Bibliographical Notice. 157 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE. 



Catalogue of the Lepidoptera PTialcence in tlie British Museum. 

 Volume II. Catalogue of the Arctiadae (Nolinae, Lithosianse) in the 

 Collection of the British Museum. By Sir George F. Hampson, 

 Bart. 8vo. Pp. xx, 589. Plates xviii.-xxxv. London : printed 

 by order of the Trustees, 1900. 



The first Catalogue of Moths (Lepidoptera Heterocera as they used 

 to be called, or Lepidoptera Phalaenoe as some recent authors prefer 

 to call them) was published in thirty-five small volumes, without 

 plates, between 1854 and 1866, and was edited by the late Francis 

 "Walker. Notwithstanding the numerous errors which have fairly or 

 unfairly been charged against this work, its publication lent an 

 enormous impetus to the study, for it enumerated upwards of 20,000 

 species, most of which, except in a portion of the Micro-Lepidoptera, 

 were described, with full synonymy in the case of known species. 



But Walker's Catalogue is now quite out of date, and the earlier 

 volumes are entirely out of print, and therefore the Trustees of the 

 British Museum have projected a new Catalogue covering the same 

 ground, but profusely illustrated with plates and figures (rendered 

 all the more necessary by the stringency of the official regulations, 

 which do not admit of specimens once registered ever being lent out 

 of the building), and have entrusted the commencement of the work 

 to Sir George F. Hampson. We say the commencement, for though 

 Sir George is not an old man, and his energy and rapidity of work 

 are well known, it will take two or three men's official lifetimes at 

 least to complete the work on the same plan, unless several men are 

 employed to work at different families at the same time. 



The two volumes which have already appeared (in 1898 and 

 1900) include descriptions of 2377 species, and yet the ground 

 which they cover only corresponds to a comparatively small portion 

 of the first t^o volumes of Walker's Catalogue, with the corre- 

 sponding supplements. This will be enough to show the enormous 

 increase in our knowledge of the subject within the last fifty years. 



Sir George is working under very favourable circumstances, for 

 the entomological section of the reference libi'ary at South Ken- 

 sington is to all intents and purposes practically complete ; and the 

 collection of Moths has been so largely increased lately, that it is 

 now, beyond dispute, one of the very best in the world, if not incon- 

 testably the best. Moreover, in the earlier families he has the 

 advantage of the assistance of Mr. Kirby's approximately complete 

 Catalogue of Sphinges and Bombyces, published in 1892, and for 

 later years the ' Zoological Eecord ' &c. ; so that the chances of 

 anything important being overlooked are reduced to a minimum. 



Sir George Hampson's methods of work are so similar in all his 

 publications that those who have seen one volume of his work on 

 the ' Moths of India ' or one volume of the present series, may form 

 a fair judgment of the whole. All the species are briefly described 

 (the bulk of the book forbids very lengthy descriptions, which are, 

 moreover, less necessary in the case of recognizably figured species), 



