270 [November, 



it may be easily distinguished — rugosus being the widest and palest, brevis the 

 smallest and greyish, and ericetorum the darkest, narrowest and reddest. To me they 

 are far more difficult to separate when set out ; but the males can always be known 

 by the form of the genital styles. — Edward Saunders, St. Ann's, Woking : 

 October 10th, 1902. 



Ctenophora flaveolata, F., in the New Forest. — I was fortunate in capturing 

 this year, in the New Forest, two specimens of the rare Dipteron, Ctenophora 

 flaveolata, male and female. Specimens in the British Museum were captured by 

 Turner in 1853, and by Doubleday in 1859.— Herbert Asiibt, Pinehurst, Basset, 

 Southampton : October 12th, 1902. 



A Natural History of the British Lepidoptera, a Text Book for 

 Students and Collectors : by J. W. Tutt, F.E.S. Vol. iii, pp. 558 8vo. 

 London : Swan, Sonnenschein and Co. Berlin : Friedliinder und Sohn. 1902. 



The third volume of this work has now appeared. It is of the same exhaustive 

 character as those which have preceded it, as may be inferred from the fact that in 

 its 558 pages only thirteen species are described, i. e., the remainder of the " Lach- 

 neide.t" {Lasiocampa quercus, &c), D. versicolera, S. pavonia, the three species of 

 the old Smcrinthid genus, and the two British " Bee-Hawks," Il.fuciformis and 

 H. tityus (bombt/liformis) . As an example of the author's exhaustive treatment, 

 L. quercus may be cited. All Lepidopterists know the vast amount of discussion 

 that has taken place since the var. callunce was introduced about 1847 as a distinct 

 species. The immense amount of information since obtained as to the habits of 

 this species in different regions of Europe and Asia is brought together and dis- 

 cussed in about 80 pages, in a manner which seems to leave scarcely anything more 

 to be said. It would be an error, however, to suppose that the volume is limited 

 to descriptions of the thirteen species and their many varieties and recorded aber- 

 rations, their life-histories, habits and localities. These, indeed, are given in very 

 great detail ; but the relations of the species found in our islands to those found in 

 the rest of the world are always kept in view, and the result is that a very large 

 proportion of the 558 pages is devoted to information and discussions of as much 

 interest to Continental and American Lepidopterists as to our own. In this con- 

 nection I would draw attention to the frequent observations on the conjectured 

 phylogeny of the species, and of the genera, families, &c, to which they belong, 

 and on their proper places in a classification based on the observation of the insects 

 in all their stages. A knowledge of these is of course essential for this purpose, 

 seeing the different traces of their probable origin which they bear in these stages, 

 and the diversity of the directions in which, in these several stages, owing to the 

 entirely different lives they lead in them, they appear to have evolved. As regards 

 phylogeny in general the observation at p. 359 is deserving of being well weighed. 

 The passage is too long to quote, but it comes to this, that what we call the 

 " lowest " members of a stirps are as many generations from the common stock as 

 the "highest" are; we may construct a hypothetical ancestor, having all the 

 generalized but none of the specialized characteristics of a group, the members of 



