Vol. Xxiv] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS 335 



cry of the Lepidoptera which often rests on weak supports. My own 

 attitude toward the latter is to be seen in the concluding section." 



The author's starting points are the variation in colors of animals, 

 the close relation between color and the conditions of life, all color 

 variations not necessarily useful, but some kinds may be so (p. 3), and 

 thus the contents of the book are grouped under the four headings of : 

 I. Schutzfarbung (protective coloration). II. Schiitzende Aehnlichkeit 

 (protecting resemblance). III. Warnfarbung (warning coloration) and 

 IV. Mimikry oder schiitzende Nachaffung (mimicry or protecting 

 mimicking). To these four chapters are devoted 7, 34, 17 and 141 

 pages respectively. "Schutzfarbung" is the assumption by an animal 

 of the color only of its surroundings ; "schiitzende Aehnlichkeit" in- 

 volves both color and form of the environment. The looseness with 

 which many writers have employed the term mimicry is justly con- 

 demned and the original meaning is emphasized as "the protecting 

 resemblance to avoided animals of other animals dwelling in the same 

 place." (p. 64). 



After general consideration of mimicry in vertebrates, spiders and 

 insects, special sections are devoted to "Sphecoidie," or mimicking of 

 stinging Hymenoptera ; "Myrmecoidie" or the mimicking of ants; the 

 mimicking of beetles ; mimicry among Lepidoptera ; and the general 

 characteristics of mimetic Lepidoptera. 



The examples cited throughout the book, while not limited to in- 

 sects, are largely drawn from that class. Although a four page biblio- 

 graphy is given at the conclusion of the text, many other references to 

 papers of less importance appear in the footnotes all through the 

 work. Various theories, as natural selection, orthogenesis, are con- 

 sidered in their explanations of color phenomena. The author will 

 not accept the views of Weismann in their entirety, nor does he hesi- 

 tate to criticise the exponents of both opposed schools of interpreta- 

 tion of the value of colors, such as Professor Poulton and Mynheer 

 Piepers. He concludes that "the theory of protecting adaptations by 

 color and form has probability" (p. 42), and inclines "to explain the 

 theory of mimicry in relation to Lepidoptera as a disproved hypothesis, 

 a great, although also scientifically highly fruitful, error of nature- 

 investigation" (p. 199). 



Dr. Jacobi's book seems to have achieved the object which he sets 

 forth in his preface in an excellent and very useful way. P. P. C. (Ad- 

 vertisement). 



\Ye are requested to state that Mr. A. G. Scorers' Entomologists' 

 Log-Book and Dictionary of the Life-Histories and Food Plants of 

 the British Macro-Lepidoptera, noticed in the NEWS for June, page 285, 

 may be obtained in the United States from E. P. Button & Co., 681 

 Fifth Avenue, New York. (Advertisement). 



