REVIEWS AND NOTICES OF BOOKS. 215 



"anterior and posterior thoracic crests." "Abdomen more or less 

 crested." Need we offer a remark ? Does not this first genus reduce 

 the whole system of generic grouping to an absurdity ? Not a single 

 character that is not common to dozens of Noctuids, Geometrids, 

 Pyralids and Tineids. These are followed with a variety of genera — 

 Basiipolia, Misiiia, Diloba, Asteroscopus, Apuropliyla, HeliopJiohus, 

 OrtJiosia, and here we pause again. Orthosia — xerampelina, croceago, 

 vitraijo, auragu, Jiaragn, fulrago, gilrai/o, ocellaris, circellaris, helrola, 

 litura, pistacina (not liinosa, that is away with australU, lutulenta and 

 nigra), wacilenta, lota, up^ilon, sioyn'cta, satellitia. What is the 

 affinity between croceago and citrago, between citrago and jiacago, 

 between /la vago and upailon, and between upsihm and satdlitia'? We 

 confess with pain, after 25 years of hard work, that we do not know, 

 although we know many characters which show the want of affinity. 

 We look to see how this genus is diagnosed and expect to see " Imago 

 with four wings ; Pupa wdth hard outer case ; Larva with ten or 

 fewer prolegs ;" but no, we find again, " Head rough-scaled ; eyes 

 glabrous, ciliateJ. Antennse in ^ ciliated. Thorax with or without 

 anterior crest. Abdomen not crested," which appears very similar to 

 dozens of its neighbours, but without so many " ors." The 

 Leucanias are followed by the Tsniocampas under a foreign name, 

 and these in turn by the Dianthcecias under another, and so on. At 

 last you come to a really good genus, known as Melanchra, Hb. 

 This is it : — ccspitis, reticulata, serena, chrgsozona, trifolii, dentina, 

 glauca, conspicillaris, contigua, genistae, thalassina, dibsiinilis, oleracea, 

 jiisi, leucophaea, tincta, adrena, nebidosa, hrassicae, persicariae, albicolun, 

 mgrtilli, cordigera, melanopa. The connection between cespitis and 

 mgrtilli, genistae and cordigera, nebidosa and vielanopa, must be 

 patent to everybody, for the " Head is rough-scaled and eyes hairy. 

 Antennee in S' ciliated or sometimes bipectinated with apex simple. 

 Thorax with more or less developed anterior and posterior crests. 

 Abdomen more or less crested, in $ obtuse. Anterior tibiae rarely with 

 apical hook." Here is a very good genus, too, Tryphaena — -jiudjria, 

 iantJii)ia, interjecta, baia, sobrina, rubricosa, leucographa, Jigperborea, 

 prasina, whilst between these and our Nonagrias, Heliothis gets 

 sandwiched. Our author's special knowledge of the Noctuids 

 shows itself again in the genus Caradrina, which consists of 

 jigralina, dijfinin, ajjinis, trapezina, subtusa, retusa, oo, paleacea, 

 iimbra, micacea, petasitis, lutosa, elgmi, fulra, miisculosa, 

 phragmitidifi, brevilinea, hellmanni, concolor, morrisii, arcuosa, palustris, 

 (juadripunctata,morpJieus, aUines, taraxaci, ambigua, andis, trigrammica, 

 inatura. These also possess "Head rough-scaled, eyes glabrous. 

 Antennae in ^ ciliated, seldom bipectinated, with apex filiform. 

 Thorax sometimes with anterior and posterior crests, usually slight. 

 Abdomen not crested." This diagnosis wants comparing carefully 

 with that of OrtJiosia in front. There are above 800 pages similar to this. 

 We have incidentally noticed the introduction of new generic 

 names. We should be safe if we said that more than four-fifths of 

 the generic names are new, or given an entirely new meaning. At 

 Dotheboys Hall, we believe, little boys were told to ask no questions, 

 and there is a good deal of Schoolmaster Squeers about these genera. 

 If our author would tell us why these genera, and why these altera- 

 tions, we can guarantee that a certain part of his audience would at 

 least have tried to bring their intellects up to the point of attempting 

 to understand them, but no, there they are, Take 'em- " W-i-n-d-e-r 



