78 THE entomologist's record. 



The work of Mr. W. H. Edwards on our North American butter- 

 flies extending over many years, the first part of which appeared in 

 1868, created a wonderful interest in studies on the early stages not 

 only of our butterflies but also of other groups of the lepidoptera, and 

 when Dr. Scudder after years of careful investigation and study 

 published his remarkable work on the Buttcrfiies of New Ennland ami 

 Adjacent States, it would have seemed to us that nothing remained to 

 be done had he not himself in this most exquisitely illustrated and 

 finely gotten up work, indicated the points requiring further investiga- 

 tion. Packard's Binnhncine Muths, published in 1895, is, so far as it 

 goes, a remarkable book, and we all sincerely hope that he will 

 continue this excellent work. A Text Book of Kiitoiiiohn/!/ published 

 in 1895 by this same author fills a long felt want for some modern 

 and up-to-date work in English, on the external and internal anatomy, 

 the physiology, embryology, and metamorphoses of insects. One of 

 the most useful books of recent times on entomology is a Manual for 

 the Stud;/ of Bisects, by Professor Comstock and his accomplished wife, 

 published in 1895. For a long time Professor Comstock has been 

 studying the homology of the veins of insect wmgs of all orders, and 

 has already given us most excellent help in the classification of the 

 lepidoptera. By a very happy inspiration Dr. H. G. Dyar began the 

 study of the lepidopterous larvae, and discovered that the arrangement 

 of the tubercles on the segments gave classificatory characters which 

 coincided so fully with those given by Comstock and other investi- 

 gators, as to attract very general attention to this means of determining 

 the affinities of doubtful species. 



The Noctuids of North America, when Professor A. R. Grote began 

 his studies on them in 1860, formed a veritable terra incognita, and 

 the amount of work done by him on that family was perfectly 

 enormous. No one knows better than I what it means to break 

 ground, as it were, in a family comprising so many species in a country 

 where nearly all were unknown. It is true that Guenee and Walker 

 had already described many from here, but this was of little assistance 

 to the pioneer of those days. Professor J. B. Smith entered this 

 field much later, and has also done an incredible amount on the 

 Noctuids, as well as on other families, so that we look with pride 

 upon the work accomplished in this family by these two gentlemen. 

 The Geometrids attracted more or less attention but the first serious 

 work on these insects in this country was The (feometrid Moths, 

 published by Dr. Packard in 1876. This gave new enthusiasm to the 

 collectors and students of those moths, and it was quickened again by 

 the publications of the late Dr. G. D. Hulst, whose vmtimely death 

 has prevented us fi'om receiving a more complete and final work on 

 this family which he had in contemplation. Very few North 

 American micro-lepidoptera had been described when Dr. Clemens 

 began his studies in 1859. He was the pioneer of the work on the 

 Micros as was Grote of that on the Noctuids. After him, Grote and 

 Robinson publislied on the Pyralids, and Robinson gave us a good 

 paper on the Tortricids. In 1871 and for some years folloAving Mr. 

 V. T. Chambers described a large number of Tineids in the The Cana- 

 dian Kntoiiwlo<iisi and other journals, but he did not live to revise 

 his work, so that it does not have the value it otherwise might. 



I have confined myself thus far to American workers, but I must 



