OBITUARY. 119 



conceived and carefully carried out, Mr. Distant has given us his 

 first instalment of what must become a standard work of 

 reference. 



As might be expected, on account of its connection with the 

 mainland of Asia, the insects of the Malay Peninsula belong to 

 many genera which ai*e common to India, and even to the neigh- 

 bouring i^arts of the Malay Archipelago, such as Java, Borneo, 

 and Sumatra. This book, then, will be really of necessity to 

 those working the insect fauna of the Indian region generally. 



An important feature of the work under notice is the key to 

 the genera, a subject which has been seldom treated, only, we 

 believe, in Doubleday and Hewitson's great work. This latter 

 work is so scarce, expensive, and obsolete, as to make the key 

 given by Mr. Distant of the greatest value. 



It is pleasing to find the author is not one of those nomen- 

 clators who simply split species, apparently for the pleasure of 

 seeing their own names in brief, after their creations. Mr. Distant 

 has given interesting remarks after finely-divided species, with a 

 view to show that instead of being species such are but local 

 races, &c. The author has been most careful in his acknowledg- 

 ments of the philosophical literature on the subject, the whole of 

 which he seems to have incorporated in the work : his references 

 are most copious. The chromo-lithographed plates are all that 

 can be desired. 



A class work of this kind is a most laborious and expensive 

 undertaking for a private gentleman like Mr. Distant, and is 

 clearly one of those instances where the author should have a 

 small slice of assistance from the fund for the " endowment of 

 scientific research." However, neither trouble nor expense 

 appears to have daunted the author in this case, and we hope he 

 will have the success which he so well deserves. — J. T. C. 



OBITUARY. 

 Henry Moss. — The Lancashire collectors will hear with regret 

 of the death of Henry Moss, which occurred at Oldham, April 

 17th, after a few weeks' illness, at the age of sixty-four years. He 

 was well known and much respected amongst the older lepi- 

 dopterists of the neighbourhood, where he will be much missed. 

 —J. T. C. 



