THE CENTURY AND THE LEPIDOPTEEIST. 41 



segments moniliform ; degree of coalescence of the last tAvo abdominal 

 segments. It is preferable to speak of the 1st to 3rd thoracic and the 

 1st to 10th abdominal segments, though it is perhaps most usual to 

 number the body segments from 2 to 13, counting the head as " joint 1," 

 and not numbering separately the anal plate and prolegs (10th 

 abdominal segment). Number and position of prolegs ; size of thoracic 

 legs and description of the crochets of abdominal prolegs ; relative 

 development of cervical shield, anal plate and leg shields ; the tubercles, 

 their development and modification ; their position, especially that of iv 

 of abdomen and ia of thorax ; number and modifications of setfe ; presence 

 of any secondary set». The latter points to be especially detailed in 

 stage 1. In Xocttiidac the exact position of tubercle iv in relation to 

 the spiracle on the successive segments promises to be a good character. 

 Coloration in detail, the position of the lines to be defined by their relation 

 to the tubercles, spiracles, and feet. Coloration and finer structure of 

 the setfe, including description of any specially modified or poisonous 

 hairs ; sculpturing of the skin ; presence of any eversible glands or 

 scent organs, more especially the ventral neck gland. 



The Century and the Lepidopterist. 



By Professor A. RADCLIFFE GROTE,,M.A. 

 In the beginning of the nineteenth century the lepidopterist is 

 chieHy collector, hoarding coveted treasures and devoting odd times 

 to looking up their counterfeits in the books of the eighteenth century 

 pictorialists. At the close he has become scientific. Considering 

 Malpighi and Eay, Swammerdam and Eoesel, he had plenty of 

 precedent, besides the inalienable right of becoming what he wanted 

 to be, but he was then satisfied with catching his flies, or appears to us 

 so to have been. The heights to which he rose were attained in putting 

 the new species in the books. Now the demon of enquiry and the 

 vanity of the world possess him. So much of the time as could 

 be spared by mankind from the occupations of robbery and murder 

 has been given, during the departed hundred years, to Science, and, 

 in the final results to knowledge, directly by observation and experi- 

 ment, indirectly through hypotheses proven, the collector of 

 lepidoptera has his share. To Wallace and Darwin he may be 

 particularly grateful — the middle of the century connects the 

 lepidopterist with the biologist most firmly. At the close of the 

 century the increasing division of social labour breeds specialists every- 

 where, but the specialist in the lepidoptera does not narrow, despite 

 commercialism and categorism he remains biologist. Herein lies the 

 gradual change. He has passed from his peaceful passivity and simple 

 ambition, to an active stumbling among fragmentary facts, combined with 

 the difficulty of expressing experience in unbroken English ; and upon 

 him, too, rests the burden of the new view of Nature — his increasing 

 movements excite increased antagonism. The methods of study have 

 deepened and widened. In the beginning of the century Hiibner is 

 satisfied with describing the colour, shape and markings of butterfly 

 wings, but then comes Herrich-Schiifier scraping off the scales to study 

 the underlying and supporting nervures, paying for his curiosity with 

 a more fretful existence. Afterwards Redtenbacher homologises the 

 neural structure of all the insects, and then comes Comstock to 



