166 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



form of Colias edusa ; an extremely dark uniform form of Ematurga 

 atomaria ; a somewhat streaked Chrysophanus phloeas ; results of inter- 

 breeding Spilosoma luhricepeda ; and a fine series of bred Xotodonta 

 trepida. — Dr. Chapman, larvffi of Thecla ritbi. — Hy. J. Turnkr, Hon. 

 Report Secretary. 



EECENT LITEEATURE. 



The Butterflies of the British Isles. (Wayside and Woodland Series.) 

 By EicHARD South, F.E.S. London: F. Warne & Co. 



There seems to be no end to books on butterflies, and especially 

 on British butterflies. Those we have seen are good, bad, and in- 

 different, with perhaps some doubt as to the goodness. We are 

 anxiously expecting to see Mr. Frohawk's, which we have reason to 

 hope will be very good without any qualification. The one before us 

 is perhaps the most excellent of its kind we have seen. It does not 

 pretend to be an exhaustive scientific account of our butterflies, but is 

 just the book that will supply the enthusiastic tyro with the informa- 

 tion that he wants in a form he may depend upon. 



The introductory matter is necessarily shore, but deals clearly with 

 the points it is desirable the young collector should know ; and the 

 account of each species deals similarly with the salient facts of each 

 stage of the insect. It would be difficult to point out any errors of 

 fact into which the author has fallen ; and as to matters of opinion, 

 we have met with nothing to disagree with, though we doubt very 

 much, for instance, as to Fyraiiteisatalanta, whether he is right in con- 

 sidering this to be an immigrant in the same sense that P. cardui and 

 Colias edusa are, though, assuming a desire to confute him, we cannot 

 for the moment recollect any definite observation of its hybernating 

 successfully in Britain, and can only rely on its being a fairly constant 

 inhabitant of a very large part of our islands, and not varying to the 

 extent they do between swarming and complete absence. The feature 

 of the volume is the excellent series of plates. All the species are 

 figured in both sexes, both surfaces, and often a good selection of 

 varieties. The reproductions are apparently by a three-colour process, 

 and are eminently successful. These processes always leave room for 

 some criticism, but there is here as great a success as in many a more 

 ambitious and expensive volume. The plain figures of the egg, larva, 

 and pupa are especially to be noticed ; they are a most valuable part 

 of the account of each species, and are to be commended for their com- 

 pleteness, and for the most part for their accuracy and for the natural 

 effect they produce, though without colour. We should have liked the 

 source of these all to have been mentioned, as a guide to the young 

 collector as to which he might thoroughly rely on. So far as we can 

 guess, those that we find most thoroughly satisfactory are drawn by 

 the artist from the life, or from good photographs ; whilst those 

 copied from previous figures vary immensely in merit. The eggs of 

 the blues are very good, and the differences between the species are 

 usually determinable. The larva of atalanta strikes us as having been 

 done from life, but the example was too close to pupation for the pur- 



