24 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



the exceptional amount of change in climate which takes place 

 during the year ; to give an instance — Papilio machaon, Lin., 

 first appears as an imago in March, about the size of, and 

 closely resembling, the British insect; in this stage it is the 

 P. asiatica of Butler. The wing expanse is then about 3*40 inches. 

 As the summer advances the successive broods increase in 

 size and depth of coloration until the P. hippocrates form of 

 Felder is produced ; this much darker form is about 5 "40 inches 

 in the expanse of wings, or two inches more than the specimens 

 of the spring emergence. Papilio xutJius and P. xuthulus are 

 placed as one species, the former being the later emergence. 



Apoi'ia cratcegi attains a much larger size than in England, 

 reaching a wing expanse of 3"23 inches. 



Mr. Pryer errs in suppressing the names for local forms ; 

 unless these are used where well-marked geographical races are 

 spoken of, the correct meaning could not be conveyed. The 

 Pieris rapa figured is the topomorphic variety, named P. crucivora 

 by Butler, and differs so much from the European P. rapce that 

 some authors have deemed it a variety of P. hrassicce. 



The insect figured as P. napi is sufficiently different from the 

 European form to warrant the retention of a sub-specific name, 

 if not a specific, although it unfortunately happens that the 

 P. megamara of Butler is the first emergence of the P. melete 

 of Menetries. It is in its two horeomorphic forms totally unlike 

 the British species. The spring form does not, like the British, 

 lean towards B. hryonice in duskiness ; and the late emergence has 

 even less resemblance to the British summer emergence. Quite 

 a third of the upper wing of the female figured is black, and the 

 size would exceed the average English specimens by at least half 

 an inch in the expanse of wing. 



Similar remarks will apply to the figures of Leucophasia 

 sinajns. Judging from analogy, fig. 7, plate 2, is a spring form ; 

 and fig. 8, if of the same species, is from a specimen of the 

 summer emergence. The former has been named L. amurensis 

 by Menetries, and the latter L. vilibia by O. Janson. 



It will be seen that the book is full of both interest and 

 instruction, and is a real addition to our knowledge of the 

 Rhopalocera of Japan. 



The book is uniform in size with Mr. Distant's. — J. J. W. 



