im.] 215 



what we consider a very fair and impartial view of these points, only reducing what 

 some enthusiasts are wont to consider facts to the rank of hypotheses. The illus- 

 trations in Vol. ii are, as before, admirably chosen, and many of them original. In 

 our former notice we wondered how the i-eraaining Orders {Hymenoptera in part, 

 Coleoptera, Lepidoptera, Diptera and Hemiptera) were to be contained in a second 

 volume if treated in the same detail. As a matter of fact not quite the same detail has 

 been observed, save for the Hymenoptera, which occupy a further 183 pages, and 

 nothing has been noticed that is redundant. Dr. Sharp has very cleverly avoided, 

 as a Coleopterist, an undue — we might say unGonscious — partiality for his favourite 

 Order, and has, in a really marvellous manner, dismissed it in a little over 100 pages. 

 He commences with the Lamellicorns and ends with Rhynchophora and Strepsiptera. 

 A feature here is the grouping together of a multitude of families (including those 

 in the Clavicornia and Serricornia) into a heterogeneous series, termed " Polymorpha," 

 which we scarcely think will meet with general approval, and the grounds for which 

 are not sufBciently obvious : the Strepsiptera are considered as only doubtfully 

 Coleopterous. It has also been contrived to compress the Lepidoptera into a little 

 over 100 pages. The Classification adopted for the Heterocera is chiefly that of Sir 

 Q-eorge Hampson. In common with most entomologists who are not specially Lepid- 

 opterists, the author does not apparently feel very happy when treating on the 

 Order, and deplores the diversity of systems that exists, even in the nomenclature 

 of wing neuration (or, as he prefers to term it, " nervuration "). Diptera occupy 

 nearly 100 pages {the Aphaniptera are considered as a sub-order), and are admirably 

 ti'eated. There is a long paragraph devoted to blood-sucking forms, independent 

 of ordinal position. Possibly the remarks on the dissemination of disease by CulicidcB 

 (p. 468) might have been more extended. The little Order Thysanoptera intervenes 

 before the Hemiptera, which occupy about 70 pages. 



There is one omission in the work, and in our opinion a very commendable one. 

 The author has had the courage to do without a phylogenetic tree ! ! If he were 

 asked why, we think he would probably say that he has not yet made up his mind 

 suflBciently to enable him to invent such a structure, and it would not do for him to 

 copy from someone else, for on this point originality and increasing complexity form 

 the rule and not the exception. Formerly those diagrammatic ornaments (.'') used to 

 consist in a honest stem and brandies ; now there are often surreptitious suckers 

 that must weaken the main plant ! ; and there is a tendency to adopt the actual 

 tree-like form, such as one sees in the old genealogies of county families. But this 

 is a digression. — R. McL. 



The Micro-Lepidopteea of Guernsey : by W. A. Luff. Eeprinted from 

 the " Transactions of the Guernsey Society of Natural History " for 1898. Pp. 11. 

 8vo. 



Mr. Luff is to be commended for his persistent endeavours to get together a 

 list of the insects known to occur in his island home. By " Micro-Lepidoptera" 

 the groups Pyralidce, Pterophoridce, Tortrices and Tineina are intended. Of these 

 218 species are enumerated, but this must be utterly inferior to those that exist, and 

 if systematic breeding were carried on we are of opinion the number might easily 

 be doubled ; on the other hand, the way in which the island is being gradually 

 covered by glasshouses will probably bring about the speedy extinction of some 



T 2 



