OBITUARY. 



HENRY TIBBETS STAINTON. 

 Born August 13, 1822. Died December 2, 1892, 



WE regret to record the death of this eminent entomologist, an 

 acknowledged leader in the science at home and abroad. Mr. 

 Stainton was one of the highest authorities on the Lepidoptera, 

 especially on the smaller moths, and most particularly on the Tineina, 

 a group in knowledge of which he had been, of late years, without a 

 rival. Like most naturahsts, Mr. Stainton had a taste for his subject 

 from his early youth, as he began to collect insects when only twelve 

 years old. He continued faithful to the Lepidoptera throughout his 

 life ; and though the groups to which he mainly devoted his attention do 

 not attract the ordinary amateur, their study is of great importance, 

 and the life-histories of many of the Tineina are of surpassing interest. 

 In the study of these minute moths, Mr. Stainton was associated with 

 the great German lepidopterist, Zeller. By their labours the classifi- 

 cation of the Microlepidoptera was brought into a natural sequence, 

 and the genera established on good structural characters, a consum- 

 mation still to be wished for in some of the groups of larger moths. 

 The Natnyal History of the Tineina in four languages was the joint work 

 of Stainton, Zeller, Douglas, and Frey, and appeared in thirteen 

 volumes between 1855 and 1873. Mr. Stainton had published a work 

 on British Tineina in 1854 '■> ^^ ^^57 he published the Tineina of Syiia 

 and Asia Minor, and, in i86g, the Tineina of Southern Europe. In nume- 

 rous papers in the entomological journals he elucidated the life- 

 histories of the smaller British moths, and made many additions to our 

 fauna. But his general work on the British Lepidoptera, published in 

 two volumes (1857-9), shows his acquaintance with the order as a 

 whole, and is still the most useful book on the subject for the working 

 entomologist ; though being mostly composed of synoptical tables and 

 technical descriptions, with numerous abbreviations, it is not attractive 

 to the general reader. 



Mr. Stainton will be remembered for his activity in the field of 

 entomological journalism. For twenty years, from 1855 to 1875, he 

 issued his Entomologists' Annual; and for ten years, from 1856 to 1866, 

 he conducted the Entomologists'' Weekly Intelligencer, the only British 

 journal on the subject that ever appeared weekly. From 1864 till his 

 death, he was on the editorial staff of the Entomologists'' Monthly 



