288 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



REVIEW. 



The Butterflies of the Eastern United States and Canada, with special 

 reference to New England. By Samuel Hubbard Scudper. Three 

 volumes. Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.A. 



A provisional review of this work was given in the * Entomologfst ' for 

 last year (pp. 327-28), on the publication of the first number ; the com- 

 pletion thereof, by the appearance of the twelfth and concluding part, 

 affords a convenient opportunity again to revert to it. It would be difficult 

 to over-estimate the great scientific value of Mr. Scudder's magnum opus, 

 and all who study it would agree with him that it is " the most exhaustive 

 faunistic worlt on any insects of any part of the world." These words, 

 however, but feebly convey the great merit of the three volumes ; to the 

 biologist, and more particularly to the evolutionist, the manner in which 

 the early stages of the species are dealt with affords material for judging 

 of the relations of the groups of butterflies comprised in the work to each 

 other. For instance, there are three plates of the eggs and an equal 

 number of the micropyles of the eggs, and four of the caterpillars at birth, 

 three of the caterpillars' heads at different stages, and four of the mature 

 caterpillars ; then the chrysalids are figured in three plates, and miscellaneous 

 structural details, mostly of the early stages, are figured in two more plates. 

 Besides all this, the neuration of the wings is shown in five plates, and the 

 male abdominal appendages in five more. Great importance is attached by 

 Mr. Scudder to the " scale-patches and folds of the wing-membrane found 

 in the male butterfly," and to the " androconia or scales peculiar to the male 

 sex." The letterpress on these subjects is extensive, and the details of 

 such peculiarities are given in no less than nine excellent plates, many of 

 the figures being highly magnified. Altogether there are eighty-nine 

 plates and three coloured maps, besides portraits of distinguished early 

 American entomologists. 



The great charm of the work consists in the manner in which all the 

 dry details are enlivened by the interpolation of an " Excursus " ; of 

 these enjoyable essays there are seventy-six scattered through the two 

 first volumes. 



The limits of this review preclude the possibility of giving even an 

 outline of the subjects dealt with in these instructive excursi, which are of 

 a most varied character ; they deal with butterflies in almost every aspect 

 in which they can be studied, for instance, their ancestry, sexual diversity, 

 ornamentation, geographical distribution, origin of varieties, melanism, 

 albinism, &c. 



In a work which has been so admirably performed, it is invidious, 

 perhaps, to draw attention to any shortcoming; but the European student 

 will regret that the author did not see fit to carry out what had once been 

 his purpose, " to make extended comparisons of the species described with 

 their nearest allies outside the region concerned." 



The work may be safely commended as full of instruction to all classes 

 of entomologists. — J. J. W. 



