THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 157 



BOOK NOTICES. 



A Natural History of the British Lepidoptera. — By J. VV. Tutt, F. 

 E. S.; Vol. I. Swan, Sonnenschein & Co., London, 1899. 



In this excellent work of 560 pages the first twelve chapters are 

 devoted to the origin of the Lepidoptera ; the ovum or egg ; the embry- 

 ology of a lepidopterous larva ; parthenogenesis, external and internal 

 structure of a lepidopterous larva ; variation of the imagines ; protective 

 coloration and defensive structures of lepidopterous larviE and classifi- 

 cation of the Lepidoptera, with a plate on which is given a phylogenetic 

 tree, illustrating the development of the lepidopter from a hypothetical 

 base. Part II. is devoted to the Sphingo-micropterygid stirps, the 

 Mycropterygids, the Nepticulides, the Cochlidides and the Anthrocerides. 



This first volume on the British Lepidoptera is a model in its way, 

 and gives promise that when the entire work is completed little will 

 be left to be desired. One would have expected a chapter on the pupal 

 stage following that on the larva, but probably this will appear in a 

 future volume, as well as the anatomical structure of the imago. The 

 subjects in the first part are dealt with very fully, and it would almost 

 appear that every writer of importance had been culled from, yet the 

 work is not entirely a compilation, for the author's own observations and 

 conclusions are everywhere in evidence. 



The subjects of the second part are even more exhaustively treated 

 than those in the first, which is very proper in a work of this character. 

 Six pages and a half are devoted to the first insect dealt with, Micropteryx 

 caltheUa, L., under the headings : synonymy, original description, imago, 

 sexual dimorphism, variation, comparison with other species, egg-layings 

 ovum, habits of larva, larva, cocoon, pupa, food-plant, habitat, time of 

 appearance, localities and distribution. It is rather discouraging to the 

 student of North American micros to see how full and complete a history 

 is given of these insects in England, while our knowledge of the species 

 in this country stands in comparison to what remains to be learned like 

 small and remote oases in the great desert. It is impossible to do 

 justice to a work of this character in the short space that can be allowed, 

 but no worker on the Lepidoptera should be without it. 



C. H. Fernald. 



