INSECUTOR INSCITI^ MEJNSTRUUS 41 



THE BARNES & McDUNNOUGH "LIST" 



(Lepidoptera) 



By HARRISON G. DYAR 



The gentlemen from Illinois have published again. For 

 persons already under criticism, this is nothing short of an 

 "overt act," and the temptation is strong once more to obtain 

 their Caprce hirci. However, this time I will temper my wind 

 to the shorn lambs. 



The title is "Check List of the Lepidoptera of Boreal Amer- 

 ica," which is distinctly misleading. Far more than the boreal 

 region of America is included, the limits being the southern 

 political border of the United States, excluding Porto Rico, the 

 Virgin Islands, and the Canal Zone. But an element even of 

 the tropical fauna is included in southern Florida and Texas. 



A list like this, without references, is useful inversely in pro- 

 portion to the attainments of the student. This list, therefore, 

 will be of especial value to beginners and amateurs. Yet it con- 

 tains the result of much labor of a highly critical order in the 

 determination of synonymy and deserves serious considera- 

 tion. 



The list is founded upon my work in Bulletin 52, U. S. Na- 

 tional Musuem, yet any mention of that fact is carefully 

 omitted. This is doubtless intended as the frost which killeth, 

 and perhaps I shall not survive. We will see. I presume the 

 authors have an alibi ready and will say that they follow the 

 list of John B. Smith, not mine. How much of Smith's list was 

 cribbed from my catalogue, the dispassionate may decide. I 

 will not leave the decision to Barnes & McDunnough. 



The sequence of families need not be commented upon; it 

 is unobjectionable. The Nolidse are transferred from the 

 "Micros" to the Arctiidae, following Hampson. I do not 

 think this is their proper position, although I appreciate the 

 arguments in favor of it. 



Hubner's "Tentamen" is discarded as "unpublished." I 

 think this is an error. The Tentamen was printed and dis- 

 tributed and was presumably obtainable from Hiibner himself 

 while his edition lasted. I do not know what more is necessary 



