176 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Transactions of the City of London Entomological and Natural History 

 Society for the year 1902. Pp. 72. The London Institution, 

 Finsbury Circus, E.G. 

 This publication contains, in addition to other interesting entomo- 

 logical matter, some important papers. One of these, by Mr. Alfred 

 Sich, is entitled " Observations on the Early Stages of Fhyllocnistis 

 suffaseUa, Zell." Another, by Mr. A. Bacot, is on the "Importance of 

 certain Larval Characters as a guide in the Classification of the 

 Sphingids." Mr. W. J. Kaye contributes an account of his travels 

 and collecting experiences in British Guiana. 



A List of Lepidoptera found in the counties of Cheshire, Flintshire, 

 Denbiyhskire, Carnarvunshire, and Anylesea. Compiled and edited " 

 by Georgk 0. Day, F.E.S., with the assistance of J. Arkle, 

 Herbert Dobie, M.D., and Robert Newstead, A.L.S., F.E.S. 

 8vo. Pp. 120. Grosvenor Museum, Chester 1903. 

 Although based on the Walker list (1885), the nomenclature and 

 classification of the Staudinger and Rebel Catalogue have been adopted. 

 Over 680 species are enumerated, and of these only 123 belong to the 

 families included in the old division of "Micro-Lepidoptera." The list 

 bears evidence of careful preparation, and will be of value to students 

 of distribution as well as to the local lepidopterist. 



A List of North American Lepidoptera, and Key to the Literature of this 

 Order of Insects. By Harrison G. Dyar, Ph. D. (assisted by 

 C. H. Fernald, Ph. D., the late Rev. G. D. Hulst, and August 

 Busck). Bulletin of the United States National Museum, No. 52. 

 8vo. Pp. 723. Government Printing Office, Washington. 1902. 

 Dr. Dyar and those who co-operated with him are to be congratulated 

 on the successful completion of this laborious work. The "List" will 

 no doubt command in America the same position that the " Catalog " 

 holds in Europe. The plan of arrangement will be gathered from the 

 following extract from the preface : — " Within the last ten years the 

 classification of the Lepidoptera has been radically altered. No exact 

 consensus of opinion as to the proper sequence of families and genera 

 has been reached, but the recent workers are so closely in accord as to 

 the principles involved and the resultant general scheme, that we seem 

 to be somewhere near a natural classification. In the present list I 

 have followed my own views, based largely on larval characters, in the 

 arrangement of the family and super-family groups. The system does 

 not difter in general from that of Edward Meyrick, which has been 

 adopted by the British Museum in the Catalogue of the Lepidoptera 

 Phalfenffi, though the order of groups is somewhat different. I have 

 placed the butterflies first, since they seem on the whole 'higher' than 

 the moths, and this course agrees with the usual custom, I follow 

 with the Sphingidae and Saturnians for the same reasons, although, in 

 variation, they are more generalized than some of the Noctuid groups. 

 The list, as a whole, proceeds from higher to lower forms, as in 

 Staudinger and Rebel's Catalogue." According to the present census, 

 6622 species of Lepidoptera are known to occur in America north of 

 Mexico ; about 240 of these are European, and, with few exceptions, 

 are found in Britain. 



