268 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



well-known correspoudent Mr. W. F. Kirby, who is assistant 

 naturalist in the Royal Dublin Society's Museum. Being 

 published in monthly parts, at a low price, brings this useful 

 and popularly-written book within the reach of all our 

 readers; we strongly recommend it to the notice of those 

 who have not yet obtained it. Tiie plan of the work is so 

 simple that it will be found most useful to beginners in the 

 study of Lepidoptera, as well as to those of more extended 

 experience, whether they desire a knowledge of the Euro- 

 pean species, or simply to follow the insular tastes too 

 common to many of our fellow-workers in Britain. To the 

 latter students it will teach what allied species are to be 

 found on the Continent, even within a iew miles of our 

 shores. We fear we are correct in saying that many of our 

 oldest British collectors would be puzzled to state off-hand 

 how many species were represented in Europe by the genus 

 of — say for example — Argynnis, This insular exclusiveness 

 amongst British Lepidopterists is perhaps not so much the 

 result of any bias, as of the difficulty hitherto found in 

 obtaining a good book upon the subject, printed in 

 English, and within the reach of reasonable means. In 

 supplying such an important desideratum as this, Mr. Kirby 

 has, we believe, taken the first step towards breaking through 

 Ibis prejudice, and it now only requires a fairly good system 

 of interchange of specimens between British and Continental 

 entomologists to make the study of European Lepidoptera as 

 popular amongst our readers as has been that of their native 

 forms. This brings us to the question of the fictitious value 

 set upon certain well-known and even common continental 

 species of Lepidoptera which have been rarely captured in 

 these islands. That this should be so, in the cause of scientific 

 knowledge, is much to be regretted, we think no one can for a 

 moment doubt; one result of this unfortunate and totally 

 fictitious difference in the value being that the majority of 

 English collectors are afraid if they send a rare British form 

 abroad, they thereby lose a chance of enriching their own 

 cabinets and simply waste a valuable " specimen," forgetting 

 that their collection should be ranked rather as a dictionary 

 than a mere monument to their acquisitiveness. As an 

 example of this want of general knowledge of the various 

 European forms of a certain species, may be quoted the 

 introduction and long continuance in our British list of 

 Diarithecia Barrelti, a species which has been relegated by 

 British Lepidopterists even to a wrong genus. There is 



