NA TURE 



58: 



THURSDAY, OCTOBER 19, 1893. 



BRITISH BUTTERFLIES. 

 The Lepidoplera of the British Islands ; a Descriptive 

 Account of the Families, Genera, and Species In- 

 digenous to Great Britain and Ireland, their Pre- 

 paratory States, Habits, and Localities. Vol. I. 

 Rhopalocera. By Charles G. Barrett, one of the 

 Editors of the Entomolot^isfs Monthly Magazine. 

 (London : L. Reeve and Co., 1893.) 



NOTWITHSTANDING the number of popular 

 books on British insects which are constantly 

 issuing from the press, it is only occasionally that we 

 have to notice the appearance of a work of higher pre- 

 tensions than this, even as regards our British butterflies. 

 And yet it is of great importance that we should place 

 on record a full and complete account of our native 

 insects as speedily as possible. Much information that 

 might still have been preserved fifty years ago is now 

 irrecoverably lost, for the drainage of the fens has 

 robbed us of many of the British insects which were abso- 

 lutely peculiarto our country. But some still remain ; and 

 notwithstanding the comparative poverty of the British 

 insect-fauna as compared with that of the Continent, the 

 British Islands possess a much larger number of peculiar 

 forms than is generally imagined, and the French 

 entomologists actually call Britain " le pays des 

 varictes." 



The volume before us is the commencement of a 

 comprehensive work on the whole of the British 

 Lepidoptera (about 203o species in round numbers) 

 and is edited by Mr. C. G. Barrett, who is well 

 known to entomologists as one of our best practical 

 workers. He has had unusual facilities for personal 

 observation in many parts of the country, and has 

 devoted much attention to our native Lepidoptera, and 

 more especially to some of the more difficult groups of 

 the smaller moths ; but he has hitherto only contributed 

 to periodical literature. 



The work appears in monthly parts, with plain 

 or coloured illustrations. It commenced last year, 

 and the first volume, including the butterflies, and 

 illustrated with forty plates representing all the spe- 

 cies regarded as undoubtedly British, in addition to 

 numerous figures of larvae and varieties, is now complete 

 in ten parts, and has been reprinted on smaller paper, 

 and without plates. It appears to us to be a grave over- 

 sight that there is no reference to this in the smaller 

 edition, except in the advertisements at the end of the 

 volume. Prominent attention should certainly have 

 been called to the larger edition, even at the risk of 

 injuring the sale of the smaller one, either in the preface 

 or by a conspicuous advertisement. 



In his introduction Mr. Barrett gives a concise account 

 of the general structure and metamorphoses of Lepidop- 

 tera, and remarks on classification and synonymy. With 

 respect to classification, everyone will agree with him 

 in the following observations : — 



" Classification is, however, largely a matter of opinion. 

 The absolute necessity — in books, lists, and collections — 



NO. 125 I, VOL. 48] 



for a linear arrangement precludes the possibility of one 

 which is really natural, since, although the relation of 

 groups to each other is often evident, they ramify, extend, 

 intersect and interlace to such a degree that it is only 

 possible to take group after group in as natural a suc- 

 cession as seems to commend itself to the individual 

 writer, with the knowledge on his part that the arrange- 

 ment is partly the outcome of his own particular views, 

 and that in all probability those of other authors are 

 equally substantial." 



But when he adds, "That which has hitherto been 

 followed for our native species does not appear to be dis- 

 turbed to a very large extent by an examination of the 

 species found in other parts of the world," it is only so 

 far true on account of the vast bulk of the Order having 

 hitherto prevented any rearrangement of the families 

 (the butterflies excepted) in a sufficiently natural series 

 to be regarded in any other light than as tentative. 



Mr. Barrett cuts the Gordian knot of synonymy, as is 

 best in a work of limited scope, by quoting every name 

 under which any species is widely known. No other 

 course was open to him, unless he had worked out the 

 synonymy of every species for himself, a work of great 

 labour, difficulty, and at times uncertainty, or unless 

 he had decided to follow some previous author through- 

 out. 



Dealing with British Lepidoptera only, Mr. Barrett 

 appears to have almost confined himself to the use of 

 English authors, from the time of Haworth, including an 

 examination of the principal periodicals. A great deal 

 of hitherto unpublished information is also included in 

 the work, from the observations of the author and his 

 correspondents. But little use appears to have been 

 made of continental au thors, except as regards the larvre 

 of some of the species described. 



Turning to the body of the work, we find that under 

 each species the dimensions, essential characters, varia- 

 tion, larvae, pups, habits, &c., are discussed in sufficient 

 detail for most practical purposes. A useful feature of 

 the book is the addition of many of the species which 

 have been reputed, on fairly good authority, to have been 

 taken in Britain, but which are still regarded either as 

 accidental immigrants, or as doubtfully British. Of 

 course these notices are much briefer than those of the 

 well-established British species, about which there is no 

 question. But we do not see what has guided the author 

 in his selection of reputed British species ; he has in- 

 cluded such an insect as Thais rumina, a. conspicuous 

 South European butterfly, once found flying in Brighton 

 Market, but which could hardly by any possibility be 

 indigenous in Britain, while he makes no mention of many 

 species recorded by the old authors as having been at 

 least casually taken in England. As he has included 

 such species as T/tais rumina and Parna.^sius Delius, we 

 think he should have given at least a passing notice of 

 every butterfly recorded as having been taken in 

 Britain (except, perhaps, in cases where there was 

 reason to believe that there had been an actual error 

 of identification, or when a careless and ill-informed 

 author like Turton has marked species as British at 

 random) ; or else have omitted all the reputed British 

 species, except those which there was some ground for 



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