Nov. 3, 1881] 
NATURE 
5 
BUTTERFLIES 
Butterflies : their Structure, Changes, and Life-Histories, 
with Special Reference to American Forms. Being an 
Application of the “‘ Doctrine of Descent” to the Study 
of Butterflies. With an Appendix of Practical Instruc- 
tions, By Samuel H. Scudder. (New York: Henry 
Holt and Company, 1881.) 
\ [ R. SCUDDER’S great reputation as an entomolo- 
gist will cause many readers to turn to this beauti- 
fully got up volume with eager curiosity. They will expect 
to find a tolerably full account of all those interesting and 
complex phenomena of metamorphosis, variation, dimor- 
phism and polymorphism, protective colouration, mimicry, 
and distribution, for the elucidation of which no class of 
organisms offers such abundant and striking materials ; 
while they might not unreasonably anticipate that the 
bearing of the whole series of these phenomena on the 
“Doctrine of Descent” would be clearly indicated and 
the necessary conclusions to be drawn from them strongly 
insisted upon. The first separate work ever published on 
the general history of butterflies, as distinguished from 
their classification or specific description, would naturally 
excite some such expectations as these; but those who 
have entertained 'such ideas will? be disappointed, and 
may perhaps be inclined to give the book less credit than 
it really deserves. We will therefore briefly indicate its 
contents and point out a few of its merits and deficiencies. 
The first four chapters—‘‘ The Egg,” “The Catter- 
pillar,” “‘The Chrysalis,’ and “The Butterfly ”—respec- 
tively, give a very good general account of the form and 
structure of the insect during the stages of its existence, 
and they are illustrated by a large number of very excel- 
lent woodcuts, many of which seem to be original. Then 
follow descriptions of the internal organs, and their trans- 
formations during development, and a good chapter on 
habits, illustrated almost exclusively from North American 
species. We now come to the more important and in- 
teresting part of the volume, and find chapters on “ Sea- 
sonal Changes and Histories,” “ The Colouring of Butter- 
flies,” “ Diversity of the Sexes in Colouring and Structure,” 
“The Origin and Development of Crnamentation,” “‘ An- 
cestry and Classification,’ and “ Geographical Distribu- 
tion,” the titles of which cover a wide range, and seem to 
include all the chief points required for a full exposition 
of the subject. The treatment however is by no means 
satisfactory, since it is a rare thing to find any fact even 
alluded to beyond the range of North American species ; 
and though the valuable observations of Edwards and 
Riley are frequently referred to, the important researches 
of Weismann and Fritz Miiller are hardly mentioned. 
Far more important however is the almost total silence 
on the whole question of protective and warning coloura- 
tion in larva and perfect insects and the wonderful phe- 
nomena of mimicry, which play so large a part in deter- 
mining both the forms and colours of insects all over 
the world, and which are so marvellously developed in 
butterflies. The absence of all these considerations 
renders the chapter on “ The Crigin and Development of 
Ornamentation” most unsatisfactory, since it is almost 
wholly devoted to suggestions as to the probable lines 
which have been followed in the development of the 
ornamentation, while we are left without any clue to the 
reasons for such special and wonderfully diversified re- 
sults, or the laws by which they have been produced. 
Equally meagre is the chapter on “ Geographical Distri- 
bution,” which is treated solely from the point of view of 
the North American collector. 
A more important fault than these deficiencies, in a 
work presumably intended for popular reading and to 
excite young American entomologists to a more complete 
study of their subject, is the very peculiar system of 
nomenclature adopted by the author, which, by the need- 
less difficulties it will cause, must tend to disgust begin- 
ners with the whole study of natural history. The writer 
who has done more than any other person to facilitate the 
study of North American butterflies is Mr. William H. 
Edwards, who, besides a great work on ‘The Butterflies 
of North America,’”’ illustrated by fine coloured plates, 
has published, so recently as 1877, a complete “ Catar 
logue” of the species. He is in fact ¢#e authority on 
North American butterflies, to the conscientious study of 
which he has devoted his life. When any such standard 
systematic work exists in a country, it seems to us the 
obvious duty of all who write popular books to follow its 
classification and nomenclature, not as endorsing their 
correctness, but simply to facilitate reference to works 
which every student szzs¢ constantly refer to. Instead of 
doing so Mr. Scudder follows a quite different order in 
his systematic list of species, adopts a complex system of 
families, sub-families, tribes, and genera, mostly with un- 
familiar names ; and uses a generic nomenclature so totally 
unlike that of the above-named standard work, that out of 
a list of fifty-eight genera referred to in his volume only 
ten have the same names as those adopted by Mr. Ed- 
wards. As an example of the difficulty and confusion 
this must cause to a beginner we may mention that the 
North American species of the old genus Papilio are here 
given under five distinct generic names; Lyceena under 
the same number, and Argynnis under four. The family 
Papilionides, which Mr. Scudder retains, no longer con- 
tains the genus Papilio, after which it is named, because 
he transfers this name to our old friend the Camberwell 
Beauty, which he styles Pafilio Antiopa. The old 
Satyride, or Meadow Browns, are now named Creades, 
and they are placed at the head of all the butterflies 
instead of near the end, as in the works of Edwards and 
of all the old writers. This. must be all the more puzzling, 
because throughout the body of the work these names 
are everywhere given without the least indication that 
they are not in universal use. Thus.at pages 100-102 we 
have Bastlarchia Archippus many times mentioned, with 
a reference to Riley. But that author always uses the old 
| name Limenitis disippus, and in the copious index to his 
Missouri Entomological Report, just issued, the name 
Basilarchia is not to be found, neither does it appear, 
even as a synonym, in Mr. Edwards’ “Catalogue”! No 
one will object to differences of opinion on questions of 
nomenclature, when kept to their proper place in strictly 
scientific treatises; but every one who has at heart the 
extension of a taste for natural history has a right to pro- 
test against such totally unnecessary difficulties being 
thrown in the path of beginners. 
We regret having to speak so strongly in animadversion 
of a book which contains much interesting matter and 
much valuable information, which is written in a pleasant 
