fl|^ Cauatltnti Jiit0m0l(j0bt. 



Vol. XXVIIL LONDON, JANUARY, 1896. No. i. 



WILLIAM H. EDWARDS. 



Our readers will all, we are sure, be glad to receive with the first 

 number of a new volume of the Canadian Entomologist the accom- 

 panying excellent portrait of the well-known and now venerable 

 Entomologist, Mr. W. H. Edwards, of Coalburgh, West Virginia. Ilis 

 life-long work has been the study of Diurnal Lepidoptera, and the results 

 of that work are splendidly set forth in the beautifully illustrated volumes 

 of his "Butterflies of North America." In April, iS68, the first part 

 was issued, and at once commended itself to entomologists everywhere 

 by the exquisite beauty and finish of the plates and their faithfulness to 

 nature. In July, 1872, the first Series, forming a large quarto 

 volume with fifty plates, was completed. The second Series, containing 

 fifty-one plates, was begun in May, 1874, but not finished until Novem- 

 ber. 1884, the less frequent issue of the parts being more than compen- 

 sated for by the increased value of both plates and letterpress. When 

 the work was begun, as Mr. Edwards stated in his preface, little or 

 nothing was known of the eggs, larvae or chrysalids of any except tiie 

 comm.onest butterflies, and accordingly his first volume illustrated only 

 the perfect state. In 1870 he made the notable discovery that eggs 

 could be satisfactorily obtained by confining the female butterfly of any 

 species with the growing food-plant of its larva, and at once began the 

 study of the life-histories of a number of species previously known only 

 in the imago state. The results of these studies are admirably set forth 

 in the letterpress as well as in the plates of the second and third Series ; 

 on these are accurately depicted eggs and larvae in their different stages, 

 as well as chrysalids and imagoes. Many wonderful discoveries have 

 been made during these investigations, among the first being that of the 

 seasonal trimorphism of Papilio Ajax, and the dimorphism of Grapta 

 Interrogatiojiis, and of G. Comvia. The process of breeding was soon: 

 taken up by Mr. Edwards's friends and correspondents all over North 

 .America, and, aided by the general extension of railways over the Con- 

 i| tinent, he was. able to get eggs of butterflies from widely distant localities,' 



