l8o ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [June, '04 



were lost in its mazes. The list as it stands is a useful piece of 

 work, wonderfully accurate for its extent, and as a whole based 

 upon what I believe to be a natural system. To one familiar 

 with the literature, the specific index is enough to locate the 

 species, but the absence of generic synonymy, of all reference 

 to the description of synonyms, and the perhaps unavoidable 

 brevity of the references generally, left the average collector 

 helpless before a sea of unfamiliar names arranged in unfamiliar 

 order without any point of attachment to his previous guides. 

 In certain series, notably the butterflies, the generic divisions 

 were at variance with those generally accepted by American 

 students, and were adopted from Scudder without renewed or 

 original study by Dr. Dyar. Some of the arrangements and 

 synonymy in the Noctuidse did not agree with my own views 

 in the matter and, after some consultations, a new edition of 

 the check-list of 1891 was determined upon. 



In this, Dr. Dyar's general scheme of classification was 

 accepted with some modifications ; but not the synoi^my, 

 generic or specific, which was more closely approximated to 

 the old list. While many changes were necessary they were, 

 so far as possible, indexed to the previous list, that with some 

 little labor the possessor of the old list could find nearly all its 

 species in the new edition. 



Hardly had the new list been generally distributed before 

 Sir George F. Hampson's volume of the first series of the 

 Noctuidse appeared, and this complicated matters further. It 

 was inevitable that, when the described species of all faunal 

 regions were collated, many generic and some specific syno- 

 nyms should be found. It was also inevitable that, viewing 

 generic bases from a somewhat different standpoint, there 

 should be some divisions of described genera and some combi- 

 nations, resulting again in an aggregation differing radically 

 from the two lists previously mentioned. Some genera get 

 new types, /. c. , other species than such as have been hereto- 

 fore accepted, and the order of genera is completely changed. 

 Noctua is now used for what we have called Erebus, and other 

 well-known names disappear completely. 



Most recent of all is Dr. W. J. Holland's Moth Book, in 



