RECENT LITERATURE. 261 



EECENT LITERATURE. 



As was anticipated (v. antea, p. 167), Part 2, vol. i of the 

 Bulletin of the Hill Museum was published on September 14th, and 

 contains a number of valuable contributions to the study of the 

 Macro-Lepidoptera. The first paper raises a point which is of con- 

 siderable interest to systematists dealing with the Heterocera. It 

 consists of four descriptions taken from the MS. compiled by 

 Sir George Hampson, and left by him in the Natural History 

 Museum on his retirement. This MS. is extremely voluminous, and 

 was a continuation of the Catalogue of the Lep. Phalanae in the 

 British Museum, and contains numerous descriptions of both genera 

 and species to which Hampson had attached names, which latter he 

 had also placed in the Collections without, however, indicating that 

 the names were unpublished. This has led already to confusion on 

 more than one occasion in the literature of the groups ; but steps 

 are being taken to avoid any possibility of a recurrence of the trouble. 

 The bulk of the papers, by Messrs Joicey and Talbot, are the result 

 of further work on the very valuable collections made by Messrs. Pratt 

 in Buru, Ceram, New Guinea, etc., and include the description of 

 very magnificent new Papilio of the Aeactcs group, very aptly named 

 prattorum, from Buru, which has the same remarkable opalescent 

 hind wings as the Philippine species magellanus — a discovery on 

 which the Hill Museum is very much to be complimented. 



The part unfortunately contains no illustrations, but it is under- 

 stood that these will appear in the next part. In this connection 

 the short article (Nomenclature and Illustrations) contributed by 

 Mr. Talbot on the subject of M. Oberthur's dictum, " Pas de bonne 

 figure a l'appui d'une description, pas de nom valable," is of interest, 

 and undoubtedly expresses the common-sense view of this question. 

 To make the validity of a name dependent upon the publication of a 

 figure of the animal named, as well as a description of it, besides 

 putting a premium on scientific work is simply impracticable. The 

 importance of adequate illustrations is unquestionable ; but the 

 financial aspect of the proposition renders it at present hopelessly 

 impossible. 



A short article by Mr. W. H. T. Tarns on The Pollination oj 

 Early Spring Flowers by Moths (Journal of Botany, lx, p. 203, 

 1922), produces some results not perhaps generally known to 

 entomologists. The question was as to the length of the proboscis 

 in certain species of moths which are normally on the wing in this 

 country when the primrose is in flower ; and it was found that 

 virtually nothing whatever was known on the subject. Measure- 

 ments were made of the tongues of a number of species, and it trans- 

 pired that of the four species with tongues long enough to be ol 

 importance, one, Cucullia verbasci, was the only species which has 

 ever been observed to visit any primrose. Results go to substantiate 

 Darwin's original suggestion that primroses are pollinated by 

 nocturnal Lepidoptera. N. D. a. 



We very much regret to hear of the death recently of Mr. Arthur 

 Home, of Aberdeen. A notice will appear in the next number, 



