RECENT LITERATURE. 303 



appeared feminine. — Palaearctic Pararges : Mr. G. T. Bethune-Baker 

 showed a nice collection of the genus Pararge, with various forms of 

 egeria, L., megazra, L., maxa, L., &c. — Colbkan J. Wainwright, Hon. Sec. 



BECENT LITEEATUBE. 



Les Premiers Etats des Lepidopteres Frangais (Rhopaloceres). Par 

 M. C. Frionnet. Pp. i-xl, 1-320. Paris : A. Hermann. 

 The ever-increasing number of collectors who find an extended 

 field for observation and capture in France will welcome a book 

 dealing practically with the subject chosen by M. l'Abbe C. Frionnet. 

 It is a pity, therefore, that the author had not confined himself entirely 

 to the species indigenous to the titular region, instead of introducing 

 those wholly outside it, or of accidental occurrence. He does not 

 appear, moreover, to have had the advantage of referring to records of 

 much of the good work in his special department done by British 

 observers, and although the species — and they are many — which have 

 actually passed through his hands are as fully described as purposes 

 of identification require, M. Frionnet, for the rest, is content to copy 

 from his predecessors, in several cases with indifferent results. We 

 should have expected a better diagnosis and account of the early 

 stages of Lyccena arion, for instance, than the fragmentary informa- 

 tion quoted from Newman. Nor do we find more than the barest men- 

 tion of the association of ants with the larvae of Lycrenid butterflies, 

 without some note of which their life-history must necessarily remain 

 imperfect and unintelligible. Neither Neptis lucilla nor N. aceris have 

 established themselves west of the Alpes-Maritimes : an extremely 

 doubtful record of Peyerimhoffs for Strasbourg is regarded as suffi- 

 cient warranty for a transcription of Vanessa xanthomelas. According 

 to M. Chretien (' Le Naturaliste,' 1903, pp. 71-2), the larvaa of all 

 the Erebiidaa except E. prono'e are known, but M. Frionnet is unable 

 to furnish details of mnestra, pharte, stygne, evias, scipio, epistygne, 

 goante, gorgone, or gorge. But we know how difficult it is to get 

 thoroughly accurate descriptions, and in the search among local lists to 

 light upon reliable records. The French catalogues, hidden away in 

 the annals of Societies of mixed scientific aims, are generally most 

 difficult of access. Large tracts of country, even in the most promising 

 regions, have yet to be explored by native butterfly-hunters so far as 

 we can gather. At least in periodical entomological literature they 

 have left no trace of their excursions. It was hardly worth while, 

 however, to recreate Apatura metis, Fr., into a species, and simply to 

 mention that the larva resembles that of A. ilia; and for localities 

 which should appeal most strongly to British collectors there are some 

 very improbable entries retained, as it were, from the veritable "fathers 

 of entomology." If Argynnis pandora ever occurred at Auxerre, in the 

 midland department of the Yonne, it was surely introduced artifi- 

 cially ; while the record from Cherbourg, an error of M. Nichollet's, 

 was corrected long ago. And is it conceivable that a southern 

 species like Euchloe belemia ever found its way, except out of a collec- 

 tor's box, to Morlaix, in Finistere, a department which, by reason of 



