A NATURAL HISTORY OK THK BRITISH LKPIDOI'TERA. ''2'd5 



appearance of Mr. Tutt's treatises will do much to promote the study 

 of such suggestive phenomena, and lead to a further recognition of 

 their bearing on the problems of development and evolution of types. 

 Every fact yet ascertained respecting the structure, physiology, and 

 mode of occurrence of each species is given with the utmost detail, so 

 that the work has become rather a series of monographs than a hand- 

 book. The biologist who requires a summary of all that is known 

 regarding most subjects — as the polymorphism of the larva in ciiphnrbine 

 or atroiio.s, the invariability and singular habits of the imago of stella- 

 taruiii, the modes of oviposition, the production of the " squeak " of 

 (itroixjs, the seasonal phenomena of immigrating forms — may go to the 

 new British Lepidoptera, with the certainty that he will there find 

 everything that is known up to the date of publication, accurately 

 compiled and set forth. 



On all these points Mr. Tutt has done well to err on the side of 

 inclusion, even if some prolixity result. The student, with the help of 

 Mr. Wheeler's synopses and index, can now find his way to what he 

 wants to know. But, as volume succeeds volume, the conviction grows 

 that the profusion of detail which has a use where genuine problems 

 and little-studied points of physiology are concerned, is meaningless in 

 the case of capture- records and locality-lists for cosmopolitan species. 

 It is not in a spirit of criticism, but in the genuine desire to further his 

 magnificent undertaking, that 1 appeal to Mr. Tutt on this question. 

 The present volume deals with twelve species in 471 pp. Of these no 

 less than 74 pp. are occupied with closely printed matter which I find 

 it impossible to suppose that any one will ever read. For stdlatannii 

 and conrolcidi, admittedly cosmopolitan, I find 9 pp. of solid brevier 

 type, giving localities alone, which might as well be the index of a 

 Gazetteer for any scientific purpose they will serve. All this informa- 

 tion had to be collected, written, set, corrected, and printed. Surely 

 the time of an able and very busy man would have been better spent 

 in dealing with the essential features of the two or three more species 

 which these lists crowd out. 



Every naturalist must hope that ^Ir. Tutt may be enabled to deal 

 with at least the most important of the groups as yet untouched. In 

 the new preface he states, what is but too true, that, at the present 

 rate, this hope can never be fulfilled. Yet much might be done by the 

 substitution of summaries for these portentous lists of places and dates, 

 to the great profit of entomological science. Had this course been 

 followed from the first, we might now be expecting shortly to receive 

 vol. V. Would not the list of subscribers feel a certain benefit also ? 



Where scientific judgment is concerned, Mr. Tutt's treatment has 

 every appearance of soundness. In his revision of the Eumorphina', 

 he comes to the conclusion that the seven British species are outlying 

 representatives of four distinct tribes. This is a point on which only 

 specialists can profess to judge, though since we are informed that 

 Messrs. Rothschild and .Jordan have made independently the same 

 decision, this coincidence of testimony may be taken as decisive. 

 Further, in ^Ir. Tutt's opinion, each of our own species should be 

 I'egarded as of a separate genus. Now there may be marked points 

 of dift'erence, but if all animals and plants were judged by similar 

 criteria, union into genera would probably have to be abandoned, as 

 serving no useful purpose. Whatever may be held regarding species. 



