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1969
Journal of the Lepidopterists' Society
241
BOOK REVIEW
The Moth Book, a Guide to the Moths of North America, by W. J. Holland. xxiv-^79 pp., & 48 plates in color. Reprint ed., 1968, Dover Press, 180 Varick St., New York. $5.00, paperback.
Although lepidopterists have long condemned The Moth Book as incomplete and obsolete, no replacement manual has been forthcoming, and both amateurs and professionals still find Holland's work a useful reference. Inasmuch as it has been out of print for many years and has demanded increasingly inappropriate prices by book dealers, the reprint edition should find instant popularity.
In this edition Holland's text is reprinted unabridged and unaltered except for correction of a few typographical errors. It has been supplemented by a series of footnotes by A. E. Brower, of Augusta, Maine, which clarify some nomenclatural discrepancies and taxonomic errors according to present usage. As indicated by Brower in a forward, a thorough revision of the text would have required an enormous amount of work by a number of specialists. However, it is a shame that at least up-to-date generic assignments could not have been given, for example simply as duplicate explanations of plates. This would have required relatively little work by a few specialists. It would have been a simple matter to list combinations as given in McDunnough's Checklist or in more recent revisions, such as Michener's 1953 classification of the Saturniidae and Engelhardt's 1946 treatment of the aegeriids (MacKay's 1968 revision having not yet been published).
The situation is compounded somewhat in the micros, since Brower's footnotes in groups like the Noctuidae presumably are more comprehensive. For example, Croesia semipurpurana (Kearfott), misidentified as albicomana Clemens by Holland, has been emended to the correct species by Brower, but has been left in Tortrix, although Tortrix was restricted and Croesia resurrected by Obraztsov in 1955. Similarly, in other tortricids (Plate 48), the moth called Platynota flavedana Clemens (fig. 24) looks more like an olethreutine, such as Hedia or Apotomis; the female shown in fig. 32 probably is Archips purpuranus (Clemens), not Choristoneura rosaceana (Harris); macrocarpana Walsingham (fig. 26) should be referred to Henricus, alisellana Robinson (fig. 39) to Argyrotaenia, the species in fig. 40 is a member of the inconditana complex, not tunicana Walsingham, and it should be referred to Sparganothis.
Mechanically the Dover edition is excellent. The color on Tie whole is good, not as good as the original edition, but better for many plates than some of the subsequent editions I have seen. The text, reproduced on a 6-% X 4 inch bed (about 7-% X 5-% inch for the plates), is clear throughout. The paper is opaque with minimal show-through and is advertised to not discolor or become brittle with age. The pages are sewn in signatures, not glued individually as in many paperbacks; thus the book will open flat for easy reference and is readily available for permanent binding.
The Dover Press is to be congratulated on having issued this edition at a reasonable price, making Holland's popular work again available to students and the general public.—Jerry A. Powell, University of California, Berkeley.
Cactus-feeding Insects and Mites, by John Mann. U. S. National Museum, Bulletin 256; x + 158 pp. & 8 halftone plates. Smithsonian Inst., Washington, D. C, 1969; $1.25, paper cover.
This publication deals with the species believed to be restricted to the family Cactaceae. Included are about 50 pyralids, mostly Phycitinae, half a dozen miscellaneous micros, and one butterfly, "Thecla" melanis Drury. Scavenger moths, flower