202 NATURAL SCIENCE. September, 



horizons can be recognised not merely by their characteristic fossil 

 species, but also by the general phase of evolution exhibited by each 

 group of organisms in the fauna. This al^brds the opportunity for 

 another review of the evolution of the fish-tail, the rhinoceros horn, the 

 elephant's tooth, the deer antler, and similar phenomena which 

 Professor Gaudry has so graphically described in his previous works. 

 In fact, the present volume may be treated as a general introduction 

 to his previous volumes, written (as all " introductions " ought to be 

 written) at the close of his labours. We can only conclude by again 

 recommending it.to the notice of all who are in want of the essence of 

 palaeontology in an extremely pleasant and reliable form. 



The Eyespot Silkworm Moths. 



Die Saturniiden (Nachtpfauenaugen). Von A. Radcliffe Grote, A.M. Pp 28, 

 pis. 3. Mittheilungen aus dem Roemer-Museum. Nr. 6. Hildesheim, June, 



1896. 



Much attention is now being given to the classification of the Lepidop- 

 tera, and a more natural system than that which contented a past 

 generation of entomologists is being slowly marked out. In these studies 

 English-speaking naturalists, on both sides of the Atlantic, are taking 

 a leading part. In this country we have had Dr. Chapman's classical 

 researches on pupal structures, and the careful, systematic work of 

 Mr. Hampson and others ; while in America Professor Comstock's 

 discovery of the trichopterous " jugum " in the lowest moth-families, 

 and Mr. Dyar's suggestive classification, founded on the tubercles of 

 caterpillars, have proved of the greatest value. The present work, 

 though German by language and publication, is from the pen of the 

 eminent American lepidopterist, who has already issued, under the 

 same auspices, a valuable study on the Apatelidae or acronyctid group 

 of owl-moths. 



The Saturniidas include those large silk-producing insects of which 

 the Tussar moth [Anthercea mylitta) and the gigantic Attacus atlas are 

 familiar examples to all who have examined a collection of Indian 

 Lepidoptera. Abundant in tropical countries, and well-represented in 

 North America, the family has but six European species, of which 

 only one — the " Emperor " (Saturnia pavoma minor) — ranges into the 

 British Isles. These insects, with their specialised neuration, reduced 

 mouth-organs, and exceedingly complex antennae, have considerable 

 claim to be reckoned as the highest of the moth-families. Mr. Grote, 

 however, places them after the hawk-moths (Sphingidas). He 

 formerly included the families of the common silkworm (Bombycidae) 

 and the " Kentish glory " (Endromidae) in the same " super-family" 

 as the saturniids, but recent stud}' of the early larval stages of those 

 insects leads him to consider them more nearly allied to the Eggar- 

 moths (Lasiocampidae) and their allies, and to place them in the super- 

 family which he now calls " Bombycides," with the vast majority of 

 families of the " Macrolepidoptera." This view of the affinities of the 

 Endromidae agrees with that held by Messrs. Hampson and Meyrick, 

 but these naturalists would retain the Bombycidae in the higher place. 

 It may, perhaps, be suggested that the association of families into 

 larger groups must always vary with increased knowledge, and that 

 to lay stress on the definition of " super-families " is apt to obscure 

 the subtle and complex relationships between the families. The 

 saturniids, reckoned as a single family by most lepidopterists, are a 

 super-family, according to Mr Grote, and are divided by him into 

 two families — the Saturniidae and the Agliidae. In the former (higher) 



