NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 109 



Should the venture prove successful — and I cordially recommend it to 

 the notice of collectors on this side of the Channel — it is intended to 

 collate and publish lists of the insects furnished, in the course of corre- 

 spondence and exchange, by individual collectors from their respective 

 localities, and in this way to arrive at a more precise knowledge of the 

 distribution of species throughout France — a great part of which, so 

 far as I have been able to find out during several years of research, is 

 from the lepidopterist's point of view wholly unknown and un- 

 explored. The gentlemen whose names I have mentioned will send 

 full particulars on application, and these also comprise a list of all the 

 Macros occurring in the neighbourhood of their beautiful town. 

 Meanwhile, may I again ask any entomologists who may be visiting 

 France during the coming season, kindly to let me have a list, with 

 dates, of the butterflies (only) taken or observed by them ? — H. Row- 

 land-Brown ; Oxhey Grove, Harrow Weald, April 21st, 1907. 



Barrett's ' Lepidoptera of the British Islands.' — Mr. Adkin's 

 cold douche has happily come too late to do much, if any, damage to 

 the excellent work of Mr. Barrett, which will not be superseded during 

 the present century. In compiling the index, we followed the 

 author's own plan in his indexes to the separate volumes. Some one 

 proposed to give the authorities for the names in the index. After 

 due consideration, we came to the conclusion that this, which would 

 greatly increase the bulk of the index and double the cost, would 

 answer no useful end. The purport of an index is, not to repeat 

 details given in the body of the work where all the authorities are 

 given, but to direct to the page where they may be found. No sugges- 

 tion was made concerning a specific index, which does not occur in any 

 of our other works, where the indexes were prepared by the authors 

 themselves, and it did not occur to us. We see at once the difficulty, 

 not noticeable in the single volumes, where the indexes are short — the 

 inconvenience of seeking the name of a species through forty-six 

 closely printed columns. We therefore at once put in hand the com- 

 pilation of an alphabetical index to the whole of the species, which 

 will be issued as soon as ready. — The Publishers. 



Compsotata, n. nom., pro Charidea, Guen., Hmpsn., nee Dalman. — 

 There is some confusion in the " nomenclators " respecting the generic 

 name Charidea — particularly in Scudder's, which is the most generally 

 consulted. As Zeller, in Agassiz (Lep., p. 15), correctly indicates, the 

 name was first' used by Dalman in 1816 (Vet. Ak. Handl., xxxvii. 

 p. 225) as n. nom. for Glaucopis, Fabr., Latr. (nom. prasocc. — non 

 Gmel. nee Lacepede). Charidea, Guen. (Spec. Gen. vi. [ = Noct. ii.] p. 

 60, 1852) is also rightly cited by Marschall (p. 283) ; but he adds 

 Charidea, Dalm., 1846 [ex err. for 1816), meaning to imply that 

 Guenee's name is preoccupied, and this has resulted in Scudder's 

 citing (Univ. Index, p. 65) " Charidea, Guen., 1846," while he leaves 

 " Charidea, Dalm." without a date. Sir George Hampson, in his new 

 volume (Cat. Lep. Phal., vi. p. 140) has accepted Guenee's use of the 

 name as valid, restricting the genus to its type-species elegantissima, 

 Guen. For this genus I propose the new name Compsotata, mihi, 

 n. nom. = Charidea, Guen., Hmpsn. restr. nee Dalman, type elegaiitissima, 

 Guen.— Louis B. Prout; 246, Richmond Road, N.E., March 23rd, 1907. 



