34 
publication in monthly numbers of a series of coloured figures, with 
accompanying letterpress, of the rarer indigenous species of the Class 
Insecta, not arranged in any systematic order but as the material came 
to hand. This work, which extended to 16 annual volumes, is one of 
considerable merit; the figures are in the main faithful to nature, and 
the accompanying letterpress reveals a considerable acquaintance with 
earlier literature. Stephens, who was a clerk in the Admiralty, and who 
lived at Eltharn, commenced a similar work on May 1st, 1827. This 
differs from the other in being arranged systematically; the portion 
relating to lepidoptera is in four volumes, the first of which appeared 
in 1828, the second and third in 1829; and the fourth in 1834, a 
supplement bearing date 1846. In addition to these works, each 
of the rivals produced a Catalogue. That of Stephens was the 
more complete, and contains copious, exact, synonymic references, 
showing an acquaintance with the more prominent of the earlier 
authors. The exact date of the first appearance of these Catalogues is not 
free from doubt, but we may place it approximately at the end of 1829, that 
of Curtis being probably the earlier; Stephens published a second 
edition of his Catalogue in 1833, and Curtis followed suit in 1837; and 
in the respective prefaces each maintains his right to be considered 
the more reliable authority in a fashion that has not yet become quite 
obsolete. A striking characteristic of each of these men, of Stephens in 
particular, is the readiness with which they raised to the rank of named 
species, forms which we now know to be only varieties. So far as 
trivial nomenclature goes, there is not a great amount of difference 
between them, both practically base their nomenclature on the Vienna 
Catalogue and Hiibner. Neither had any knowledge of the Continental 
collections and, as they frequently failed to identify their insects by the 
figures or descriptions of Continental authors, it came about that neAV 
names were given by them to many species differing from those in use 
abroad. In 1843 Henry Doubleday paid a visit to Paris, made the acquain¬ 
tance of Boisduval and Guenee, and found, on comparing some of our 
insects with the specimens in the splendid collection of M. Pierret, that 
species known by one name here, were called by another name there. On 
his return, yielding much against his inclination to the urgent pressure 
of his intimate friend Newman, he set to work to thoroughly examine 
our nomenclature, with a view to bringing it into accord with that in 
use in Prance. The result was the first edition of his Synonymic List, 
which was completed in 1850, and was based—so Stephens tells us— 
upon the 1840 edition of Boisduval’s Index Metliodicus. The reform 
effected was highly unpalatable to many of the older entomologists, 
but the List gradually laid hold of English workers until it became the 
standard authority in this country. In 1859 a second edition was 
published, in which a good many alterations—due to the influence of 
Guenee—were made ; and this was followed in 1865 by a Supplement. 
By this time Doubleday had become acquainted with Staudinger’s 
Catalogue of 1861, and substituted some of the names adopted in that 
work for those used by himself in 1859. Newman, whose well-known 
work was commenced in 1867, and completed early in 1871, adopts 
these names; we note epiphron for cassiope, medea for blandina, medon 
for agestis, icarus for alexis, malvoe for alveolus, isogrammata for 
haworthiata, &c. In 1871, the same year that Staudinger’s second 
edition saw the light, Mr. W. F. Kirby—then in Dublin, but now in 
