A SHOKT SKETCH OF ENTOMOLOGICAL SERIAL LITEnATUKE IN BKITAIN. 63 



appearance of Wilkinson's volume on the Tortricea showed much patient 

 labour, but, probably from the lack of figures, it did not give that 

 stimulus to the study of this group of insects which Stainton's work 

 did to that of the Thuina. I can only mention the series of half- 

 guinea volumes published by Messrs. Eeeves, all of them good in their 

 way, and illustrated with plates, amongst which are Rye's JJcefU's, 

 Shuckhard's Jlees, Stainton's Lcjiiild/itcra, and Staveley's Jiritifih 

 Insects, the latter a general treatise on all orders. This, I believe, 

 suggested to mu the first idea of making my educational collection, 

 w'hich, as I have told you in a previous address, gave the birth to all 

 that kind of work more recently done by our member, Mr. Mosley. 



If Stainton was a star of the first magnitude Edward Newman 

 ■was certainly not far behind in his interest in entomology. And when, 

 in 1869, he began to publish his British Maths, it was at once felt 

 that it supplied a pressing want, by giving accurate figures, though 

 noc coloured, of all our larger moths ; and the success of the work 

 caused him to re-issue his Buttcrfliefi in uniform size, which had 

 previously appeared in a publication called Younij England. Such 

 works as Morris' lluttcrjUes and Moths, Owen Wilson's Larrae, with 

 plates painted by J\Irs. Wilson, and Kirby's European Butterflies and 

 Moths, we have not time to more than mention, and with the many 

 publications of the Eay Society, several of which are on entomological 

 subjects, you are already acquainted. The one which most concerns 

 the members of this society is that on Larvae of British Lepidoptera, 

 being the embodiment of the labours of half a lifetime - the taking 

 of portraits of larvjB by the late Wm. Buckler. We are indebted to 

 the late Mr. H. T. Stainton, and latterly to Mr. Porritt, for the able 

 manner in which they have edited this work, of which seven volumes 

 have appeared, the eighth being now in the press, and the ninth and 

 last we are promised shortly. 



Among the promised books to be brought out by this valuable 

 society, we must make mention of a work on the British C'occidae, 

 by our deserving and much respected member, Mr. Robert Newstead. 

 It is to be in two volumes, and, I am sure, we shall all rejoice at the 

 honour which has been justly paid to one who has done so much for 

 our own society. 



In connection with the periodical literature, I have already 

 mentioned the name of our member, Mr. Mosley, and in 1877, he 

 issued the first number oi his Illustrated Varieties of British Lepidoptera , 

 the figures in which were entirely hand-drawn and hand-painted by 

 himself. The number of subscribers w^as very limited. The object 

 was to represent the aberrations in private collections not otherwise 

 known to the public. The numbers were rather erratic in their 

 appearance, partly owing to the difliculty of obtaining information as 

 to where the aberrations existed, and permission to make use of them, 

 so that it took many years to complete one volume, and owing to 

 deaths of subscribers, and other causes, very few copies exist. It is 

 my privilege, however, to be the possessor of one of them, and I am 

 proud to say many of my own aberrations are therein conspicuous. 

 The figures are now being continued in a cheaper form in The 

 Naturalists' Journal. In 1884, he commenced his Knropean Butterflies, 

 which occupied three volumes, completed in 1894. Also hand-drawn 

 and hand-painted. Every European species is figured, except about 

 three, which Mr. Mosley found it impossible to procure by any means. 

 There are about 1,000 figures in this work, and they are so accurately 



