OF WASHINGTON. 169 



tions, but most excellent figures of his species. To this is added 

 his widely known work on the larvae, in which many points of 

 both special and general interest appear. His chief fault is that 

 he never correllated his work. He never published any synoptic 

 tables, though his work is partly systematized by his catalogue. 

 Neither by any one else have the North American butterflies been 

 properly placed together and studied. Scudder's remarkable 

 work covers only the Eastern species, and G. H. French's very 

 excellent little book (published in 1886) has the same range. Dr. 

 W. J. Holland's " Butterfly Book " covers the field, but it is 

 adapted only for beginners, being essentially a picture-book with 

 lamentably meagre text. In nomenclature the greatest possible 

 difference exists between Scudder and Edwards. Scudder ap 

 plied the rule of priority to generic names rigidly and fully and 

 made many genera. Edwards disregarded the law, using any 

 generic name that happened to be current, and made few genera. 

 In the future a middle course between these courses will probably 

 be adopted. More genera than Edwards recognized will be used, 

 less than Scudder recognized ; while the law of priority will 

 have to be followed. 



After Scudder and Edwards there remain but few special stu 

 dents of North American butterflies. Dr. Henry Skinner has a 

 good collection, and he has published a paper on the genus 

 Ccenonympha, which, if followed by others, would give a mono 

 graphic treatment of our butterflies which is much needed. But 

 Dr. Skinner has not evinced a disposition to follow up this work 

 with vigor, and he has not studied the larvae, a prime requisite 

 for a specialist in the group. Mr. Wm. Beutenmuller has given 

 a good paper on the old genus Ant ho char is, though he is not 

 specially a student of the butterflies. 



In the Sphingidae almost nothing has been done in the period 

 we are considering. Mr. Beutenmiiller has published the life 

 histories of some species, but his descriptions are altogether too 

 brief. Dr. Packard has given us a few life histories and pointed 

 out the good field awaiting the student who would study our 

 larvae on the lines laid down by Weismann and Poulton ; but no 

 one has seriously attempted this. 



In the Saturnians scarcely more has been done than in the 

 Sphingidae. Mr. Neumoegen and the writer " revised" the 



