FORBES: LEPIDOPTERA 541 



from his Fauna Suecica, as well as in a few other groups of animals. I very 

 much doubt if the experiment looked as important at the time as it turned out 

 to be. Almost contemporary is Lyonet's Traite Anatomique de la Chenille 

 (1760), so thorough a piece of Avork that, when I dissected the muscular system of 

 the tent caterpillar I found this publication more accurate than any later work; 

 and when Williams rediscovered the prothoracic endocrine gland of the cater- 

 pillar, he found it already figured and discussed by Lyonet! 



Then came the great period of the picture books, adding up to a pretty clear 

 view of the Lepidoptera of the world. Iliibner's great series on the European 

 Lepidoptera approached completeness in the butterflies and larger moths, and 

 gave a well-balanced view of the micros. Also, his Geschichte is the basis of our 

 real knowledge of the European caterpillars, and his beautiful figures have been 

 copied and recopied right up to modern times. For the exotics nothing remotely 

 resembling completeness was then available, but there were good recognizable 

 figures of all the larger forms from every part of the world, chiefly through 

 the work of Cramer (continued by Stoll) and the publications by Hiibner, with 

 Geyer and then Herrich-Schaeffer, and the appearance of many lesser but still 

 important series, continuing into the century of our present interest. Less pre- 

 tentious in appearance than these illustrated series, but far more scientific in 

 purpose and intended completeness was the French Encyclopedie methodique, 

 beginning with a massive introduction in 1789 and treating (1790-1824) every 

 genus and apparently every known species of Lepidoptera from Alucita to 

 Papilio. It then broke down, with descriptions of relatively few species of 

 Phalaena- and the remaining genera; but the butterflies {"PapiUon") occupy 

 a whole volume. The publication by Smith and Boisduval of a number of Ab- 

 bot's drawings, gave the first clear view of the North American caterpillars, 

 and this was supplemented by less pretentious accounts (primarily of economic 

 species) by Peck, Harris, and others. 



The last major event before 1853 was the publication of Doubleday's Genera 

 of Diurnal Lepidoptera (1846-1852). This work put the classification of the true 

 butterflies on such a solid basis that the major part of it stands to this day. The 

 skippers have needed more drastic revision — and they really still need it. 



For the century 1853-1953 we may profitably divide our review into fields 

 of study. 



Taxonomy 



The field of taxonomy naturally divides into discovery of kinds, cataloguing, 

 and scientific classification. 



In 1853 several major works, particularly on the moths, were going through 

 the press. Doubleday's Genera of Butterflies had included a complete catalogue; 

 but Walker was working on his "List" of the moths for the British Museum, which 

 included short descriptions as well as bibliography, and is in fact the last review 

 of the world fauna to be completed. Guenee was working on the moths on a 

 rather more generous scale for the Suites a Buff on, but of this only a few fami- 

 lies were completed, essentially the Noctuidae, Geometridae (Phalenites), and 

 Pyralididae. There has been no complete revision of these three families since, 



2. Note that in the Encyclopedie, as in every following publication for nearly a cen- 

 tury, Phalaena, if used at all, meant the geometers, not the noctuids. 



