and publishing these Papers. Every one who aspires to the name of 

 entomologist must, or ought to, be anxious to know something of the geological 

 history of insects ; but heretofore, if he wished to acquire this knowledge, he 

 would have needed to expend a very large amount of lime — first, to find out 

 in which of many books, pamphlets, and transactions of societies, reference 

 was made to fossil insects ; and second, to consult these references. Mr Goss 

 has done all this for him, brought the widely-scattered notices together, ar- 

 ranged the insects of each formation in their proper order, and pointed out 

 the plants and animals with whom they were associated, as well as the light 

 thrown by the existence of the insects upon climate, &c. May we, in thank- 

 ing very heartily the author for his work, be allowed to express the hope that, 

 when the numerous insect remains recently, or still being, discovered in North 

 America are "worked out, " he will publish a supplement to his present papers? 



That Mr W. F. Kirby is author of European Butterflies and Moths (in 

 monthly parts — London : Cassell, Petter, & Galpin) is sufficient assurance 

 that the work continues to be of the same excellent character as we indicated 

 in noticing it before. The Nocture have now been well entered on in the 

 text, but the illustrations have only got as far as the Bombyces. If there is 

 one point in which the author shows a little weakness, it is in the distribution 

 of some of our Scottish species. As a rule, the range of a species is given 

 broadly (as, e.g., "Central Europe and Northern Asia"), British species 

 being indicated by a prefixed * ; but Mr Kirby occasionally descends to par- 

 ticulars, and as in the case of a local species like Cirrhmiia xerampeliiia, tells 

 us that it is "extremely local in Central Europe; somewhat commoner in 

 England, France, and Ireland," thus implying (though not directly stating) 

 that it is absent from Scotland, where in fact it is somewhat widely distributed. 

 We might give several other instances of similar errors, and Avould recom- 

 mend Mr Kirby to glance over the list of Scottish Lepidoptera published 

 some time ago in this magazine. We notice also that it is expressly stated 

 that only the type form oi Aeincophila planiaginis occurs in Britain ; the fact 

 being that the var. hospita is rather widely spread in northern Scotland, and 

 if we are not mistaken, having been recently recorded from England or Wales. 

 The two forms oi Ptiragmahccia fuliginosa are so well marked that we are 

 surprised to find that they are not indicated, and can only imagine that the 

 author is not acquainted with the northern form. In the description oi Scope- 

 losoma sateltitia, the form with the three white spots representing the reni- 

 form stigma is the only one described — the one \\here these sj ots are yellow, 

 and which is nearly as common, being unmentioned. These, however, are 

 mostly trivial errors in a work which we can otherwise heartily recommend. 



Proceedings of the Natural History Society of Glasgow. Vol. IV. Fart I. 

 1878-79. Glasgow : published by the Sc^ciety. 



The Fauna of Scotland, with special reference to Clydesdale and the 

 Western District. Gla.sgow : published by the Natural History Society of 



