i9o8. 15 



REVIEWS. 



BRITISH AND IRISH PLUME MOTHS. 



A Natural History of the British Allucftldes : A Text-book 

 for Students and Collectors. By J. W. TuTT, F E.S. Vol. i. 

 Pp. xiv. + 558. 5 Plates. London: Elliot vStock, 1906. Price, 21s. 

 net. 



This volume is the first of two which Mr. Tutt purposes to devote to 

 the "Plume moths" of the British Islands, and we gather from the 

 preface that it forms vol. v. of his great work on the British Lepidoptera. 

 The thoroughness with which the group has been treated by Mr. Tutt 

 may be gathered from the statement that in the 470 closely-printed 

 pages that form the systematic part of this volume only nineteen 

 species are described ; the remainder will be dealt with in the succeding 

 volume. 



In Mr. Tutt's classification, the Plumes — best known to collectors as 

 the family Pterophoridte — form a " super-family " which he calls the 

 Alucitides. In the discussion of the group beginning on page 70 of the 

 volume and headed " Super-family IV. a : Alucitides," it is implied that 

 all the " Plumes," as usually understood, fall into this super-family. But 

 on page 127 we find another "Super-family IV. a: Agdistides," with 

 arguments in favour of making the small group represented in Britain 

 only.by that local species Agdistis Bennettii, into a " Super-family " distinct 

 from all the rest of the " plumes." Possibly Mr. Tutt may be justified 

 in this course, but the uninstructed student who may try to benefit by 

 the author's vast mass of learning ought not to be puzzled by such 

 changes of view in the course of a single chapter. 



The systematic worker will be grateful for the very full historical 

 account w^hich is given of the literature on the classification of the 

 plumes. Not only are all the important authors, from Linne onwards, 

 mentioned, but their schemes of generic distinction are quoted at length. 

 The synoptic table from Hofmann(" Die deutschen Pterophorinen," 1895) 

 will be of especial value to the British student, Hofmann's distinctions 

 being justifiably preferred by Mr. Tutt to the more superficial if more 

 concise characters employed by Meyrick. The historical section con- 

 cludes with a list of the fifty-five generic names that have been proposed 

 for various species of the "plumes" from Linne onwards. Mr. Tutt is 

 himself responsible for twelve of these. It is lamentable that several 

 names — such as Pterophorus and Aciptilia — well known and in general 

 use by all systematic writers through the last century — are discarded as 

 synonyms under the supposed requirements of the ''laws " that govern 

 the fixing of generic types. 



