192 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



of every science is growing so fast that it is becoming almost 

 impossible to keep up with it, and it is of the utmost 

 importance that our progress should be sure as well as rapid. 

 Hitherto the British Museum collection of moths has not 

 been illustrated at all, though many hundreds (we might, 

 perhaps, say thousands) of new species have been described 

 from it by the late Mr. Walker. But the more species are 

 described the more difficult becon^es their identification, and 

 where no figures of a species exist it is frequently almost 

 impossible to identify it by description alone, even when it is 

 correctly classified, well described, and its affinities carefully 

 indicated, which is not always the case; indeed, some of our 

 best Lepidoplerists have gone the length of asserting that all 

 descriptions unaccompanied by figures are worse than useless. 

 Hence the importance of accurate figures being published of 

 Mr. Walker's species during the lifetime of his contemporaries, 

 and while most of his types are still readily determinable. 



The volume now before us contains good coloured figures 

 of upwards of two hundred moths, the greater number of 

 which were originally described by Mr. Walker, and the 

 remainder (including a few new species) chiefly by Mr. 

 Butler. Of the twenty plates, three are devoted to Cast- 

 niid(B and Uraniidce, two to AgaristidcB, one to Chalcosiidce, 

 one to Sphingidte, one to GeomeiridcE and Pyralidce, one to 

 Lithosiidce, &c., and the remainder entirely to ZyycenidcB 

 and Arctiidce ; all the species figured are fully described by 

 Mr. Butler. 



We congratulate the Museum authorities and the author 

 upon the appearance of the first part of this very useful work, 

 in which we hope that the greater number of types existing 

 in the British Museum will ultimately be figured ; and 

 attractive as are the handsome species so well figured in the 

 part now before us, we hope that the snialler and more 

 obscure groups will also find a place in subsequent volumes, 

 as their identification without figures is even more difficult. 

 It is our firm conviction that the collation and extension of 

 our knowledge concerning species already described is of far 

 greater importance to the real interests of Science than the 

 mere description of new species; and wc are glad to see that 

 the latter object has not been made a prominent feature of 

 the work 



