Bihlio<jr(iphical Notices. 447 



iuiii.i(K;i;.\riii('AL noticks. 



Jlw Fauna of British Iwlia, iiichi<(iiii/ Cei/Ion and liiu-m'i. Piili- 

 lislicd under the autluirily <»1 the Secretary of State for IiulLi in 

 Council. Edited \)\ "W" T. lii.AXKoun. Moths.— \\A. 11. lly 

 G. Y. IIami'sox. London, 1SI»4. 



Trk second volume of ^[r. irarajjson's work deals with Ihe three 

 allied families Arctiida\ .\f;aristida\ and Xoitiiid;e ; but two sub- 

 families of till' last-mentioned jjroup — the Focillin;r and Deltuidinic 

 — are reserved for the commencement of Volume 111. 



;^[r. Harapson's families arc very com])rehcnsivc, his Arctiidaj 

 including four families of the older authors, which he has very 

 rightly reduced to the rank of subfamilies * ; the family Agaristidte 

 remains as it was ; but the third family, Noctuidac, has hitherto 

 been regarded as a tribe, under the denomination I^octuites, con- 

 taining numerous ill-detined families, based upon characters often 

 utterly worthless for classiticatory purposes. 



In conse(iuencc of the utter absence of sj-stem in the so-called 

 " systematic "' works jiroduccd less than half a century ago, one can 

 readily understand Avhat Lederer had to cope with when he sought 

 to bring into order the Xoctuida) of Europe; but the task which 

 this excellent lei)ido])terist set himself to do, and accomplished 

 fairly satisfactorily, was a trifle as compared with that of the 

 author of the ])resent work. 



Mr. Hami)son takes nothing for gratitcd ; the work of his jirodc- 

 cessors is carefully studied, corrected when necessary, and the 

 arrangement of genera is based strictly on structural characters. 

 Secondary sexual characters are not regarded as of generic value, 

 but are utilized for Sections having a subgeneric rank. As regards 

 species, Mr. Hampson is inclined to follow the old motto " In union 

 is strength ; " l)ut in defence of this action he fairly admits in his 

 Preface that " Xo attempt has been made in this or in the preceding 

 volume to decide finally whether many of the forms described are 

 entitled to rank as species, varieties, geographical or seasonal forms. 

 Much more study of structure, and especially of the claspers of the 

 male insect, will be needed before similar questions can be satis- 

 factorily determined," 



After this frank admission no lepidopterist will have any excuse 

 for complaining that forms named by himself have not received 

 s])ccific rank; and any collector who, without looking up all syno- 

 nyms, ventures to describe an Indian moth, will only have himself 

 to thank if he subsequently discovers that he has renamed one of 

 the forms not considered as sufficiently distinct to be kejjt separate 

 by Mr. Hampson. 



* The genus Ni/cfemern and allies, which formerly were regarded as 

 constituting the family Nyctemeridse, are placed next to the group of 

 genera allied to llypsa (Hypsidse of the old classification) in the Litho- 

 siinse. 



