Notices of New Books. 7225 



* A Catalogue of the Lepidopterous Insects in the Museum of Natural 

 History at the East India House' By Thomas Horsfield, 

 M. & Ph. D., F.R.S., Keeper of the Museum ; and Frederic 

 Moore, Assistant. Vol. II. London : Allen & Co., Leaden- 

 hall Street. 1859. 8vo ; 160 pp. letter-press ; 15 plates. 

 Price 10s. plain, 20s. coloured. 



It is impossible for any one who has taken the interest I have 

 always done in the arrangement of Lepidoptera not to hail with grati- 

 tude the appearance of a work which professes to reflect the opinion of 

 one who possessed almost unbounded materials, and who, for many 

 years, made this subject his especial study. The late lamented Dr. 

 Horsfield's account of the advantages he possessed is given in the 

 following words : — 



" I lived at this time at Surakarta, a province in the interior [of 

 Java] belonging to the native princes. I was amply provided with 

 every convenience and facility for preserving what I had collected. 

 Several draughtsmen had likewise been trained under my superin- 

 tendance, for botanical delineations ; and the skill they acquired in 

 those soon fitted them for the annulose department. I was therefore 

 enabled to enter upon a history of the metamorphoses of Javanese 

 Lepidoptera, a design which has long engaged my anxious solicitude. 

 Although I did not at this period so fully conceive the paramount 

 necessity of an acquaintance with the metamorphoses of Lepidoptera, 

 towards the establishment of a natural arrangement, as I have been 

 led to do in later periods, yet I was so strongly impressed with its 

 essential importance in attempting a complete history of insects, that 

 I commenced with a fixed determination to prosecute the inquiry 

 with unremitted industry and zeal, to collect all the larvae of Lepi- 

 dopterous insects which I might possibly obtain, and to trace them 

 through the various periods of their existence. With this view I 

 fitted up a large apartment adjoining my residence with breeding- 

 cages and receptacles for chrysalides. At the commencement of the 

 rainy season, the period when, in tropical climates, the foliage of 

 vegetables is renewed, I daily went out in search of caterpillars, 

 accompanied by the most intelligent of my native assistants. The 

 caterpillars thus collected were placed in separate breeding-cages, 

 and several of the assistants were instructed to provide daily, at regu- 

 lar periods, the food the individuals required, and to secure the clean- 

 liness of their cages. As soon as the caterpillars were approaching to 

 XVIII. 3 K 



