436 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VII. No. 170. 



access to our great collections and can de- 

 vote tlie necessary time to search out the 

 many examples of mimicry that lie hidden 

 in our museums." A work ostensibly of 

 this character was issued in 1892-93, in 

 two parts, from the pen of the late Dr. 

 Erich Haase, under the title of ' TJntersuch- 

 ungen iiber die Mimicry auf Grundlage 

 eines nafciirlichen Systems der Papilioni- 

 den;'* and last year an English translation 

 of the second part was published and has 

 quite recently been reviewed by Professor 

 Poulton.f This treatise is of large quarto 

 size, and the first part contains 120 pages 

 and 6 colored plates, while the second ex- 

 tends to 158 pages and includes 8 colored 

 plates. The first part J deals solely with 

 the family Papilionidse (s. str. = subfamily 

 Papilioninse) and principally with the great 

 genus Fapilio (s. lat.), which, on grounds 

 of structure, system of markings, form of 

 larvae and pupae and food-plants of larvte, 

 is divided into the three subgenera of Fhar- 

 maeophagus, Cosmodesmus smd Papilio (s. sfo'.). 

 With the utmost minuteness the species 

 assigned to these groups, with their sexual, 

 geographical or mimetic variations, are 

 traced through the four zoological regions 

 recognized by the author, and very elabo- 

 rate analysis of markings is made in aid of 

 arriving at their natural aflSnities from a 

 phylogenetic point of view. Haase shows 

 that in Papilio the models which are mim- 

 icked by other species of that great genus 

 are always members of the Pharmacoj^hagus 

 group, or, as he calls them, ' Aristolochia- 

 Butterflies ' — whose larvae feed on that tribe 

 of plants, and which, as he contends, derive 

 their offensive juices directly from the 

 poisonous properties of their food in the 

 early state. 



In Part 2 § a lengthy account is given of 



* In Vol. III. o£ BiUiotheca Zoologiea (Btatt^avt) . 

 t Nature, 4tli and 11th November, 1897. 

 { Entwurf eines natiirliclien St/stems der PapUioniden. 

 § Subtitle, 'Untersuohungen iiber die Mimicry.' 



the cases of mimicry occurring throughout 

 the class of insects, and reference is also 

 made to the few known instances in other 

 classes of animals. The Lepidoptera occupy 

 the bulk of the memoir, and, as in Part 1, 

 a geographical order is followed, the mimic- 

 ries in each of the four zoological regions 

 being given under each of their respective 

 families and genera, but in separated ac- 

 counts of (firstly) models and (secondly) 

 mimickers. In the ' Allgemeiner Theil,' 

 which concludes the work and occupies 

 about half of Part 2, there are sections 

 treating of mimicry (a) within the limits 

 of the old genus Papilio (in connection with 

 Part 1), (6) between 'immune and non- 

 immune ' Lepidoptera, and (c) among ' im- 

 mune ' Lepidoptera themselves ; followed 

 by a consideration of objections to the 

 theory of mimicry, and of mimicry as a 

 part of protective adaptation to the environ- 

 ment. 



While I regard Part 1 as a memoir of 

 value, and as likely to prove serviceable to 

 the student of a group so difficult to classify 

 as the Papilioninae, and while I recognize 

 the great labor and research displayed 

 throughout the work in the assembling of 

 the accessible facts and data, I must re- 

 luctantly record my concurrence, in Pro- 

 fessor Poulton's severe criticism of the ex- 

 tremely unsatisfactory nature of the general 

 treatment of the subject in Part 2. Apart 

 from the cumbrous handling of the mass of 

 details accumulated, the writer manifests 

 such disregard of obvious difficulties, such 

 unscientific haste in jumping at conclusions, 

 and such inadequate recognition of what 

 had been accomplished by previous inves- 

 tigators, that one can only regret that he 

 ever entered on the speculative part of his 

 work, and did not confine his energies to 

 the better concentration and arrangement 

 of the materials so assiduously collected. 



Among recent contributions to the sub- 

 ject we shall, I think, all agree in assigning 



