144 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Gross- Schmetterlinge' published at Guben in 1891, form a complete 

 and useful guide for the continental collector, and mutatis mutandis 

 would supply valuable hints to the field entomologists of our own 

 country. Among the subjects dealt with in a more or less original 

 manner are the various modes of larva-collecting by searching, beating, 

 sweeping, the laying down of dry foliage, &c. Under the heading of 

 the perfect insect we have sections devoted to nets, killing-bottle, 

 collecting-boxes ; mallet for jarring tree-trunks ; methods of collecting 

 by smoke, light, and baits ; the packing, pinning, and setting of 

 captures. Good practical directions are given for the rearing of larvae 

 in all their stages indoors or in the open, with fairly full accounts of 

 the diseases to which both larvae and pupae are liable. Useful hints 

 are added as to the management of such species as hybernate in the 

 larval or pupal condition, and as to the precautions to be adopted 

 against the attacks of " cannibals." 



The author has also much to say with regard to the care of the 

 collection itself, nor do such details as the subjects of purchase and 

 exchange, the arranging and labelling of specimens, and the keeping 

 of a memorandum-book and register, fail to find mention in their 

 appropriate place. The advice given throughout is of a sound and 

 practical character, and the author commands the greater confidence 

 in his recommendations from being able to appeal at almost every turn 

 to the results of his own experience. We take leave to differ from him 

 on one minor point. He deprecates the waste of time, as he considers 

 it, involved in making a separate record of each individual specimen in 

 the collection. We hold, on the other hand, that it is most important 

 to be able to give the exact date and locality of each capture when 

 required, together with any other points of interest that may have 

 been observed in connection with it at the time. Such facts often 

 turn out to have a quite unexpected bearing on some question of 

 biological interest, and their systematic record adds enormously to the 

 scientific value of the collection. 



We cannot close our notice of this stimulating book without 

 bestowing a special word of praise on the coloured figures, which, 

 excellently drawn by L. Schroter and worthily reproduced by the well- 

 known firm of Werner and Winter at Frankfort, are both good in 

 themselves and really useful as illustrations of the text. Those that 

 especially take our fancy are the hybrid Saturnias, with their larvae, 

 Plates I. -IV. The Vanessas on Plates VI. and VII. are most in- 

 teresting, and should be compared with Mr. Frohawk's figures accom- 

 panying Mr. Merrifield's papers in the London Entomological Society's 

 'Transactions.' There is, we think, an inaccuracy in Plate VI., 

 fig. 4. The last of the chain of pale submarginal spots should belong 

 to the space between the first and second median branches ; not, 

 as here represented, to the space between the median and submedian 

 nervnres. 



The book would be improved by a good subject-index, for which 

 the fairly full table of contents at the beginning, and the alphabetical 

 list of genera and species at the end, are a not quite adequate 

 substitute. It is to be hoped that this want may be supplied in the 

 future editions, for which the high merits of the work are likely to 

 ensure a demand, F. A. D. 



