September 22, 1892] 



NATURE 



4S7 



THE MOTHS OF THE WORLD. 

 A Synonymic Catalogue of Lepidoptera Heterocera 

 {Moths). By W. F. Kirby, F.L.S., F.E.S., &c. Vol. I. 

 Sphinges and Bombyces. (London : Gurney and Jack- 

 son, 1892.) 

 T^HE publication of the first volume of Mr. Kirby's 

 J- Catalogue of Heterocera cannot fail to be regarded 

 as a great event amongst students of exotic moths, and 

 should mark an epoch from which is to commence the 

 great work of reducing the vast amount of material they 

 have to deal with to some kind of system and order, from 

 the state of chaos produced by the greater number of 

 those who have taken up the subject continuing to de- 

 scribe innumerable species, forms, and varieties, without 

 any systematic study or attempt to define the limits of the 

 families and genera they placed them in. So vast and 

 scattered was the literature on the subject that it was 

 almost hopeless to attempt to discover even how many 

 species had been described in any given genus, or to say 

 with any certainty that the forms to be dealt with 

 had not been described by other authors ; and if the 

 subject in hand was the study of a local fauna, and 

 not the monographing of a group, the only plan 

 it was possible to a dopt was to place the species in 

 approximately the right genus and trust more or less to 

 chance, according to the availability of large collections 

 for consultation, that they had not been described else- 

 where. Students will now have no such excuse for in- 

 exact work, and, up to the end of the numerous and very 

 remotely connected groups of families known as the 

 Bombyces, will have a complete and easily consulted 

 catalogue of all described species, with the localities they 

 come from, so that they will be able to see at a glance to 

 which species the forms they are trying to identify are 

 most likely to belong, and having full references to the 

 books in which they are described their labours will be 

 lightened by almost half, as students of the European 

 fauna who have had Staudinger's catalogue to help them 

 will fully appreciate. No one but Mr. Kirby who has 

 lived his life amon g the books on the subject, and has 

 been collecting his materials for the last twenty years, as 

 he tells us in his preface, could have made the catalogue 

 as complete as he has done, and though it is of course 

 impossible that such a volume could have been put 

 together without a few errors and omissions creeping in, 

 yet some months of work with the advantage of being 

 constantly able to borrow the proof sheets has shown 

 how extremely itv; these are. 



As the arrangement adopted is in the main that of 

 the British Museum, or of some well known and ap- 

 proved works on special groups, and as there is also an 

 index to the genera, there should be no real difficulty in 

 finding the species required ; and since the complete 

 index to species and genera will take up one out of the 

 five volumes required to complete the catalogue, it is 

 obviously impossible that there should be a specific index 

 to each volume. It is to be hoped that Mr. Kirby will 

 be able to bring out the other volumes within the next 

 two or three years, and will receive the support of all 

 those interested in the subject. This, indeed, he can 

 hardly fail to do, as they will find themselves quite un- 

 able to get on without his catalogue when once accus- 

 tomed to the use of it. The marking of the type of each 

 NO. I 195, VOL. 46] 



genus by an asterisk is an addition of very great value 

 as compared to the catalogue of Rhopalocera by the same 

 author ; and the only serious fault to be found with the 

 book is the upsetting of many well-known names by the 

 adoption of Hiibnerian genera, and in especial those of 

 the " Tentamen," a mere hand-list of names for that 

 author's private use, and never published or in- 

 tended to be published, and in accepting which Mr, 

 Kirby will find hardly a single lepidopterist to 

 follow him. Hubner's " Verzicknitz " stands on rather 

 different grounds ; but even that work is merely a 

 childish collection of names, the species being classified 

 into very heterogeneous groups solely by colour and 

 pattern, and since the divisions which subsequent authors 

 have been pleased to term his genera, though that name 

 might equally well be applied to other of his sections, 

 are neither defined nor the types indicated, it is placed 

 out of Court according to the British Association rules ; 

 then again a few well-known generic names, such as 

 Cossus, are upset as having previously been used in a 

 specific sense. If these principles were adopted and 

 pushed to their logical conclusion every family of 

 Rhopalocera would have to be re-named and innumer- 

 able other changes made, so that nomenclature would be 

 vastly more confusing than it is even now, and the whole 

 subject made unintelligible except to the few who had 

 leisure to make a special study of it. The classification 

 adopted is in the main admirable ; the Castniidce, how- 

 ever, should perhaps be placed much lower in the scale ; 

 the Uraniidce are rightly disassociated from the Geome- 

 trid<x, of which they have hitherto been placed as a sub- 

 family, but a better arrangement would have been to 

 have included in the family the genus Micronia and 

 allies, and to have placed it next to the Epipiemidce 

 {ErosiidcE auctorum) and the Geometridce ; but these are 

 facts of very recent recognition. The Agaristidce again 

 would come better next the Noctuidce, from which they 

 are hardly separable, and the Syntoinidce, which Mr. 

 Kirby calls the Zygcenince, are more usually separated 

 from the Zyganidce, of which the Chalcosiince and 

 Thymarina are considered sub-families. Then again the 

 Lithosiince Nyctemerince and the Nycteolince (here called 

 CymbidcB) are at most sub-families of the Arctiida ; and 

 the SphingidcB, which are very rightly placed next the 

 NotodontidcE, should have been preceded by a family 

 composed of the genus Eupterote and allies which are 

 still confounded with the Lasiocampidce, a family with 

 which they have little or nothing in common. All these, 

 however, are matters of very secondary importance, and 

 the catalogue amply fulfils the one thing required of it 

 that it should be as complete and the references as 

 correct as possible. 



G. F. H. 



OUR BOOK SHELF. 



Grasses. By C. H. Johns, M.A. 96 pp. (S.P.C.K.) 

 This is a separately published appendix to the late Rev. 

 C. H. Johns's " Flowers of the Field." In its present 

 handy form it will be acceptable to students who wish to 

 study more minutely our common grasses. 



The first three pages are devoted to general remarks 

 on Order Graminea;. On p. 3 a list of the best fodder 

 grasses of Europe is given ; Alopecurus pratensis, a very 

 valuable and generally useful grass, is omitted, whilst 



