Biologia Centrali-Americana

Abstract

AS already stated in NATURE (December 23, 1915, p. 448), the publication in 1915 of the volume under review and of Dr. Godman's “Introductory Volume” marks the completion of the great series of works forming the Biologia Centrali-Americana. Lord Walsingham's contribution deals with the micro-moths of the groups Tineina, Pterophorina, and Orneodina, and includes a supplement to Pyralidina and Hepialina. As he explains in his introduction, the task has been accomplished, not by himself alone, but by the combined efforts of three specialists, the other two being Mr. J. Hartley Durrant, and Mr. August Busck of the United States Department of Agriculture. Lord Walsingham had already commenced to study the material so long ago as 1895, but several causes have delayed the appearance of the volume, notably the decision to extend it far beyond its original scope as a faunistic treatise, “and to give it special value for the future guidance of all students of the Microlepidoptera.” It soon became apparent that previously adopted lines of classification were inadequate for dealing with so little known a fauna. Therefore a correlation of the various systems and a revision of the limits of existing family-divisions were undertaken—a study which has produced interesting results.

Biologia Centrali-Americana.

Insecta. Lepidoptera-Heterocera. Vol. iv. By the Rt. Hon. Lord Walsingham. Pp. xii + 482, plates x. (London: Dulau and Co., Ltd., 1909–1915.)