64 Bibliographical Notices, 



interesting entomological work, of the first volume of which we gave 

 a notice in our Number for March 1856. As the present volume 

 agrees exactly in all essential particulars of plan and arrangement 

 — in its curious polyglot nature, the arrangement of its four languages 

 in parallel columns, and the division of the subjects into sections — with 

 its predecessor, there is no necessity for our referring to these pecu- 

 liarities in detail ;— in their excellences, as in their defects, the two 

 volumes are identical. 



In accordance with the general plan of the work, the present volume 

 again contains the natural history of twenty-four species of Tineina, 

 with full descriptions of the insects in all their stages, and a detailed 

 account of their synonymy, illustrated by numerous figures upon 

 eight beautiful plates. The latter are perhaps hardly so spirited in 

 execution as those from the pencil of the late William Wing, which 

 were published in the first volume ; but in other respects they are 

 highly satisfactory, and reflect the highest credit upon the artist and 

 engraver, Mr. G. W. Robinson. 



The twenty-four Moths which Mr. Stainton has selected for in- 

 vestigation on the present occasion all belong to the genus Lithocol- 

 letis, the species of which were for the most part arranged under 

 the genus Argyromiges by Curtis and Stephens and the older British 

 entomologists. The genus is a very extensive one, including, ac- 

 cording to Mr. Stainton' s summary in the commencement of this 

 volume, no less than seventy-six known species. They are all of 

 minute size, some of them amongst the smallest of Lepidopterous in- 

 sects, but at the same time many of the species exhibit a most brilliant 

 appearance from the presence of metallic silvery or golden markings 

 upon the anterior wings. Their larvse, like those of Nepticida and 

 Cemiostoma described in the first volume, are leaf-miners ; but they 

 would seem to disfigure the leaves in which they take up their abode 

 far more than those of the genera just mentioned, for their mines 

 usually form broad blotches, and Mr. Stainton tells us that, "owing 

 to the exertions of the larva, or to the natural shrinkage of the 

 silken carpet which it spreads over the cuticle, this latter gets 

 drawn into several folds, causing the opposite side of the leaf to 

 assume a curved form, and by the pucker in the leaf thus produced, 

 the larvse obtain a convenient and capacious habitation." When 

 full-grown the larvse undergo their change to the pupa state in the 

 interior of their mines, rarely spinning a firm cocoon, although 

 some of them, " apparently aware of the weakness of the defences 

 provided by their own silk, carefully cover the cocoon over with the 

 grains of excrement, so that hardly any of the silk is left exposed." 

 The species are for the most part confined to particular plants, a 

 few only being less nice about their diet ; but trees, shrubs and 

 herbaceous plants are alike liable to their attacks, although the 

 majority seem to prefer plants of a woody nature. 



In his general observations on the genus, Mr. Stainton, as before, 

 gives a summary of all the species belonging to it, but this does not 

 contahi short characters, such as were given in the first volume ; and 

 he also carries out his ideas of an Entomological Botany, by furnishing 



