304 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



EEGENT LITERATURE. 



Etudes cle Lepidopterologie Comparee. Fasc. ix. l'^ et 2^ Parties. 

 Eennes. 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 

 Imprimei-ie 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 nationahties, 

 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 ahke. 

 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 

 palaearctic butterflies and moths. M. Oberthiir, therefore, may also 

 be congratulated upon having secured the assistance of that vara 

 avis, an entomologist who is a first-rate artist, and an artist who is 

 a first-rate entomologist. Part 2 further contains a resume 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. Eambur, 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 Hesperiidae. 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 Eeverdin, successful 

 follower in the special field already indicated by Eambur. 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. 



H. E.-B. 



