1907.) 113 



stirps " of the Lepidoptera, tlicir closest relatives being found in such " moths " as 

 the Castniids, Notodontids, Noctuids, &c. The chapters on the photographing of 

 the eggs of butterflies, contributed by Mr. A. E. Tonga, and those on the methods 

 to be employed in finding and obtaining the ova themselves, as well as the larvae, 

 are taken from Mr. Tutt's well-known " Practical Hints for the Field Lepidopterist," 

 and will be read again in this connection with renewed interest. Even more 

 valuable and suggestive are the two clia]jters (IX and X) entitled "The Association 

 of Ants with Butterfly LarvEe," and " Carnivorous Habits of Butterfly Larvse." 

 Most of the known instances of ants attending on, protecting, and deriving nutri- 

 ment from (one might almost say " milking ") the larvse of Lycaenid butterflies 

 relate to exotic, and especially to Oriental and Australian species ; but a full 

 account of the association of our little ant, Formica Jlava, with the long-sought 

 larva of Lyr^ena arion, quite recently observed by Mr. F. W. Frohawk (Entom., 

 vol. XXXVI, pp. 58-60), is given on pp. 36, 37. Chapters XII, " On the Silk- 

 spinning Habit of Butterfly Larvae," and XIII, " On the Coloration of Butterfly 

 Larvae," in which the subject is regarded from the standpoints of "cryptic "and 

 " warning " coloration, are also of very great interest, especially from the evolutionary 

 point of view. The external and internal structure of the butterfly larva is fully 

 detailed in chapters VII and VIII, the interesting subjects of the aestivation and 

 hibernation of the larva being postponed to a succeeding volume. 



Turning now to the butterflies dealt with in this volume, the large scale on 

 which the work is carried out admits of only ten species being included, namely, 

 our eight " Urbicolides " or so-called " skippers " (Mr. Tutt omits all mention of 

 the reported occurrence of Hexperia alveus, Hiibn., in Norfolk) and our two 

 " Coppers," Rumicia (Chrysophanus) phiseas, L., and the long-extinct Chrysophanus 

 dispar, Haw. The general consideration of the superfamily " Ruralides," to which 

 the two last -mentioned species, and our familiar " Hairstreaks " and "Blues," as 

 well as our solitary representative of the great Erycinid group, Hamearis (Nemeo- 

 biusj lucina, L.,are now referred, and the historical summary of their arrangement 

 by successive systematists from Linne onwards, occupies sixteen pages (298-314) ; 

 while to Rumicia phi aias itself no fewer than eighty-four (330—414), many of them 

 in small type, are devoted. The treatment of this species may be taken as a fair 

 sample of the thorough manner in which the whole work is to be executed ; and 

 while it seems to us that a comprehensive scheme of tabulation of such details as 

 the times of appearance, distribution at home and abroad, &c., would have facilitated 

 reference in the case of this and the other species comprised in the volume, 

 Lepidopterists, one and all, will be grateful to Mr. Tutt for having brought together 

 so great a mass of interesting information on one of our most familiar and .beautiful 

 butterflies. The variation — climatic, seasonal, and geographical — of Rumicia phlxas, 

 as of all the other species, is most fully worked out, and a large number of varieties 

 and aberrations, more or less marked, are for the first time indicated and described. 

 The minute and carefully arranged account of the various stages of the life-history 

 (pp. 380-396) will be read with great interest, as will the very full summary of the 

 history of Chrysophanus dispar as a British butterfly, and the story of its extinction 

 (pp. 42U-428). The life-history of this species has been for the first time completed 

 by the study of the metamorphoses of the Continental form, rulilus, Wern. ; and 



