FORBES: LEPIDOPTERA 543 



on the eastern species. Holland's Butterfly Book (1898) started a new era, for it 

 first figured practically all the butterflies, for both East and West, and at a price 

 the public could easily pay. (It also started the present writer on the Lepidop- 

 tera.) In the present half -century local butterfly books have continued to ap- 

 pear. J. H. Comstock's Hoiu to Know the Butterflies (1904) was more complete 

 on early stages and more compact than Holland, but served for the East only. 

 On the West Coast Wright (1905) would probably have replaced Holland, if the 

 earthquake of 1906 had not destroyed most of the edition. It was perhaps less 

 critical than Holland, but more richly illustrated, and is our chief record of 

 identifications current on the Coast before the fire. For instance, his figures of 

 Pamphila ruricola, and J. A. Comstock's figures can be reconciled with the 

 original description, whereas the supposed type and more recent identifications 

 (e.g., of the brown Atrytone vest^'is) cannot. 



In the most recent period J. A. Comstock's Butterflies of California and 

 Klots' Field Guide to the Butterflies will probably dominate their respective 

 areas. 



In more scientific classification rather than the discovery and identification of 

 species, another series of authors and works have dominated the field. Here two 

 works stand above the others, even from a world point of view: Doubleday's 

 Genera for the first clear picture of the world classification as a whole, and 

 Scudder's Butterflies of Eastern North America for the only integration of 

 characters of all stages. Except in the skippers and special studies of limited 

 groups the only other work worth mentioning is Sehatz's Exotische Schmetter- 

 linge: Familien und Gattunge7i der Tag falter (1892), which is roughly the 

 generic part of Doubleday, revised, extended, and brought up to its date. At that 

 time the genitalic and larval characters had not been properly studied for the 

 definition of genera and higher groups, and the time is now more than ripe for 

 another Doubleday or Schatz. Schatz died in the midst of his work, and the 

 classification of the Lycaenidae by Rober represents a lower level of quality. 



The major classification of the skippers has had a separate history. Doubleday 

 did little with them, Schatz and Rober omitted them, and their serious study prac- 

 tically begins with Scudder. Druce, in the Biologia (1893-1901), and AVatson 

 (1893) extended the scientific approach to a world point of view. More recently 

 Lindsey, Bell, and Williams have given us an integrated picture for the United 

 States (Denison Univ. Bull. Journ. Sci. Labor., Vol. 26, 1931). But Evans' 

 World Revision will be the definitive work : the Africans were published in 1937, 

 Eurasians and Australians in 1949, Americans are beginning to appear, and 

 we hope the rest is in press. All the critical work on skippers has included the 

 genitalia, starting with Scudder and Burgess in 1870; but knowledge of early 

 stages has been too fragmentary for any one to go much farther than Scudder did. 



Outside the United States the chief region where the butterflies are a special 

 study has been England, I suppose because only in English are there distinc- 

 tive words for "moth" and "butterfly." Here the works are far beyond count- 

 ing; I might only mention that I turn most often to South 's Butterflies of the 

 British Isles. 



Classification below the species has gone farthest also in the butterfiies. Here 

 we have had a rather violent change in point of view. In the first half of our 

 century most workers who went below the species were chiefly interested in bio- 



