lvi 
Monthly Magazine’ has contained, during the past year, the usual 
quantity of valuable and interesting matter on every branch and 
aspect of British Entomology, and has also contained a number 
of papers of wider interest, treating of classification, or describing 
new species of insects. Among the contributors of this class are 
Messrs. Stainton, Butler, Ward, and Scudder, on Lepidoptera ; 
Messrs. Sharp, Bates, Waterhouse, and Reed, on Coleoptera ; 
and Mr. M‘Lachlan, on Neuroptera and Trichoptera. 
Mr. Hewitson’s beautiful illustrations of butterflies have 
regularly appeared throughout the last two years, and fully 
maintain their high reputation for delicacy of execution and 
superb colouring. Long may he live to continue them! till 
they form a monument of his patient skill and enthusiastic love 
of nature, unequalled by the work of a single individual in any 
age or country. Our stores of Lepidoptera have, however, been 
of late so rapidly increasing that no pencil can keep pace with 
the supply, and we have all to thank Mr. Butler for helping on 
the good and useful work of accurately delineating the new and 
puzzling forms that crowd upon us. In his ‘Lepidoptera Exotica’ 
he has boldly essayed a new style of art in this country, that of 
illustrating species by colour-printing. ‘Ten quarterly parts have 
now appeared, in which a large number of new butterflies and 
moths are, always accurately and often beautifully, delineated. 
As specimens of art these will not, of course, compete with the best 
hand-work, but as representations of Nature they are all that can 
be desired; and some of the last issued plates are so beautiful, 
and so well represent the texture of the lepidopterous wing, that 
they may be preferred by some to the superior brilliancy of hand- 
colouring. It must be remembered that the expense of such 
a publication (where the demand for copies is limited) is very 
great, and in such a case there can be little or no advantage 
over the old method in point of cost; but the experience in 
this mode of work now being gained, will, it is to be hoped, 
lead to its being applied to publications where a large number 
of copies are required, and where the saving of expense will 
be a real boon to many a working naturalist. Before dismissing 
Mr. Butler’s meritorious work, I would, however, protest, both on 
the score of utility and of harmonious effect, against the introduc- 
tion of brilliant flowers among the figures of butterflies, ‘This has 
been tried in one plate, which I trust will be the last of its kind. 
