Abstract
WE congratulate the authorities of the British Museum and the indefatigable author on the steady progress of this important work, of which a fresh volume appears, with almost clockwork regularity, every two years. The present volume is the second devoted to the Noctuidse, and contains the second subfamily, the HadeninEe. These are much less showy moths than those dealt with in the first three volumes of the series, and are more subdued in their colouring; but they are perhaps more interesting to British entomologists, for the family is fairly well represented in the northern hemisphere, although in a work devoted to the moths of the whole world, British, or indeed European, species are few and far between. The work is profusely illustrated, the descriptions are full but not too lengthy, and short notices of larvas, where known (some of which are here published for the first time), have been included. The keys to the genera and the tables of species will also be found very useful by working entomologists. A table of the phylogeny of the 78 genera into which the author divides the Hadeninse is given on p. 2, but without comment, which we think is wise, for such tables, in the present state of our knowledge, can only be tentative; and comments on the supposed affinities of genera have often a tendency to become too dogmatic.
Catalogue of the Lepidoptera Phalaenae in the British Museum.
Vol. v. Catalogue of the Noctuidæ in the Collection of the British Museum. By Sir George F. Hampson., Bart. Pp. xvi + 634; pls. lxxviii–xcv. (London: Printed by Order of the Trustees, 1905.)
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Catalogue of the Lepidoptera Phalaenae in the British Museum . Nature 72, 174 (1905). https://doi.org/10.1038/072174a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/072174a0