NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 



119 



botany and zoology should not, and never will be, forgotten 

 while those sciences are studied, and the thanks of all are due 

 to Mr. Scott Elliot for giving us an excellent sketch of the 

 naturalist and his environment. 



Catalogue of the Noctuidcs in the Collection of the British Museum, 

 By Sir George F. Hampson, Bart. Published by the 

 Trustees of the British Museum. 



This is vol. vii. of the author's great monograph of the moths 

 of the world, and is another instalment to a knowledge of the 

 Noctuidce, and relates to the large subfamily Acronyctince, which 

 comprises some three thousand species belonging to over three 

 hundred genera, and are calculated to occupy three volumes of the 

 Catalogue. As we are told that the manuscript dealing with the 

 remainder of the subfamily is ready for press and will be issued 

 in two volumes probably in 1909, we must congratulate Sir 

 George Hampson on his energy and determination, for to pro- 

 duce a single volume is no light task, the present one occupying 

 no fewer than seven hundred and nine pages. 



With the large amount of material at hand, the habitats or 

 localization of the species is most extensive, so that we have here 

 the facts for the study of the geographical distribution of the 

 Noctuidce. To those writers who conclude that a fairly wide 

 separation in latitude and longitude must also denote specific 

 difference, the tabulated distribution of some of these moths 

 will appear as a disturbing element for consideration. 



Thus, to take a single species, Perigea capensis : this insect 

 is described as common to the Ethiopian region, including 

 Madagascar and Mauritius ; by Egypt and Sokotra distributed 

 throughout British India and the Malay Archipelago ; recorded 

 from the Solomon, Marshall, and Fiji Islands ; and found in 

 Queensland. In the synonymy we are not surprised to find that 

 it has been described under different names no fewer than four- 

 teen times ! And this is not a unique example to be found in 

 these pages. We also have a thorough generic revision, with 

 keys to the genera, and also to the species when the genera 

 are sufficiently extensive to require that aid, with numerous 

 blocks in the text to illustrate the structural characters and 



