October 25, 1894J 



NA TURE 



619 



which is in connection with the pendulum. The shaft is 

 completely rotated round its axis once in twenty- four 

 hours, and this diurnal motion is communicated to the 

 bobbins of paper belonging to the different registering 

 instruments. The paper on these bobbins is unrolled 

 with a different velocity for each instrument. 



The instrument for registering variations of atmo- 

 spheric pressure is shown at B, in Fig. i. The marking 

 needle records the movements of the mercury in the 

 lower branch of a Gay-Lussac barometer having a very 

 large cistern. 



For recording variations of temperature, metallic 

 reservoirs on the Bourdon system are employed, and for 

 humidity a hair or Saussure's hygrometer is used. The 

 velocity and direction of the wind are registered by a new 

 arrangement devised by M. Richard, the principle being 

 as follows : — A cylinder, carrying a certain number of 

 cogs, arranged helically on its surface, is connected with 

 a Robinson's anemometer, and acts by means of the cogs 

 on an equal number of pens, each of which is lifted up in 

 succession and made to mark the drum of paper so 

 long as the cog acts upon it. For registering direction, 

 the apparatus is provided with eight separate pens for 

 the eight principal directions of the wind. For velocity, 

 the cylinder carries ten cogs, which act successively on 

 ten pens. Each pen is geared during one-tenth of a 

 complete rotation of the cylinder, and, knowing the rate 

 •of movement of the cylinder, the velocity of the wind 

 may be found from the length of the traces made by the 

 different pens. 



The descriptions beneath the accompanying illustra- 

 tions, for which we are indebted to La Nature, tell the 

 use of the different parts of the instrument. In spite of 

 the many precautions which have been taken. Dr. Janssen 

 recognises that the instrument is more or less tentative 

 in character, iiut the question of long-period meteoro- 

 graphs for meterological stations at high altitudes is so 

 important that the result of the experiment will be 

 awaited with great interest. 



NORTH AMERICAN MOTHS^ 



IV/TANY works on North American butterflies, and on 

 •'■'-'• some groups of moths also, have been published of 

 late years, but the important family of the Noctuida: has 

 hitherto been much neglected. A great deal has been 

 done in this direction, il is true, but the information is 

 scattered broadcast through periodicals, and but little 

 has been attempted to systematise it, the only existing 

 guide being Grote's " List of North American Moths," 

 which is limited to names of species, without even refer- 

 ences to where they are described. 



Hut to work at a group of insects without the aid of 

 catalogues and monographs, is like attempting to study 

 a language witliout the help of a grammar and dictionary. 

 In the work before us. Prof. Smith has amply fulfilled the 

 latter necessity, as far as regards the family of moths of 

 which he treats. The Noctuida- may be considered the 

 most extensive family of the larger moths. We have 300 

 species in Kngland, and Staudinger's last " Catalogue of 

 the Lepidoptera of Europe, North Africa, Asia Minor, 

 Siberia, and Labrador," published in 1871, enumerates 

 1040 species for those countries, and many have been 

 added since ; and although Prof. Smith does not number 

 the North American species, an examination of his index 

 yields upwards of 3000 species ; and even after making the 

 largest deductions for generic names and synonyms (per- 



* linlicti}! of the United St.-ttes N.ltional Museum, No. 44. A C.-xtalogue. 

 bibliogr;iphic,-il and syn0nymic.1l, of ihe Species of Moths of the I^pidop- 

 terous Snpcrf.^mily Noctuid.x, f lUnd in Borc.ll America, with critical notes 

 by Dr. John E. Smith, Professor of Entomology in Rutger's College. 

 ^Washington, i3q?.) 



haps too large an allowance), we may still fairly con- 

 clude that the Xearctic fauna considerably outnumbers 

 the Pala:arctic in this family, though it is not the case in 

 the butterflies. 



Prof. Smith has been accumulating materials for a 

 monograph of the North American Noctuidx- for the 

 last ten years. During the course of his studies, he 

 visited London, and made a special study of the impor- 

 tant series of type-specimens in the British Museum, 

 which includes a large proportion of those described 

 by Guenee, Walker, and Grote. Consequently he hai 

 been able to clear up a good deal of hitherto doubtful 

 synonymy. He has also visited several of the more 

 important museums on the continent, and of course the 

 principal collections in North America had previously 

 been examined by him ; therefore his work is not a 

 mere compilation (though even in this case it would have 

 been of great value), but it represents a large amount of 

 original study. 



A rather important question discussed by Prof. Smith 

 in his preface, is that of " types." He remarks : — " Dr. 

 Hayen holds that every specimen named by an author of 

 a species described by himself is a type. Mr. Morrison 

 was yet more liberal, and marked as 'type' a number of 

 specimens of species described by Mr. Grote, having 

 presumably compared them with the actual type. Mr. 

 Grote's practice seems to have been to mark all speci- 

 mens before him when writing his original description, as 

 'type,' and 1 think Mr. Grote is right." Our own opinion 

 is that greater precision is necessary, and that no speci- 

 men can be considered a type which was not before an 

 author when he drew up his description. Even so, he 

 should always label one individual specimen, which he 

 considers to represent his species best, as " type,'' and, 

 properly speaking, there cannot be more than two such 

 "types " of a species, male and female. The remainder 

 of the series should be regarded not as " types," but as 

 "co-types," and specimens which are afterwards compared 

 and considered to agree with them, whether compared by 

 the author of the species himself, or by some other per- 

 son, should simply be labelled " compared with type." 

 Too much precaution cannot be exerted in these matters. 

 Among other subjects noticed in the preface, are the 

 contents of the various collections consulted by Prof. 

 Smith, the dates of Hiibner's works (in which he hardly 

 seems to us to be fully acquainted with the published in- 

 formation), and explanations respecting the manner in 

 which he has arranged the details of his book, in quoting 

 references and localities, &c. All the species contained 

 in the United States National Museum at Washington 

 are marked with an asterisk. A useful index to authors 

 and works cited follows the preface, and the general 

 index, which closes the volume, fills twenty-six pages 

 of small print in double columns. 



Great differences of opinion exist between Prof. Smith 

 and other American and European entomologists re- 

 specting the classification of the Noctuidx, and some- 

 times also respecting the identification of various species 

 cited. This is unavoidable, and in no way interferes with 

 the value of his work. In most cases. Prof. Smith indi- 

 cates where the type specimens of each species are to 

 be found, and frequently adds valuable notes on identi- 

 fication and variation. Transformations are omitted, 

 owing to the late Mr. Harry Edwards having issued a 

 complete catalogue of the early stages of Norih American 

 Lepidoptera {^Bulletin No. 35 of the National Museum). 



In conclusion, we may venture to express a hope that 

 it may not be very long before Prof. Smith's promised 

 "Monograph of North .American .Noctuida-" is ready 

 to see the light. A catalogue is good, but a monograph 

 is better, and we shall be very pleased to see a work of 

 such magnitude and importance carried to a successful 

 conclusion. 



W. F. KiRBY. 



NO. 1304, VOI . 50] 



