382 Bibliographical Notice. 



EIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE. 



Catalogue of the Lepidojytera PhalcencB in the British Museum. 

 Vol. VII. Noctuidce. By Sir George F. Hampson, Bart. Printed 

 by Order of the Trustees. 8vo. London, 1908. Pp. xv, 709. 

 Plates cviii.-cxxii. & 184 Text-illustrations. Price : Text 17s., 

 Atlas 13s. 



The seventh volume of this great work, or the fourth of the 

 IS'octuidae, includes the first of three volumes to be devoted to the 

 subfamily Acronyctinae, and includes descriptions of 843 species, 

 divided into 96 genera, a considerable number of both genera and 

 species being here described as new. The Acronyctinae, as 

 here employed, are characterized in Mr. C. 0. Waterhouse's Preface 

 " by the trifid neuration of the hind wing combined with spineless 

 tibiae and smooth eyes not surrounded by bristle-like hairs, and it 

 is the least specialised of the subfamilies of the Noctuidte Trifinae." 



How completely the classification of the Noctuidae has been 

 revolutionized of late years may be seen by the number of well- 

 known genera now included in the xV crony ctinao, but referred by 

 previous authors to Apamidae, Cosmidae, Hadenidae, Amphipyridae, 

 &c. Among these we may note the genera Amjjhijn/ra, Mania, 

 Dipterygia, Trachea, Euplexia, Perigea, Eremobia, Liqjerina, Trigo- 

 ->to2)hora, Eriopus, and Thnlpophila. 



But while entomologists may congratulate themselves on living 

 at a time when it is possible for so extensive and elaborate a work 

 to be published, they must not forget that it has been led up to by 

 the labours of a long series of previous authors, without which its 

 inception and fulfilment would have been impossible. It may be 

 well to remember that the last complete Catalogue of Moths by 

 Francis Walker was published by the British Museum in thirty-five 

 volumes from 1854 to 1866, and though out of print and out of 

 date at the present time, was of great value when it appeared, 

 notwithstanding numerous defects and errors, if only as a com- 

 pendium of the then existing literature of the subject. Whether 

 thirty-five volumes will now sufiice to complete the much more 

 elaborate work undertaken by Sir G. F. Hampson is hardly to be 

 expected; but we hope the author will succeed in completing at 

 least the groups including the larger moths, in which he has already 

 made such good progress, before the advance of old age necessitates 

 his resigning the remainder of the work to other hands. 



