Vlll. PKESS NOTICES OF VOL. I. 



"The present volume covers a somewhat, I might almost say a quite, unoccupied field. In the 

 opening chapters the author incorporates in a series of special essays the leading facts that have been 

 published during the past 20 or 30 years by Dyar, Scudder, Poulton, Dixey, Speyer, Walter, Packard, 

 Hampson, and a host of others. Many of these chapters are very full, and not only have we here a 

 great gathering of facts from various sources, but they are treated and marshalled by the author with 

 much philosophical insight and with the addition of new material of his own and obviously very fre- 

 quently a verification by actual observation of the facts quoted from other authorities. . . . The great 

 value of the classificatory part of the work is that it brings together in readable form a mass of infor- 

 mation only to be got from a multitude of different sources, and the same feature marks equally the 

 rest of the work dealing with families and species. . . . The most valuable and original division of the 

 second portion of the work is the section on the Anthroceras. . . . This is a very full discussion of our 

 British representatives and the allied Continental species and varieties, a subject of which Mr. Tutt 

 has made a special study and amounts to an exhaustive monograph of the group. . . . The account of 

 the Neptieulae is also of great value, as it incorporates much material which is referred for authority to 

 Fletcher and Wood which there is much reason to believe would have largely escaped publication had 

 not the author induced these authorities to assist him. . . . There can be no doubt the work marks an 

 important step forward in the treatment of British Lepidoptera, recognising more fully than any 

 previous treatise that a complete study of all the stages of the insects, not only structurally but physio- 

 logically, in their habits, changes, variations, distributions, &c, is now essential to further progress. The 

 groups selected for treatment lend themselves especially to this demonstration. . . . The work is pro- 

 duced in a very satisfactory form. I have no doubt that its merits will secure it a reception that will 

 induce the author to proceed with the remaining volumes." — Dr. T. A. Chapmax, in The Entomologist. 

 March, 1899. 



" On the Lepidoptera Mr. Tutt is an acknowledged authority, and this first instalment of his vast 

 projected work on the Lepidoptera of Great Britain must assuredly add to his reputation . . . The 

 volume consists of near upon 600 pages of closely printed matter . . . written with great clearness, and 

 it is perhaps unnecessary to say that a work such as this is not light reading, and is not intended for 

 beginners or mere dilettanti, but for serious students. On all general matters Mr. Tutt summarises 

 with admirable perspicuousnessthe latest and most authoritative views, supplemented by the results of 

 his own investigations and discrimination . . . It is a mine of suggestive information for the scientific 

 student and of ascertained facts for the field naturalist. No work upon this immense, this exhaustless 

 subject can, of course, approach finality, but it is a real and great service to every entomologist to have 

 brought together from innumerable sources the latest results of entomological investigation, and at the 

 same time elaborate, well-authenticated lists, which tell him when and where each species may be 

 looked for. This is what Mr. Tutt's present volume has done, and what renders it an indispensable 

 addition to our entomological libraries. We very sincerely hope that the encouragement which the 

 author has received, and which has enabled him to bring this first volume out, will be continued to him 

 arid will increase. Of the continuance of his own energy and capacity we have no doubt, but the work 

 still lying before him, if his treatise is to be completed with the thoroughness of this first instalment, is 

 formidable enough ; and it remains for all those who are seriously interested in the science of ento- 

 mology to see to it that he does not fail through lack of sympathy and help." — Selwyn Image, M.A., 

 F.E.S., in the Phoenix, April 28th, 1899. 



" To the superficial mind it might appear that there was already a sufficiency of works on British 

 butterflies and moths ; and yet many of those which have recently appeared treat of the subject from 

 an enlarged standpoint, and cannot be denounced as superfluous. Among these we have met with none, 

 not even Mr. Barrett's, which approaches the w T ork which Mr. Tutt has undertaken, for comprehensive- 

 ness and richness of detail. The amount of matter, too, which it contains is enormous, for it is so closely 

 printed, and small type is so freely used, that every page i^robably contains on an average from two to four 

 times the amount of matter which might reasonably be expected to occupy a page of similar dimen- 

 sions. The first part of the book may be regarded as introductory, and contains chapters on the origin 

 of the Lepidoptera; the ova, embryology, and parthenogenesis; external and internal structure of 

 larvas ; variation of imagines, protective coloration, and defensive structures of larvas, and classifica- 

 tion. The phylogenetic tree illustrating the last section is extremely complicated, and will be found 

 worth study, as graphically illustrating the author's views on the relation of the various groups of 

 Lepidoptera. It is not possible to speak of this portion of the book in detail. British and foreign 

 authors are freely quoted, but large portions are founded on the direct observations of the author him- 

 self, or cast into a form regulated by his extensive knowledge of the subject. The second part of the 

 volume contains the life-histories of a portion of the ' Sphingo-Micropterygid stirps,' working from the 

 more generalized to the more specialized superfamilies, according to the system selected by the 

 author. Only four superfamilies are discussed in the first volume — the Micropterygides, the Nepticu- 

 lides, the Cochlidides, (or Eucleides), and the Anthrocerides — comprising about 100 species, giving an 

 average of three or four pages to each species. In many cases, however, this limit is far exceeded, the 

 notice of Anthrocerafilipeiidulae alone filling twenty-five pages, under the various heads of synonymy, 

 original desertion, imago, sexual dimorphism, variation (with notices of varieties from a to £), ovum, 

 larva, variation of larva, cocoon, pupa, dehiscence, food-plants, parasites, habits and habitat, time of 

 appearance, localities, and distribution. One commendable practice of the author's is to reprint the 

 original description, whether short or long. In the case of A.filipcndulae, aLinnean species, it happens 

 to be barely two lines long ; but in the case of some of the Nepticulae it runs to nearly a page. The 

 relationships between foreign and British genera and species are likewise freely discussed. We have 

 said enough to show the enormous compendium of information which Mr. Tutt has brought together 

 from all sources, jmblished and unpublished, making his book a regular cyclopaedia on almost all 

 subjects connected directly or indirectly with British Lepidoptera. We hope that the author may 

 receive some little return for the unavoidable amount of weary drudgery (to say nothing of the time 

 spent in really interesting work) that he must have devoted to his self-imposed, task, in the grateful 

 recognition of his labours by his fellow entomologists." — Annals and Magazine of Natural History. 

 September, 1899. 



