OBITUARY. 
HENRY? TiIBBE SS? STAIN TON: 
Born AucustT 13, 1822. Diep DECEMBER 2, 1892. 
E regret to record the death of this eminent entomologist, an 
acknowledged leader in the science at home and abroad. Mr. 
Stainton was one of the highest authorities on the Lepidoptera, 
especially on the smaller moths, and most particularly on the Tineina, 
a group in knowledge of which he had been, of late years, without a 
rival. Like most naturalists, Mr. Stainton had a taste for his subject 
from his early youth, as he began to collect insects when only twelve 
years old. He continued faithful to the Lepidoptera throughout his 
life ; and though the groups to which he mainly devoted his attention do 
not attract the ordinary amateur, their study is of great importance, 
and the life-histories of many of the Tineina are of surpassing interest. 
In the study of these minute moths, Mr. Stainton was associated with 
the great German lepidopterist, Zeller. By their labours the classifi- 
cation of the Microlepidoptera was brought into a natural sequence, 
and the genera established on good structural characters, a consum- 
mation still to be wished for in some of the groups of larger moths. 
The Natural History of the Tineina in four languages was the joint work 
of Stainton, Zeller, Douglas, and Frey, and appeared in thirteen 
volumes between 1855 and 1873. Mr. Stainton had published a work 
on British Tineina in 1854 ; in 1857 he published the Tineina of Syria 
and Asia Minor, and, in 1869, the Tineina of Southern Europe. In nume- 
rous papers in the entomological journals he elucidated the life- 
histories of the smaller British moths, and made many additions to our 
fauna. But his general work on the British Lepidoptera, published in 
two volumes (1857-9), shows his acquaintance with the order as a 
whole, and is still the most useful book on the subject for the working 
entomologist ; though being mostly composed of synoptical tables and 
technical descriptions, with numerous abbreviations, it is not attractive 
to the general reader. 
Mr. Stainton will be remembered for his activity in the field of 
entomological journalism. For twenty years, from 1855 to 1875, he 
issued his Entomologists’ Annual; and for ten years, from 1856 to 1866, 
he conducted the Entomologists’ Weekly Intelligencer, the only British 
journal on the subject that ever appeared weekly. From 1864 till his 
death, he was on the editorial staff of the Entomologists’ Monthly 
