ENTOMOLOGICAL N EWS. 



Philadelphia, Pa., May, 1916. 



The Biologia Centrali- Americana. 



Elsewhere in this number we notice and quote from the 

 final volume of one of the most extensive single works on 

 natural history yet attempted — the Biologia C entrali- Ameri- 

 cana. . Not the least remarkable and noteworthy feature con- 

 nected with its completion is that its senior projector and 

 editor has the happiness of beholding the accomplished deed. 

 Many a similar work has failed, or been left in an unfinished 

 state, owing to the death of its author, but to Dr. Frederick Du- 

 cane Godman Fate has been more kind and we can at present 

 recall only Sir John Murray as having been equally fortunate 

 in a somewhat comparable undertaking. 



The Biologia afifects us of the New World more than it 

 does the nation to which its editors and most of their col- 

 laborators belong. Although the Rio Grande and the Gila 

 form the northern boundary of the territory to which the 

 Biologia is devoted, many of the plants and the animals with 

 which it deals wander far to the north of those rivers just as 

 on the south they extend far beyond the peaks of Darien. The 

 Pan-American scope of science is more assured than Pan- 

 American policies and from the very situation of the area to 

 which the Biologia refers, this great work must always hold 

 a most important and authoritative position. 



We speak of the completion of the Biologia, yet Dr. God- 

 man himself reminds us that various groups were unavoidably 

 left untouched and that additional material came in from the 

 collectors too late to be included in the appropriate volumes. 

 The fauna and flora of Mexico and Central America is still 

 imperfectly known, as the exploration of the lepidopterous 

 fauna of Costa Rica by Messrs. Schaus and Barnes has re- 

 cently very clearly demonstrated. The discoveries which 

 the future has in store make it improbable that another 

 Biologia Centrali- Americana of equal scope will ever be, and 



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