1896.] New Books 071 British Zoology. 287 



British Butterflies, beingr a popular Handbook for young 

 Students and Collectors. By J. W. Tutt, f.e.s. London: 

 George Gill and Sons, 1896. Pp. 469, plates ir, and 45 figures in text. 

 Price 5J-. 



This work is an attempt to supply beginners in the study of our native 

 butterflies with an introduction to the subject, which shall give due 

 regard to recent work in morphology and classification. It cannot be 

 denied that the books on British lepidoptera which issue in rapid 

 succession from the press are, as a rule, too stereotyped in treatment, and 

 too conservative in arrangement. Entomologists who wish to see the 

 advance of their favourite science in these countries will be grateful to 

 Mr, Tutt for having produced the present volume. 



The author confesses in the preface that the book is " utterly inadequate 

 as a finished manual." Nevertheless the beginner will find in it enough 

 information to serve as a foundation for his studies. It is a pity that 

 there is nothing of the nature of a bibliography to direct the student to 

 original sources for more advanced study. There are chapters on eo-o-- 

 laying and eggs, caterpillars and how to obtain them, and chrysalids, 

 which give a good general idea of lepidopterous development. We are 

 glad to see that in writing of caterpillars, Mr. Tutt abandons the old 

 incorrect method of reckoning the head as a single segment and 

 numbering the body-segments two, three, &c. ; he adopts a nomencla- 

 ture that shows the correspondence of the segments in the larval and 

 perfect stages. It is a pity however that he should write " the horny 

 biting jaws of the caterpillar give place to the spiral sucking tongue of 

 the butterfly," in a connection which might lead the student to regard 

 the two sets of organs as homologous ; especially as he elsewhere states 

 the correct homology of the sucking-tube of the imagine with the 

 rudimentary maxillae of the larva. In describing the pupa, Mr. Tutt 

 naturally draws largely on the recent important researches of Dr. 

 Chapman, pointing out that, as development proceeds from lower 

 lepidopterous families to higher, a greater number of pupal segments 

 tend to become fused. We are surprised however that no acknowledo-- 

 ment to Dr. Chapman is to be found either in the text or in the preface. 

 The paragraph on p. 47, in which the temperature-experiments, pre- 

 sumably of such investigators asWeismann, Merrifieldand Standfuss, are 

 referred to, seems to show that*Mr. Tutt is apt to state too positively his 

 opinions on points still under discussion. 



There are short chapters on hybernation and aestivation, and on 

 variation, but in the systematic part of the work much space is devoted 

 to the description and naming of varieties and aberrations. There are 

 the usual chapters on catching, setting, and preserving insects ; we wish 

 that Mr. Tutt had seen his way to recommend the abandonment of 

 curved setting-boards. Very valuable is the chapter inculcating the 

 careful labelling and recording of insects, and we hope Mr. Tutt's readers 

 will take it to heart. 



