THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



107 



them from the other species. The pupae should be dug for at the foot of 

 these trees, or the moth looked for hanging underneath the lower branches 

 in the early morning, it is, however, not so common as S. populi. The 

 privet hawk moth {Sphinx ligustri), formerly no rarity in our squares, is now 

 rapidly disappearing, it still lingers in a few places chiefly in the West-end, 

 but there is always a chance of obtaining it whenever their is a tolerable 

 amount of privet in an open space. It is most frequently and easily met 

 with during the larval state in the autumn, the larvae being fond of resting 

 on the top shoots of the privet hedges. Sphinx convolvuli has been taken in 

 Victoria Park and the neighbourhood rather abundantly, but its appearance 

 must be considered abnormal, still when this and other erratic species do 

 appear, the large towns seem to have a fair share of their visits, so that the 

 naturalist should always on the look out, and must not be surprised at any- 

 thing, as even the rare D. lineata has been taken in London. 



(To be continued.) 



NOMENCLATURE and the YOUJtfG JfJTUftJLIST 

 "LIST OF LEPIDOPTERA." 



By JOHN E. ROBSON. 



As this list is now approaching the completion of the Macro- Lepidoptera, 

 it seems a fitting time to reply to all those correspondents who have favoured 

 me with their criticisms from time to time, and I do so here, rather than pri- 

 vately, because I have no doubt where one has written me, there has been a 

 number of similar opinion. 



The number of changes I have adopted has caused some adverse comment, 

 and one gentlemen says "it will be as bad as South' s before it is done." It 

 w r ould be invidious of me to attempt to compare the two, but I would say 

 that had South's arrangement been acceptable, the alterations in nomen- 

 clature would scarcely have been of so much consequence. Let me en- 

 deavour to show, then, what rules have guided me in giving priority to one 

 name over another. When Guenee and Doubleday prepared their lists, 

 they examined for themselves all the authorities, and rejected for various reasons 

 the works of authors whose figures or descriptions did not seem satisfactory 

 to them. There was then no other list to compare with, but in the Catalogue 



