N/l TURE 



265 



THURSDAY, JANUARY 23, 1896. 



<OME RECENT WORKS ON BUTTERELIES 

 AND MOTHS. 



I Handbook of British Lepidoptera. By Edward Mey- 

 rick, B.A., F.Z.S., F.L.S., F E.S., Assistant Master at 

 Marlborough College. (London : Macmillan and Co., 



1895.) 

 British and European Butterflies and Moths {Macro- 

 Lepidoptera). By A. W. Kappel, F.L.S., F.E.S. 

 (Assistant Librarian, Linnean Society), and W. Egmont 

 Kirby, L.S.A. With thirty coloured plates by H. 

 Deuchert and S. Slocombe. (London : Ernest Nister, 



1895.) 

 Die Artbildung und Vem'andschaft bei den Schmetter- 

 lingen. //. Theil. Eine systematische Darstellung der 

 Abiinderungen, A bar ten, und Arten der Schwalben- 

 schwanz-dhnlichen Formen der Gattung Papilio. Von 

 Dr. G. H. Theodor Eimer, Professor der Zoologie und 

 vergleichenden Anatomic zu Tiibingen. Unter Mit- 

 wirkung von Dr. K. Fickert, L Assistent an der Zoo- 

 logischen Anstalt daselbst. Mit 4 Tafeln in Farben- 

 druck und 7 Abbildungen im Texte. (Jena : Gustav 

 Fischer, 1895.) 



L.\ST year was remarkable for the unusual number 

 of publications on Lepidoptera which were issued 

 from the press, especially 'in England. In addition to 

 serial works and reprints, many independent works 

 appeared, several of which have already been noticed 

 in the columns of NATURE ; and the three new books to 

 which the present article refers, shows that the activity 

 of entomologists in this direction is still as great as ever. 



It is singular that, notwithstanding the great increase 

 of interest taken in the British Lepidoptera of late years, 

 Mr. Meyrick's is really the first serious attempt at a 

 Ntudent's manual of the order which has yet appeared. 

 We have any amount of popular illustrated books ; but 

 nothing beyond, except Stainton's " Manual of British 

 Butterflies and Moths," a book nearly forty years old 

 though still of great value and much used, especially as 

 :. gave the only available synopsis of the Micro-Lepi- 

 doptera, which are generally neglected in popular works), 

 and written rather for beginners than for students. Mr. 

 Meyrick now offers us, in a compact volume of nearly 

 850 pages, a series of carefully drawn up descriptions of 

 genera and species, with notices of localities, range, 

 transformations, &c., and numerous systematic and 

 phylogenetic tables ; but there is not a trace of popular 

 jiadding, and no illustrations, except occasional wood- 

 cuts of neuration. 



As is known to all who have examined Mr. Meyrick's 

 previous entomological writings (which have chiefly been 

 devoted to the Lepidoptera of Australia and New Zealand), 

 he attaches great importance to the neuration of the wings 

 of the insects ; and in the present volume he has adopted 

 a new classification of his own, based mainly on the 

 wing-neuration, which will appear to most of his readers 

 little short of revolutionary. Sufifice it to say that he 

 divides the Lepidoptera into nine main groups, as follows : 

 (i) Caradrinina, including the bulk of the species generally 

 classed under Arciiidee, Liparida, and part of Noctucc j 

 NO. 1369, VOL. 53] 



(2) Notodontina, including, in addition to the Notodontidie, 

 the Saturniadce, Sphingidce, Geometrce^ and part of 

 Noctuce J (3) Lasiocampina, including also the Drcpa- 

 nulida and Endromididce ; (4) PapHionina, including the 

 butterflies ; (5) Pyraliditta (from which group Mr. Mey- 

 rick believes the butterflies have branched), including 

 also the Crambi and Plume -moths ; (6) Psychina, with 

 which are included the Zeuzerida; Zyganidie, and 

 Heterogenidce ; (7) Tortricina, with which is included 

 TryPanus cossus, L. ; (8) Tineina, including also 

 AUgeriadcp J and (9) Aficropterygina, including the Hepi- 

 alidce and Micropterygidcc. Comment is needless ; 

 every one who knows our British Lepidoptera will re- 

 cognise the sweeping character of the changes proposed ; 

 and how far they will ultimately be accepted, no one can 

 venture to predict at present. 



We will now turn to the second book on our list, 

 which is a complete contrast to the last in design and 

 execution. It is a handsomely got-up book intended for 

 popular use, and illustrated with a series of excellent 

 coloured plates, representing a considerable number of 

 the more interesting and conspicuous butterflies and 

 larger moths of Great Britain and the adjacent parts of 

 Europe. All, or nearly all, the species not figured, but 

 which fall within the limits of the book, are described 

 in the text. No innovations of arrangement or nomen- 

 clature are attempted ; and English as well as Latin 

 names are used throughout. The book extends to the 

 Geometrce inclusive ; but it is more fully illustrated in 

 the earlier groups than in the later. Useful information 

 on technical terms, collecting and preserving, and other 

 general matters connected with Lepidoptera, will be found 

 in the introduction. This book may be safely recom- 

 mended as a desirable addition to school libraries, or 

 public institutions, or as a present to a young friend 

 interested in natural history. 



The last book on our list is one of a very different 

 kind to the others. It is an elaborate philosophical 

 study of the various forms presented by three groups of 

 swallow-tailed butterflies, represented by Papilio Turnus, 

 Mackaon, and Asterias, in various parts of their range. 

 These are mainly Palasarctic and Nearctic in their range. 

 In the first volume of his work, published in 1889, Dr 

 Eimer discussed the groups represented by Papilio 

 Podalirius, Antiphates, Anticrates, Aj'ax, and Policenes, 

 which are chiefly East Indian or African, though P. Ajax 

 and its allies are American. 



Dr. Eimer has come to the conclusion that natural 

 selection will not account for the origin of species, though 

 it may largely contribute to their preservation when 

 already formed. This he expresses in a rather polemical 

 preface, in which he claims to have practically demolished 

 natural selection in the former sense. Perhaps it will be 

 most fair to him to quote a paragraph, especially as it 

 contains most of the technical terms which he uses in 

 his work. 



" In complete contrast to the teachings of Darwm, 

 my butterflies everywhere display the origin of new 

 peculiarities through orderly development in a few 

 definite directions (Orthogenesis) on the basis of physio- 

 logical causes, by organic increase (Organophysis). 

 They show that it is really Genepistasis, or arrest of 

 development at definite stages, which necessitates the 

 separation into species of the organic chain which has 



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