CURRENT NOTES. 193 



Birds, Reptiles, Amphibians, Fishes, False Scorpions, Insects, and 

 Molluscs. The Insects treated of, are the " Hemiptera-Heteroptera " 

 and the " Hemiptera-Horaoptera," excellent lists by Mr. W. West ; 

 "Odonata," by Mr. S. Edwards; " Coleoptera," by Mr. W. West, 

 another really marvellous list (numbered according to Beare and 

 Donisthorpe's CataUxjue) ; " Lepidoptera," excellently compiled by 

 Mr. H. .1. Turner, and " Diptera," by Mr. H. W. Andrews. For so 

 small an area as West Kent, the complete list is probably one of the 

 best that has ever been published, extending far beyond the limits of 

 many complete county lists. Few of the best workers in this part of 

 the county have failed to respond to the request of the section for 

 lists, and Mr. H. J. Turner deserves the greatest credit for the 

 enormous amount of successful work that he has been able to put intO' 

 it. It is a list that should be supported by every entomologist, 

 especially if he be a Man of Kent or Kentish Man. 



Many old members of the South London Entomological Society 

 will be pleased to know that Professor T. D. A. Cockerell is now on a 

 visit to England. His address, until September 1st, is Fitzwilliam 

 Museum, Cambridge. 



Dr. Hemmerling is publishing an extensive illustrated paper on 

 Pieris napi in the current numbers of the International Ent. Zeitschrift 

 (Guben); those of our readers interested in this species should make a 

 point of seeing it. 



It is with the greatest regret that we have received intelligence of 

 the death of William H. Edwards, the renowned entomologist and 

 naturalist of Coalburgh, Virginia, U.S.A., at the ripe age of 87, on 

 April 4th, last. Probably, with the exception of Scudder, he stands 

 unrivalled as the "natiiralist-lepidopterist " of the States, and his 

 quarto volumes on Tlte lUitterjiies of North America, are not only tha 

 works of a master of our science, and hence of the highest scientific 

 value, but the illustrations are, in addition, works of art, as accurate as 

 they are beautiful. He had not the marvellous versatility of Scudder, 

 nor the ability to deal in so masterly a way with such a variety of 

 subjects, but his work is equally thorough, and has left its mark on 

 the standard expected of lepidopterists who are also naturalists, in the 

 United States. Indeed, the excellent work of these men, leads us to- 

 look rather with contempt on the more recent illustrated work done in 

 the States. Just at present the lepidopterists there are busy amassing, 

 describing, and differentiating the species belonging to the super- 

 families other than butterflies, but recent years have not produced a 

 lepidopterist, who is also a biological naturalist, of the standard of 

 these men. We are almost in a position now to expect some amateur, 

 living in one of the outlying districts of the States, away from the 

 bustle of "cities " and "experimental stations," away from the shib- 

 boleths of the State Museums, in whose mind systematic, biologic, and 

 oecologic lepidopterology have their right and proper place, and proper 

 perspective, to woik out the life-histories of another group — Sphingids, 

 Arctiids, Lachneids, etc. — in the way that Edwards and Scudder have 

 worked out those of the Papilionids and Urbicolids. Scattered 

 elements and observations in sundry magazines want collecting, and 

 adding to the newly-worked-out life-histories of the species of these 

 groups, and illustrated in the same excellent way. At present we 

 do not discern on whom the mantle has fallen, but feel assured that 

 it has, or will fall. We are, however, the poorer by the loss of one of 



