SCIENCE- G OS SIP. 



47 



NEW EDITION OF " STAUDINOER'S 

 CATALOGUE/' 



TT is just thirty years since the publication of the 

 -*- last, or second, edition of this famous work. (') 

 During that period it has been the ; ' guide, philo- 

 sopher, and friend " to the ever-increasing number 

 of those who in any form are students of this 

 important little section of Zoology, the Lepidoptera 

 of the Palaearctic Fauna. It is hardly necessary to 

 say how greatly zoologists have admired the 

 wonderful care and accuracy exhibited in this book, 

 and how eagerly they have waited, many years 

 past, for a new edition. Thirty years is a long- 

 period nowadays in any branch of science. In such 

 a span of time many fresh discoveries must needs 

 take place ; old views alter or expand as a new 

 generation wanders into "fresh fields and pastures 

 new." We are therefore not surprised to find 

 many changes in the face of our old friend, " Stau- 

 dinger's Catalogue." Yet it is the same face which 

 has gathered strength and vigour under the hand 

 of Time. Our satisfaction on opening this new 

 volume is, however, pathetically tinged with regret 

 as we remember that he, the master, whose portrait 

 appears opposite the title-page, was called away 

 before he could see the ripening of the fruit of his 

 work. 



To take the last column first. Many new dis- 

 tricts that were unknown in 1871 have been added 

 to the territory of the Palaearctic Eegion, particu- 

 larly those parts of Central Asia that have been 

 opened up to entomologists since that time. Lower 

 Egypt as far as the Pyramids, the Azores, and 

 Corea have been added. Several parts even of 

 Europe itself where they contain" certain peculiar 

 forms have been differentiated, such as Here, 

 mont. (Harz), Eumel (Eumelia), Serb (Servia), etc. 



Passing to the authors, to whose works reference 

 is made for the first time, we notice, among foreign 

 writers, Jules Austaut, Hugo Christoph, W. H. 

 Edwards, Nicholas Erschoff, C. H. Fernald, H. 

 von Heinemann, Professor Ernst Hofmann, W. J. 

 Holland, Charles Oberthur, Nicolai Romanoff, 

 Fritz Riihl ; while as British authors we have 

 Charles G. Barrett, William Buckler, T. A. Chap- 

 man, H. J. Elwes, Sir G. F. Hampson, Holt- White, 

 Henry C. Lang, John H. Leech, Ernst Swinhoe, 

 J. W. Tutt, and Lord Walsingham. 



Where the law of priority has required, a change 

 has been made in some of the genera, and a few 

 of the old genera have been broken up into two or 

 more fresh ones ; e.g. Vanessa Fab. into Pyrantels 

 Hb., Vanessa L., Polygonia Hb., Junonia Hb., 

 and Arasehnia Hb. On the other hand, large 

 group's, such as that which among the Noctuae 



(1) Catalog der Lepidopteren des Palaearctischen Faunenge- 

 bietes. I. Theil, " Eamil. Papilionidae— Hepialidae," von Dr. 0- 

 Staudinger und Dr. H. Rebel. II. Theil, " Faniil. Pyralidae— 

 Micropterygidae," von Dr. H. Rebel. 411 + 368 pp., 9 in. x6 in. 

 (Berlin : R. Friedlander & Sohn.) 1901. 16s. 



constitutes the genus Agrotis, remain unaltered. 

 The divisional names of Rhopalocera disappear, and 

 the arrangement of the families has been altered 

 in accordance with modern requirements. It will 

 be as well to enumerate those in the first volume 

 in their new order : — 1, Papilionidae ; 2, Pieridae; 

 3, Nymphalidae ; 4. Libytheidae ; 5, Erycinidae ; 

 6, Lycaenidae ; 7, Hesperiidae ; 8, Sphingidae ; 9, 

 Notodontidae ; 10, Thaumetopoedae ; 11, Lyman - 

 triidae ; 12, Lasiocampidae ; 13, Endromididae ; 

 14, Lemoniidae ; 15, Saturniidae ; 16, Brahmaeidae ; 

 17, Bombycidae ; 18, Drepanidae ; 19, Callidulidae ; 

 20, Thyrididae ; 21, Noctuidae ; 22, Agaristidae ; 

 23, Cymatophoridae ; 24, Brephidae ; 25, Geo- 

 metridae ; 26, Uraniidae ; 27, Epiplemidae ; 28, 

 Nolidae ; 29, Cymbidae ; 30, Syntomidae ; 31, 

 Arctiidae ; 32, Heterogyinidae ; 33, Zygaenidae ; 

 34, Megalopygidae ; 35, Cochlididae ; 36, Psy- 

 chiclae ; 37, Sesiidae ; 38, Cossidae ; 39, He- 

 pialidae. 



It will be seen by the above list what great 

 alterations have been made in the arrangement of 

 what we used to call the " Macro-lepidoptera." 



As regards nomenclature, it is refreshing to 

 notice that very few changes have been made in 

 the specific names since the last edition. This is a 

 further proof of the accuracy of the work. Of 

 course a great multitude of species have been 

 added. Take the first example to hand, namely, 

 the Butterflies : these in 1871 were 456 ; now they 

 are 716 good species. The number of species of 

 macro-lepidoptera, which was 2,849 in 1871, has 

 increased to 4,744. The micro-lepidoptera, of 

 which 3,213 species were recorded, now reach the 

 sum of 4,505. 



Germination in Distilled Water. — Some 

 French botanists, experimenting upon the growth 

 of seedlings in various media, have recently com- 

 municated to the Academie des Sciences some 

 interesting experiments upon the growth of seed- 

 lings of I/iipmus in distilled water, and in water 

 in which traces of copper and other metals were 

 present in solution, either as salts or more probably 

 as free metal. They obtained (" La Nature," No. 

 1,463, pp. 19-22) with water distilled successively 

 three times the following results : (1) With seed- 

 lings grown in the last fraction of the distillate 

 there was complete arrest in growth of the radicle, 

 and consequently of the whole seedling ; (2) with 

 those grown in the second fraction of the distillate 

 the radicle elongated, but the growth of whole 

 seedling was somewhat feeble ; (3) with seedlings 

 grown in water only once distilled growth was 

 most active. From these results they deduce that 

 probably in the first and second distillates there is 

 some small trace of nutrient substance present 

 which was entirely absent from the third distillate. 

 Gold, silver, lead, or tin, placed respectively in 

 vessels in which the seedlings were placed in dis- 

 tilled water, in no way hindered growth ; but the 

 merest trace of copper was a distinct hindrance to 

 development. The paper in question quotes as an 

 analogous phenomenon the poisonous effect of 

 copper upon algae, first noticed by the botanist 

 Naegeli. — Harold A. Haig. 



