1907] 
KELLOGG — HUT TER EL 1 ' BIOLOG 1 ' 
WUKJIIT'S NOTES OX BUITERFLV BIOLOGY. 
BY VEKXO.N L. KELLOGG, ST.\.\FORI) UNIVERSITY, ( ALIEORNL\. 
Mr. W. (j. Wright’.s e.xccllent liaiidhook; ‘ of the hutterfiies of the West Coa.st 
of the United States is poing to help all of us out here who are already interested in 
in.sects, and is going to inspire some others with this interest. 'Ehe writer of the hook 
is a veteran collector and ob.server, his years of entomological work in California 
already numhering twenty-five. IBs records of ob.senation seem i[uite e.xact, and 
undoubtedly all that he has to say in this book, as far as it is based on personal ob- 
.servation, can be relied on. Therefore we may welcome with particular pleasure 
an intere.sting introduction — the major part of the book being compo.sed of an anno- 
tated catalogue of the butterfly species found in the Western States and of a com- 
|)lete series of excellent colored plates illustrating nearly all of these species — which 
introduction, called “General Features of Butterfly Life,’’ is made up of some forty 
or more numbered sections, each with a special title, and all together including 
some merely curious, but many really valuable suggestive remarks, records of obser- 
vations, odd conclusions, etc., about butterfly biology. 
As many of these notes ought to find their way to all .students of in.scct bionomics, 
whether they be especially interested in Western butterflies or not, I have extracted, 
for Psyche’s readers, from these “general features” notes of Mr. Wright certain 
ones which seem to me particularly intere.sting or suggestive. 
As the butterflies are, of all in.sects, those which we know be.st svstematicallv 
and faunistically and akso as regards their seasonal changes, their life hi.story, in 
fact, their general biology, they are, like the North American birds, specially valuable 
for the student of species-forming, of the effects of isolation and environment, and, 
indeed, in general, of evolution. 
I shall take up Mr. Wright’s notes according to his own section numbers. 
Section 2. .\ltitude is equivalent to latitude in its effect on ornamentation. 
.\ sjiecies which occupies both valleys and mountain heights will be found to be 
darker in color in those examples from the mountains than tho.se living in the lower 
valleys. Exani|)le, M ecianostoma eurydice, in valleys, becomes M. r. hernardino 
in its upper range. 
* The Butterflies ot the West Coast of the United States, by W. G. Wriclii. Whitaker and Ray Co.. 
San Francisco. 1905. Most of the sheets of tins book were destroyed in the disaster of April IS and 
following days, but a few copies in the hands of the aiitlior are for sale. 
