THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



CATALOGUE OF THE LEPIDOPTERA OF AMERICA NORTH 



OF MEXICO. 



Part I — Diurnals ; by W. H. Edwards. 



Published by the American Entomological Society, Philadelphia, 8vo., 

 pp. 68. Price, $i ; interleaved for additions, $1.30. 



This work of Mr. Edwards' is conservative in its character, and as 

 such is most refreshing ; after having tried in vain to fathom the innova- 

 tions with which we have for the past few years been perplexed, this 

 excellent catalogue comes to our rescue, and will, we feel sure, be appre- 

 ciated by all who do not believe in the excessive multiplication of genera 

 and their establishment on minute and often variable characters. Here 

 the dear old familiar names are nearly all in their places again, and we 

 go back to the time-honored method of heading our collections with 

 Papilio, and em.bracing in it some 22 species. For ourselves, we have for 

 some time past been literally at sea in reference to names for butterflies, 

 wandering about without chart or compass to direct us ; we scarcely knew 

 the name of any species, and didn't expect ever to have the time or dispo- 

 sition to master the new names proposed, and hence we have been so dis- 

 couraged that we have done really nothing to our collection of butterflies 

 for a long time past. We are not disposed to object to changes in no- 

 menclature where it can be made to appear that a necessity for such modi- 

 fications exists, but Ave have been unable to see any good reason for adopt- 

 ing the wholesale changes which have been proposed, and we believe 

 that the great bulk of working Entomologists hold the same view. With a 

 catalogue now more to our mind, sufficiently progressive, and, at the 

 same time, a most convenient help, we shall be able to classify our species 

 under genera we can comprehend, and go to work with a will again. 



In the general arrangement the author, while adopting and incor- 

 porating some of the work of later systematists, adheres mainly to the 

 order of Doubleday and his associates in the " Genera of Diurnal Lepi- 

 doptera," and where the genera have numerous species, as in Colias, 

 Argynnis, T/iechi, Lycaena, Pamphila, &c., they are for the sake of con- 

 venience divided into sections. In crediting genera the author strictly 

 follows the rules adopted by American Entomologists at the recent 

 meeting in Buffalo, and appends the name of the party who first gave the 

 genus a proper definition. For this reason Hiibner's genera are excluded 



