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304 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 
RECENT LITERATURE. 
i ® : 
Etudes de Lépidoptérologie Comparée. Fasc. ix. Ie et 2¢ Parties. 
Rennes. 1914. 
THE last two published parts of M. Charles Oberthiir’s magnificent 
series of lepidopterological studies were published before the war 
broke out. Turning over the pages, and looking upon the plates by 
which they are illustrated, we may venture to hope that the 
Imprimerie Oberthiir may find it possible to continue the work which 
for the past seven years has added so much to our knowledge of the 
lepidoptera of the world in general, and of France and Algeria in par- 
ticular. For the author has opened his pages to various nationalities, 
having once intimated to the writer of this notice that he wished his 
own studies to be supplemented and enlarged by the observations of 
lepidopterists of all nations in the Old World and the New alike. 
These two parts, indeed, are chiefly concerned with the nearctic 
fauna, and in response to the request of American entomologists for 
an accurate account and determination of Boisduval’s types, we are 
the richer by some fifty exquisitely coloured plates of North American 
butterflies designed from the originals, and hand-painted by M. J. 
Culot, of Geneva, whose work is familiar to students of the western 
palzarctic butterflies and moths. M. Oberthir, therefore, may also 
be congratulated upon having secured the assistance of that rara 
avis, an entomologist who is a first-rate artist, and an artist who is 
a first-rate entomologist. Part 2 further contains a réswmé by Dr. 
Standfuss, of Zurich, of his breeding experiments with Aglaia tau, L., 
and, by the same author, a deeply interesting notice of morphological 
and physiological research in connection with two races of Sphingid 
hybrids. British entomologists, to whom their names are household 
words, will also survey with pleasure the portraits of the several 
French, German, Swiss, and British authorities included in the “ first 
series’’ of a gallery ending happily with a photograph of M. Oberthiir 
himself—apparently the only one in existence. At their head is the 
renowned Dr. Boisduval, whose genial features smile out. upon us 
from the past with convincing sincerity; then comes Dr. Gottlieb 
Herrich-Schaeffer and the eccentric Dr. Rambur, the discoverer of 
the process by which to-day we differentiate by the microscopic 
examination of the male appendages otherwise indistinguishable 
> 
species; as, for example, many of the Hesperiidz. British science of — 
the old school is represented by the late Frederick Moore, D.Sc.; the 
new school of Swiss lepidopterists, if we may be permitted the term, 
by a characteristic picture of Dr. Jacques Louis Reverdin, successful 
follower in the special field already indicated by Rambur. These 
volumes are not, we believe, available for purchase, but M. Oberthiir 
has presented copies to the Natural History Museum and to the 
Entomological Society of London, as well as to one or two privileged 
English friends. In the libraries of the institutions mentioned they 
are open to the use and inspection of investigators and collectors, who 
will gladly acknowledge their deep debt of gratitude to the generous 
donor. a 
H. R.-B. 
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