124 THE entomologist's record. 



the reference ? The " Catalogus " should tell us. On turning to 

 the genus Pcrunea, page 59, to our utter astonishment we found that 

 Curtis was the only author credited as having discussed this genus. 

 Surely Barrett, Stainton, Wilkinson, Wood, Herrich-Schjiffer, Heine- 

 mann, Dapouchel, Treitsche, Siephens, etc., etc., have treated of this 

 genus as a whole, and surely many more or less comprehensive notes 

 on it have appeared in magazine literature from time to time, <?.//., 

 Weston, Webb [Hnt.). On turning to P. cristana, p. 66, we still found 

 no help, for there was no reference to i,he article we needed and we 

 had to wade through the indexes of the back volumes of the " K)it. 

 Record," before we met with the article we wanted in vol. xiii., page 

 227 et seij. Here we found that 65 forms had received names at one 

 time or another, and that full references were given with copies of 

 the original descriptions of each form. Going back to the " Catalogus " 

 we found only 19 named forms referred to, the rest were utterly 

 ignored. (South's "Entomologist" List published as far back as 

 1884 gives 30 named forms for Great Britain alone). We can only 

 say how disgusted we were at the ignorant, or shall we say negligent, 

 incompleteness of the List as we have tested it. Surely it was 

 absolutely necessary in an important work of this nature, to give every 

 available reference likely to be of use to the future student, at least every 

 author and every name, which has been at anytime used as a synonym 

 or in any way connected with the genus or species, should be included, 

 even if riper experience and deeper knowledge have shown error to 

 have crept in. Turning to page 3 to see the list of anchors, treating 

 of the Tortricidae as a whole, we were again grievously disappointed 

 to find not a aimile reference. After what we had been led to expect 

 from the splendid example set by L. B. Prout in his section 

 of the " Catalogus," the Ueometridae, where he gives no less than 

 Hixteen pages of references to the works of those who have dealt with the 

 section more or less at length, we can only wish that the " Tortricida " 

 section had never been issued. We did expect that at any rate our 

 English contributions to this great work would be much above the 

 general average completeness attained in the various sections and not 

 far and away below as this one is. Let us hope that the Editors will 

 in future vigorously insist against the acceptance of any further 

 contributions unless a very high standard of completeness be both 

 attempted and attained. The part before us will have to be done 

 again before it can be of use to any one who takes up really serious 

 and thorough research work in the Tortricitlae. Further investigation 

 shows us that only a limited number of works have been consulted for 

 references and that a large number of important contributions are 

 utterly ignored, (-fi-'.//., hiferana page 11. No reference to Chapman's 

 valuable contributions to our knowledge of this species.) It would be 

 much better to include all possible references, even if some were of 

 doubtful utility, rather than to make a selection, which selection, in the 

 nature of things, can only be satisfactory to the man who makes it. 

 References are the tools with which a student works, and the greater 

 ease and saving of time in this mechanical and routine work, the more 

 time, thought and energy are available, and the better and more 

 thorough the scientific results attained. The work, as regards get-up, 

 printing, etc., as it would be coming from the firm of \V. Junk, of 

 J3erlin, is quite admirable. — H.J.T. 



