REVIEWS. ; 189 
plates and as many woodcuts. The authors are sixteen in number : Messrs. 
Butler and Charles Waterhouse, four papers each; Messrs. Baly, Distaut, 
and Westwood, two papers each; Miss Ormerod and Messrs. F’. Bates, 
Cameron, Moore, Fritz Miller, Oberthiir, Rutherfurd, Sharp, Trimen, 
Buchanan White, and Wood-Mason, one paper each. Nine of the memoirs 
relate to Coleoptera, seven to Lepidoptera, three to Hemiptera, one each to 
Hymenoptera, Trichoptera, and Diptera, leaving three that do not relate to 
any one Order in particular. ‘Twenty-two out of the twenty-five are on 
Exotic, three only on British Entomology. M. Oberthiir’s paper is 
published in French; and communication with South Africa is now so 
rapid that Mr. Trimen’s paper, which was read at our last meeting on the 
3rd December, was published and distributed before the end of the month. 
For the most part the memoirs, though interspersed with valuable remarks 
on classification, variation, affinities, and distribution, must be considered as 
belonging to the branch of Descriptive Entomology. Of the papers on 
subjects of more general interest, I may be permitted to allude to Miss 
Ormerod’s ‘‘ Observations on the Effect of Low Temperature on Larvee,” to 
Prof. Wood-Mason’s “ Morphological Notes bearing on the Origin of 
Insects,” to Prof. Westwood’s paper ‘“‘ On some unusual Monstrous Insects,” 
to Mr. Charles Waterhouse’s paper “On the Affinity of the genus 
Polyctenes,” and to Mr. Butler’s paper “On the Natural Affinities of the 
Lepidoptera hitherto referred to the Genus Acronycta.” Miss Ormerod’s 
observations confirm the view generally held by entomologists, though it is 
scarcely the popular opinion, that cold has little or no destructive effect upon 
larvee, or indeed upon insect-life in any form; but I do not recall any place 
where the results of observation are stated with precision of detail, and our 
member has done well to record the effect of ascertained temperatures upon 
determined species. The monstrosities mentioned by Prof. Westwood are 
three butterflies with extra wings or portions of wings, and numerous cases 
of Coleoptera, Lepidoptera, and Diptera with imperfectly-developed heads, 
in which the imago retain some portion of the outer covering of the larva 
or pupa. Mr. Charles Waterhouse introduces us to a wondrous creature, 
Euctenodes, which he provisionally places in the family of Polyctenide, and 
considers allied to the Hippoboscide, whilst Prof. Westwood seems to doubt 
whether the group should not be referred to the Hemiptera-Heteroptera. 
But Mr. Butler's paper on Acronycta is the most startling, and to a 
lepidopterist of the ancient type its author must appear a perfect revo- 
lutionary. Only last year he excited some little astonishment by promul- 
gating the view that the Ageriid@ have nothing to do with the Sphinges, 
and that their affinities are with the Pyralidina and Gelechtide. I have 
not heard of any attempt to combat this view, and its opponents appear to 
let judgment go against them by default. Searcely have the scales fallen 
from our eyes, and enabled us to see where the clear-winged moths ought to 
