854 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. II. No. 51. 



SCIENTIFIC LITEBATUBE. 



A Handbook of British Lepidoptera. By Edward 



Meyeick. London, Macmillan. 1895. 6,843 



pp., 8°. 



Within the compass of a very handy volume, 

 in reasonably large type, Mr. Meyrick has con- 

 trived to pack the descriptions of over 2,000 

 British Lepidoptera, giving at the same time in- 

 dications of their habitats, distribution, and time 

 of flight, and, where known, a line or two de- 

 scriptive of the larva, pupa and food plant ; 

 analytical keys are also added. It is not only 

 precisely what its title implies, and so must be 

 of distinct service to the young English ento- 

 mologist, but it is a really new book and not a 

 series of copied or condensed descriptions. It 

 gives the beginner, however, no clue to anything 

 beyond that to which he may go for fuller in- 

 formation, and the descriptions of the early 

 stages are confessedly at second hand and un- 

 satisfactory. 



All this, however, hardly interests greatly 

 the American entomologist, and if this were all 

 there would scarcely be need of more than a 

 brief notice in these columns. What gives the 

 book a far wider interest is that the author has 

 endeavored, by means of diagrams under about 

 half of the groups, to express succinctly his 

 views of the phylogeny of that group, and then 

 has arranged the members in a serial order in 

 accordance with their relative distance from 

 what is regardea as the primitive type, the 

 several members of each distinct branch, how- 

 ever, being kept together. Thus the Lepidop- 

 tera are divided into nine groups of families, as 

 follows: 



[2. Notodontina 4. Papilionina 



I I 



1. Charadrinina 3. Lasiooampina 5. Pyralidina 



6. Psychina 



7. Tortricina 



8. Tineina 



I 

 9. Micropterygiiia 



And they are then arranged in the book in the 

 order indicated by the numerals which we have 



prefixed. ' ' The order begins, ' ' declares the 

 author, ' 'with the most recently developed forms 

 and descends gradually to the earliest or most 

 ancestral, which are the last in the book." This 

 brings the butterflies into the middle of the 

 book, between the Lasiocampina and Pyralidina, 

 a startling innovation, which will not fail to 

 draw instant attention to the impossibility of 

 arranging any large group naturally in a linear 

 series. 



It is e\ddent that Mr. Meyrick has made use 

 of the latest researches on the affinities of the 

 diflTerent members of the Lepidoptera (which 

 have been exceptionally important of late), and 

 that he has also brought to the task he has 

 undertaken much critical judgment ; but it may 

 well be doubted whether the Manual to appear 

 in another thirty-six years (the time that has 

 elapsed since Stainton covered the same ground) 

 will not see as much change from the present 

 work, especially through investigations on the 

 early stages of these insects, as this work shows 

 when compared with Stainton. 



It were much to be wished that the author 

 had used a rational nomenclature for the neu- 

 ration of the imago, and not have employed the 

 back-handed numerical method so much in 

 vogue among Old World lepidopterists, a method 

 absolutely without meaning and a mask of affini- 

 ties. Many clear illusti-ations of the neuration 

 accompany the descriptions, and the work is 

 admirably printed and convenient at every 

 point. 



S. H. SCUDDER. 



Atlas d'osteologie, comprenant les articulations 

 des OS et les insertions musculaires. Par Ch. 

 Debieree, Professor d' Anatomic a la Faculty 

 de medecine de Lille. Paris, F^lix Alcan. 

 1896. Pp. viii, 92. 253 gravures. 

 The superb anatomical atlases of Bougery 

 and Jacob, and of Bonamy and Beau, have de- 

 servedly made French artists famovis, and have 

 been a mine from which anatomists of all coun- 

 tries have drawn for the illustration of their 

 works. They are, however, so expensive as 

 to be far beyond the reach of the ordinary stu- 

 dent. 



The present work has a totally different aim, 

 being an attempt to present in a cheap and con- 



