TRANSACTIONS 



OF THE 



AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



VOLUNIE XX. 



SPHINGES AND BOMBYCES.-A REVIEW. 



BY JOHN B. SMITH, SC. D. 



A Synonymic Catalof^ne of liepidoptera Helerocera (JHoths) 



by W. F. Kirby, F.L.S., F.E.S., etc. Vol. I, Sphinges aud Bombyces. Lon- 

 dou : Gurney & Jackson, 1892, i — xii et 1 — 951. 



Mr. Kirby has given us under the above title a very useful and 

 necessary work. It makes no pretense to completeness of references, 

 but he has " endeavored to quote all important original references to 

 foreign species." Under this head come the American forms. Taken 

 altogether, the volume represents an amount of labor, of which no 

 one who has not done similar work can have the least conception. 

 So far as I have had occasion to test the references they are accurate. 

 Mr. Kirby makes some distinct departures in this catalogue, and his 

 order of families and genera is quite unlike that accepted in our 

 lists and literature. The work is an expensive one, and this will 

 serve at least in part, as an excuse for a somewhat lengthy review 

 of the book, giving the main features as they apply to our ftuina. 



In the first place, Mr. Kirby has "excluded the ^geriidie, Thy- 

 rididse, Euschemidse, and a large part of the Chrysaugidie and Me- 

 lameridse from the Sphinges and BDmbyces," and as to the Sesiidae 



TKANS. AM. ENT. SOC. XX. (1) JANUARY, 1893. 



