PRESS NOTICES OF VOL. III. XV. 



and the number of years which will be required to deal with over 2000 species of British 

 lepidoptera on the same scale. . . . Turning to more general matters, the abstracts 



given of different systems of classification of groups, often taken from old or scarce books, 

 will be most useful to all students who have not access to the best entomological libraries. 

 Mr. Tutt seems to aim at making his book a huge compendium and cyclopaedia of all that 

 has been published on the species of which he treats ; and it will be of great value to 

 generalising entomologists, who will be able to sift from it a great amount of valuable infor- 

 mation in furtherance of their special studies. A large amount of information is given 

 respecting foreign species, especially those of continental Europe and North America ; and 

 also on parasites, and various other subjects incidentally connected with the main subject of 

 the work. We are sorry to find that there is only a meagre list of new subscribers since the 

 last volume; but, as the work is necessarily too costly for many entomologists, and must 

 become increasingly so with the publication of each volume, we would wish to emphasize its 

 great value as a book of reference for public Natural History or Entomological Libraries, 

 especially at a distance from London or the University towns which alone possess full series 

 of the books of which Mr. Tutt's work is largely an abstract not that we do not also 

 fully recognize the large amount of material due to the original observations of Mr. Tutt and 

 his coadjutors, which is published, here for the first time. — W. F. Kirby, F.L.S., The Annals 

 and Magazine of Natural History. 



" The 3rd volume of Tutt's Brit ish Lepidoptera has appeared, and is fully up to the standard of 

 the first two volumes. The superfamily Lachneides is completed, the superfamilies Dimorphides 

 (E?id?vjnidesj, Attacides, and a part of the superfamily Sphingides are finished. The references 

 to literature, ancient and modern, seem to leave nothing more to be desired in this respect ; in fact, 

 the amount of labour performed and research that has been made seems almost appalling, and we 

 wonder whether the author has the strength and endurance to carry such an undertaking through 

 to completion. This work may well be taken as a model by one who is less experienced, provided 

 he does not follow it too closely and thus destroy his own originality of thought and plan. Under 

 each superfamily is given a very complete history of the classifications of the different authors. 

 These are carefully discussed, and when the author differsfrom others he does not hesitate to express 

 his convictions. Many of our old familiar names have disappeared, and are to be found only among 

 the tail-feathers of synonymy. This is, however, strictly in accordance with the law of priority, and 

 if any of us feel unreconciled to this, we may well ask ourselves whether we are to keep up with the 

 trend of modern scientific thought or fall by the way. Under each species is given the synonymy 

 and references to literature, so full and complete that we can hardly imagine anything of 

 importance to have been overlooked. Then follows the original description in the language in 

 which it was published, and this is followed by the author's description of the imago. There is 

 then given a full account of sexual dimorphism and gynandromophism 'more than 5 pages being 

 devoted to gynandromorphous examples of Amorpha populi, L. ). Variation is also taken up very 

 fully with all the forms described and named, and this requires 7 pages tor A. populi alone. A 

 complete account is given of the time, place, and manner in which the eggs are laid, followed by 

 a full description of the egg, the larva in each stadium, and variations of the larva, pupation 

 and cocoon, pupa, foodplants, parasites, habitats, time and place of appearance and distribution. 

 While this work must prove indispensable to the entomologist who desires full information on the 

 lepidoptera of the British Isles, it will be exceedingly valuable to students of the lepi- 

 doptera in the United States and elsewhere, because of the exhaustive study of the literature 

 of the genera, and higher groups, and the careful and conscientious manner in which the author 

 applies the laws of nomenclature." — C. H. Fernald, M.A., Ph.D., F.E.S., The Canadian 

 Entomologist, January, 1903. 



" Two years after the publication of the second volume, the third volume of British 

 Lepidoptera has been completed. It differs from its predecessors inasmuch as it is not 

 divided into two parts, but deals throughout with the species continued from vol. ii. 

 The first species dealt with is Pachygastria trifolii, the last Hemaris tityus {bombylifor?nis). 

 One has little doubt that, of all the species dealt with, Lasiocampa qucrcus will come in 

 for the most notice. The history of this species occupies no less than 70 pages, much of 

 it is in small type, and the whole composed of summarised detail dealing with facts, and 

 without a word that could possibly be spared. Little that has ever been published on this 

 interesting species can have escaped the search-net, and the full details of the variation 

 will not only prove of the highest interest to all students and collectors of lepidoptera, but 

 the critical onslaughts made on the misuse, of the varietal names on the continent will 

 necessitate a thorough study by continental lepidopterists. Short notes on Lasiocampa var. 

 callunae, often repeated ad nauseam with no fresh facts or details, and stating simply what 

 has been published so often before, by recruits who are for ever finding out something quite 

 new because of their ignorance of previously published matter or their inability to find it, 

 must of necessity be fewer in number or more scientific in character now that the details 

 (PP- 73-85) so industriously collected by the author can be so readily studied, for these 

 pages do not represent the author's opinion of the subject, but the opinions and facts of 

 all lepidopterists who have handled the subspecies since 1849, when Palmer first described 

 it. To many the account of Dimorpha versicolora will be especially welcome, consisting 

 as it does of 35 pages (pp. 229-264) of solid matter relating to this interesting species, and 

 embodied in which one finds descriptions of no less than ten striking gynandromorphs, a 

 complete life-history based on the observations of Chapman, Bacot, Holland, Clarke. 

 Gascoyne, Merrifield, Buckler, Bernard-Smith, Poulton, Jenvey, Bankes, Tugwell, etc., whilst 

 more than a hundred other lepidopterists are quoted for details relating to localities, dates 

 of appearance, habits, etc. As a matter of comparison, however, it may be noted that 

 Gastropacha ilici folia has been worked out in such detail as to require from pp. 186-199 

 to describe it and its habits in their various aspects, and practically every detail of our 

 knowledge of the species in Britain is here embodied, as well as a complete life-history 

 never before published. The less than a dozen lines of Newman on Hemaris tityus, with at 

 least two glaring errors, become here some twelve solid pages of detailed facts, checked with the 

 authorities and vouched for by their names. These two species are those that occupy the least 

 space; the other species are worked out in the same careful manner,but with mure facts and details. 

 To the biologist the extensive details relating to the hybridity, gynandromorphism and life- 

 histories of the species treated, will prove a mine of information. The account of Smerinthus 

 hybr. hybridus (pp. 448-459) is of the greatest value as a summary of all the work published on this 

 best known hybrid form ; but the details on pp. 391-395 will prove no doubt of still more interest. 



