410 Bibliographical Notice. 



BIBLIOGKAPHICAL NOTICE. 



The Fauna of British India, including Oeylon and Burma. — Moths. 

 Vol. I. By G. F. Hampson. Edited by W. T. Blanford, 

 Royal 8vo. With numerous Illustrations and 527 pages of 

 letterpress. Published under the authority of the Secretary of 

 State for India in Council. London : Taylor and Francis, 1892. 



WiTHOTJX doubt Mr. Hampson's work is one of the most important 

 contributions to entomological literature which has hitherto 

 appeared— valuable alike to the student and collector of Indian 

 moths, to whom it will be a priceless boon ; to the cabinet worker 

 who has to deal with the Heterocera of the world it will be a 

 necessary text-book. 



The classification of the families of Butterflies was studied in 1864 

 by the late Mr. H. W. Bates, and with such satisfactory results that 

 his arrangement commended itself to all lepidopterists who took the 

 trouble to test its accuracy ; indeed, Bates's classification, with very 

 slight modifications, is generally adopted at the present day. On 

 the other hand, to form a key to the many families of Moths seemed 

 such a stupendous task, that few men ventured to attempt it. The 

 arrangements proposed by Messrs. Boisduval and Guenee were gene- 

 rally followed, and the blunders of these pioneers were copied and 

 multiplied by their successors until the chaos into which the Hete- 

 rocera were brought looked almost hopeless. 



At length the study of the Tineina by Stainton and others and of 

 the Noctuae and Pyrales by Lederer began to throw a little light 

 upon the obscurity ; but entomologists still needed a guide to point 

 out how, by the use of a simple pocket-lens and a little benzine, to 

 decide at once whether a moth was a Geometer, a Noctuid, a Pyrale, 

 and so forth. 



In his ' Ylinders van Nederland ' Heer P. C. T. Snellen eventually 

 produced an admirable key to the families and genera of European 

 Moths — a work unfortunately overlooked by most students of 

 Exotic Lepidoptera ; the confusion which therefore existed in public 

 and private collections became year by year more confounded. 

 Happily Mr. Hampson, when seeking a basis on which to found a 

 general classification, discovered Snellen's key, and upon this, with 

 slight modifications and many additions, he formed his classification 

 of the Moths of the World. 



In his Introduction Mr. Hampson has for the first time pointed 

 out a character by which Moths can be distinguished from Butter- 

 flies, namely — all which resemble Butterflies in the possession of 

 clubbed or dilated antennae, also possess a frenulum, a character 

 invariably wanting in the so-called Rhopalocera. 



The descriptive matter and illustrations in the first volume of the 

 Moths of India leave nothing to be desired, the former being terse 

 and to the point, whilst in every genus one species is admirably 

 figured, usually with accurate structural details, and in many instances 

 a typical larva is represented. When absolutely necessary the 



