540 A CENTURY OF PROGRESS IN THE NATURAL SCIENCES 



synoptic treatments available for the faunas of several large areas — Europe 

 (McLaehlan, 1874-1884), Russia and Siberia (Martynov, 1934), South Africa 

 (Barnard, 1934, 1940), India (Martynov, 1935, 1936; and Mosely, 1933-1949), 

 Sunda Islands and the Philippines (Ulmer, 1930, 1951), eastern and central 

 North America (Betten, 1934; Ross, 1944), and Australia and New Zealand 

 (Mosely and Kimmins, 1952). Many species of other areas are well diagnosed. 

 The excellence of the literature is a real tribute to the high standards of de- 

 scription and illustration set by the pioneer workers in the group. 



Three areas of future study beckon the student of Trichoptera. First is the 

 recognition of the many species yet unknown, requiring study of accumulated 

 material and additional collecting in poorly known areas. Second is the need for 

 understanding the identification characters and physiological requirements of 

 larvae, so that these may be used as index organisms and possibly as habitat con- 

 ditioners in the control of pollution and in fish management. And third, there 

 is the need to integrate all this on a world basis, so that we may learn more 

 about the evolution and dispersal pattern of the Trichoptera and apply these 

 findings to the solution of some of the many vexing problems confronting the 

 evolutionist and ecologist. 



LEPIDOPTERA 



William T. M. Forbes 



Cornell University 



Like most things in the fields of philosophy and science, the serious study 

 of the Lepidoptera starts with Aristotle, who used the cabbage butterfly and 

 the native silkworm (probably Saturnia pyri or Pachypasa otus) as examples 

 of metamorphosis. If we may judge by Pliny, his classical followers added little 

 in fact and nothing in method, and the revival of science after a millenium and 

 a half produced quite a little new factual material, but showed little improve- 

 ment in the casual method of presentation used by such workers as Redi and 

 Aldrovandi, Swammerdam and Leeuwenhoek, Mouffet, and even Petiver. 



Mme. Merian's little book of fifty plates, with a short text, on an equal num- 

 ber of Lepidoptera with their caterpillars and a word on their biology, makes 

 a step forward in the orderly presentation of the group, and this was soon fol- 

 lowed (1679, 1683, 1718) by a hundred more, giving for the first time a unified 

 picture of the order for any region. In the same period (1705) she also opened 

 the tropical Lepidoptera to our view including the larvae, with sixty plates, from 

 Surinam. 1 



The next high spot is the sixth edition of Linnaeus' Systema Naturae, in 

 which he tries out his new binomial system on nearly forty Lepidoptera selected 



1. I do not cite the exact titles of these two works, for they differ in the German, 

 Dutch, Latin, and French editions; tliey can be found in Hagen's Bibliotheca, Horn and 

 Schlenkling, or Stuldreher-Nienliuis' biography of Mme. Merian. 



