THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 209 



THE BUTTERFLIES OF INDIA.* 

 Some three years or more ago, we noticed a work on the above sub- 

 ject by Marshall and de Niceville, of which two volumes had been 

 published, the last by de Niceville alone. A third volume of over 500 

 compact pages has just come to hand, the most notable thing about 

 which, at least to a dweller in temperate regions, is that it is wholly con- 

 cerned with the Lycaenidae, of which eighty-two genera and over four 

 hundred species are described. Such wealth in these pigmies among 

 butterflies is a striking fact. The author, however, beyond the generic 

 collocation, has made no attempt to classify this immense assemblage, 

 contenting himself with only distinguishing certain groups of genera by the 

 name of one of the included genera, as the " Thecla group," etc., which 

 groups are characterised in a general but not formal way in the body of the 

 work. These agree tolerably well with the groups Doherty had previously 

 characterised from the egg alone, but are about twice as numerous and 

 are established mainly upon the structural features of the imago. This 

 is better than Distant's artificial divisions, but there is plainly an open 

 field here for investigation, and one which there is apparently no need for 

 great delay in occupying, since (excepting the egg) the early stages of 

 Lycaeninae appear to offer less service to the systematist than in any 

 other group of butterflies. 



What will surprise one in this volume, is the very considerable 

 addition to our knowlege of the early stages of the Lycaeninse, for 

 excepting the Hesperidae, this group is in general the least know of 

 butterflies. Yet something is recorded of no less than thirty-four genera, 

 much of it new, and in many a good deal of interesting history is related. 

 This is a great improvement on the preceding volumes. One particular 

 case, that of the pomegranate butterfly, whose history was briefly and 

 partially given by Westwood, seems valuable enough to reprint for the 

 benefit of American readers ; and another, Curetis thetis, may well be 

 mentioned here : — " The twelfth segment [of the larva] bears two most 

 extraordinary structures, which consist of two diverging, cylindrical, 

 rigid pillars, arising from the subdorsal region and of a pale green colour. 

 When the insect is touched or alarmed, from each pillar is everted a deep 

 maroon tentacle as long as the rigid pillar, bearing at its end long 



»n 



*The Butterflies of India, Burmah and Ceylon. By Lionel de Niceville, Calcutta. 

 Vol. 3. 12 + 503 pp. 6 pi. 1890. 8°. 



