4:28 Bibliographical Notices. 



(EMphora, to whicli we may here allude, though it d )os not belong 

 to the families that have vet baou discussed by .Mr. Tutt. Latreille 

 established the genus (Ecophora for CE. salphureUa, Liune, which 

 remained the type for twenty years, Curtis actually Hguriug it as 

 such, and Stephens sinking his own geaus D isucera as a synonym, 

 liut Zeller gave the genus a wider extension, dividing it into three 

 sections, for the last of which he adopted Stephens's discarded name 

 of Dasijcera. Then Staintoa adopted (Ecophora for Zeller's first 

 section, separating snlphuiyUa (the inalienable type of (^c-o/)/tora) as 

 D isi/cera. Then Mr. Meyriek established two families, (Eeophorida> 

 and Dasvceridto, thus turning the very type of (Ecophora out of 

 the family tEeophoridte itself I This has since been rectified, but it 

 is only an illustration of many similar cases which will occur to any 

 entomologist who troubles himself about synonymy. 



The remainder of the present volume is devoted to a portion of 

 the Laohneides (or Lasiocampides), and the classifications of Hiibner, 

 Aurivillius, Dyar, and others are quoted in full. Only five species, 

 however, are dealt with in the present volume : Poecilocampa populi, 

 Trichiura crakeyi, Lachneis lanestris, and Malacosoma castrensis and 

 M. neusti'ia. Mr. Tutt estimates that the remaining five genera 

 and six species of the superfamily Lachneides will occupy 200 

 pages of the next volume. In his remarks on the phylogeny of 

 the Lachneides, we are pleased to see that while freely expressing 

 his own views, and criticizing those of his predecessors, he puts them 

 forward tentatively, and quite avoids the dogmatic tone assumed by 

 certain writers on what must necessarily long remain one of the 

 most difficult and uncertain problems in entomology — all the more 

 so, because, in Lepidoptera at least, we have nothing but the barest 

 fragments of any Geological Record to help us to verify any of our 

 conclusions ; and without this we are necessarily only groping in 

 the dark. 



Five of the seven plates in the present volume are devoted to 

 Psychides — phylogeny, neuration, spurs, antennae ; imagines and 

 cases of Whittleia retiella ; and the transformations of the American 

 Thi/i-idoptenj.v ephemercfformis. Plate 1 is devoted to the wings, 

 wing-scales, &c. of Lepidoptera, and plate 7 to Dyar's phylogeny of 

 the Lachneides. 



We can fully sympathize with what Mr. Tutt says in his preface 

 about the difficulty of getting more matter into each volume, but 

 yet we should like to suggest that it would be very useful to include 

 in the Contents a list of the British genera and species discussed 

 in each volume. As the number of these is very limited, this would 

 require very little space, and would probably not involve the 

 8acrifice of more than a single page. W. F. K. 



