94 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [Feb.. '13 



also wrote the text of an English Edition of Huebner's Exotic 

 Butterflies, which was edited by P. Wytsman, in three volumes, 

 and 491 colored plates (1894-1908). H. S. 



Mr. Kirby's Orthopterological work was entirely a matter 

 of the last twenty years. In addition to several papers bearing 

 on the classification of the Forficulidae, Blattidae and Phas- 

 midae, a number of faunistic papers, 'chiefly treating of Afri- 

 can localities and one on the status of generic names in the 

 order proposed previous to 1840, appeared from his pen. The 

 monumental work which made his name a very familiar one to 

 the Orthopterist was the compilation and publication of his 

 Synonymic Catalogue of Orthoptera (1904-1910). This in- 

 dispensable work comprises three volumes and is the only gen- 

 eral catalogue of the Orthoptera ever published. While con- 

 taining a great number of clerical errors, this piece of work 

 stands as one of the most important contributions to the sys- 

 tematics of the order. 



J. A. G. R. 



His earliest paper on the Neuroptera (Odonata) was pub- 

 lished in his fifteenth year (1859), but although he dealt with 

 the collections made by the Challenger (1884) and others, his 

 important work on this group was not until 1889, when his 

 Revision of the Subfamily Libcllulinac appeared in tHe Trans- 

 actions of the Zoological Society of London. Of this the most 

 recent and most thorough-going student of our time, Dr. F. 

 Ris,, has written :* 



Previously, with other authors, I was disposed to extend sharp 

 criticism to this work on account of some very evident errors. On 

 deeper personal acquaintance with the subject, this criticism has given 

 way to a sincere recognition of Kirby's keen sense of the genericallv 

 important characters and happy formulation of many criteria pre- 

 viously completely overlooked. The defects of the work are those 

 of a pioneer in a field 'which had lain too long fallow. To-day I 

 have found it right and practical to characterize the genera in the 



*Collections Zoologiques du Baron Edm. de Selys Longchatn'ps, 

 Catalogue Systematique et Descriptif. Fasc. IX. Libellulinen, p. 

 ii. 1909. 



