SEASONAL POLYMORPHISM. 155 



of its being surrounded on three sides by. the sea and separated north- 

 wa,rdly from the continent by a barrier of high mountains, which 

 mark a most distinct change of climate from the damper one of the 

 basin of the Po, with luxurious vegetation, to the much drier one, 

 south of their water-parting, with a very different and comparatively 

 much poorer flora. I shall come back to this subject later, when 

 dealing with the different European zones. What I wish to say here 

 is, that this is one of the reasons for which I have decided to publish 

 this Catalogue separately from the rest of Italy. It is not an artificial 

 division, but a very natural one. Another reason is that I am able to 

 avail myself of the data obtained by Querci in the last forty years and 

 of my own observations m Tuscany, where I live, which make this 

 region much better known than any other from the special standpoint 

 of this paper. During the last ten years I have published a con- 

 siderable number of these observations, but unfortunately they are 

 very much scattered in this and other Journals and Transactions. Our 

 object here is to collect them and classify them, together with those of 

 Oberthiir, Friihstorfer, Turati, Rostagno, Rocci, and others, who have 

 dealt with races found in Peninsular Italy. We have left out all that 

 refers to purely individual variations, which have no, or little, con- 

 nection with surroundings or seasons. The interest of local catalogues 

 and observations consists in pointing out the peculiarities of the regions 

 they deal with, as compared with others. When one compares ade- 

 quately extensive series of specimens from different regions, one finds 

 that on the average, if not in all the individuals, certain characteristics 

 stand out clearly as peculiar to each and leave no doubt as to their 

 existence, even if they are not striking at first sight, whereas much 

 more conspicuous individual variations are usually found to be 

 common to all or most of the series and are of no interest from the 

 geographical point of view. This distinction is of primary import- 

 ance, but it can only be made with adequate materials to work upon. 

 The habit of preserving in collections an extremely small number of 

 specimens, which prevailed until the beginning of this century, caused 

 the utter ignorance we were in as to variation in connection with 

 distribution. A few of the most striking varieties had been observed 

 and named. Collectors eagerly sought for them and were satisfied 

 when they secured a specimen and they had mentioned them in 

 local lists. Thus collections and literature always grevv within 

 limited boundaries, established by previous authors. Innovations 

 would only be introduced by a few entomologists who were more daring 

 and were credited with such superior knowledge as to make them very 

 nearly infallible. Otto Staudinger reigned supreme among them. It 

 is interesting to look back on this curious phenomenon, which nowa- 

 days seems incredible. It was evidently the result in our suiall ento- 

 mological field of action of the mentality of humanity in general ; a 

 lack of initiative in the mass of mankind, which used to let itself 

 be guided entirely, in all its actions, by past experience 

 and by a few sharper and more fortunate individuals, S/S 

 if it feared to take a step without their consent. Entomological 

 literature is full of errors due to this mentality : species and varieties 

 were always conscientiously referred to those already known and 

 named, whereas in many cases they were quite distinct and unknown 

 and should have been described. One sees that many authors have 



