268 



THE BRITISH NATURALIST. [December 



of the States, from San Francisco and Portland, Or. Out of the 

 seventeen varieties here signalized, seven have already been noticed 

 in America, viz. : typicus Less., succineus West., albidus Picard, 

 sylvaticus Moq., reticulatiis, Moq., vavians West., obscurus Moq. — by the 

 bye, should not all these varietal names, e^ce^t v avians , end in ' a ' and 

 not ' us ' ? 



We have received from Mr. Cosmo Melvill, "An historical 

 account of the genus Latiris and Peristernia.'" Even to a novice this is 

 most interesting in its lucid and valuable exposition of a rather 

 neglected genus with incidental information of a varied kind. We 

 note en passant the increasing aid to classification rendered by more 

 detailed examination of the rodulae, though at times it clashes with 

 external indications. Mr. Melvill indeed would probably have united 

 the genera Peristevnia and Latinis but for the palatal diaquoses of 

 Messrs. Gwatkins and Cooke. — B. Tomlin, Llandaff. 



Gleanings. 



Pterophorus paludum in Yorkshire. — Our friend Mr. G. T. 

 Porritt, of Huddersfield, records in the "Naturalist" for September, 

 the occurrence of this rare plume on Thorne Waste, on iSth July last. 

 Neither he, nor his companion, Mr. ]. Harrison, of Barnsley, 

 recognised it when boxed, and when examined subsequently, was 

 found to agree very closely with Dorsetshire examples of pahidum, but 

 to be both larger and finer. It was sent to Mr. Webb, of Dover, 

 whose reply was paludum-, a very fine and large specimen." It is 

 very satisfactory to find this rare plume occurring in another new 

 locality, and we hope it will prove more abundant than the 

 Dorsetshire specimens. 



We observe with some pleasure that a comprehensive work on 

 British Lepidoptera by C. G. Barrett, Esq., is to be commenced. 

 A work of this character was greatly needed, and no one is 

 better qualified to carry it out than Mr. Barrett. It is nearly 40 

 years smce Stainton's Manual appeared and an enormous number of 

 species have been discovered in Britain since then. We especially 

 welcome it because it will settle the nomenclature of our British 

 species for the next half century, and rescue us from the slougli of 



