ILLUSTRATIONS OF LEPIDOPTER.V BEING IMPRINTS OF IMPRESSIONS. 71 



numerous larvae, niostly of curious form and depicted in various staples, 

 are well worth attention. The 48 plates of colour-photography in 

 The nntWrriy Honk, by W. J. Holland (New York, 1898), are probably 

 a move in the right direction. The great difficulty in this process is 

 evidently how to deal with an insect's body and the bases of the 

 wings. The Ehnpaloccra AHhiopica, by Chr. Aurivillius (Stockholm, 

 1898, text in German), contains some beautiful figures of African 

 butterflies by Swedish artists. African lepidoptera are also very finely 

 figured in Saalmueller's Ij'pidoptera mn Madat/aacar, published at 

 Frankfurt-am-Main, 1884-91. In the I'ransactionsnf thr P}nt(»i>(tlo(/ical 

 Society of London, a great many fine plates, mostly illustrative of new 

 species, will be found. 



The above remarks refer in nearly every case to the original edition 

 of the work mentioned. In reissues, the plates are, as a rule, inferior. 

 In the more important cases, two or more copies of a work have been 

 examined. This was only possible, because the fine libraries of the 

 Natural History Museum at South Kensington, and that of the 

 Entomological Society of London, besides the shelves in private 

 libraries, were open to inspection. 



During the seventeenth century no very great strides Avere made in 

 the art of portraying the lepidoptera, but while the eighteenth century 

 was still young Sepp's light arose and shone with a power which has 

 scarcely been equalled, and only very rarely approached. Eoesel 

 hardly reaches to this height but excels in the minuteness of his draw- 

 ing. Towards the end of the century Germany produced another artist 

 of high order, Jacob Huebner and endowed him with prolific energy. 

 Had he lived earlier when entomology required less from her disciples 

 he might have risen to a still greater height, but his great talents are 

 extended as it were over an enormous mass of work rather than 

 concentrated upon a smaller portion. These three, Sepp, Roesel and 

 Huebner, give a glory to the eighteenth century, which even without 

 the glamour shed on their work by age, outshines, it must be admitted, 

 almost all the efforts of the nineteenth century. How the last century 

 will ultimately be regarded from the standpoint of entomological art 

 remains yet to be seen. Certain it is that we have not maintained the 

 rapidity of advance made during the eighteenth century. Science in 

 the eighteenth century was fast encroaching on art, and during the 

 nineteenth, to judge by the large proportion of map-like pictures of 

 imaginal wings produced to illustrate descriptive works, art is almost 

 driven from the field. For the finest illustrations of the past century, 

 we must search the works of Curtis, Herrich-Schaffer, Milliere, Snellen 

 van Vollenhoven, W. H. Edwards, Burmeister and Leech. The 

 seventeenth century may be called in relation to entomological art, the 

 age of wood-cuts, the eighteenth of copper-plates, and the nineteenth 

 the age of lithography. Let us hope the twentieth century will not 

 be an age of photography, or, if so, that the illustrations will be from 

 the life. Kearton's vignette of Catorala niipta at sugar, TI'/7/? Xature 

 and a Camera, p. 247, though a tattered old specimen, is pleasant to 

 look upon, but photographs of dead cabinet specimens in all their 

 deformities are hideous. 



In conclusion I wish to acknowledge the great help received from 

 Dr. A. G. Butler, who kindly provided every facility for examining the 

 volumes under his charge in the Natural History Museum, from Mr. 



