45 



addition to our knowledge, the most important of which is found in the larva and pupa 

 of D'Urbania, a curious genus of Lycaeninse, in which the pupa, as well as the larva, is 

 covered with long fascicles of hairs, as long as the width of the body. Mr. Trimen has 

 been aided by collectors and naturalists throughout Southern Africa, to a very great 

 extent, so much so, indeed, that he has added the name of one of them, Col. Bowker, to 

 his title page as joint author with himself ; and the help he has received in this respect 

 may be indicated in part by the considerable number of species which have been added to 

 the list of South African butterflies since the publication of his first work, a total of 380 

 against 197. An excellent coloured map of Southern Africa, south of the tropic of Capri- 

 corn, is prefixed to the first volume. "We hope the third volume, completing the work, 

 will soon be issued. 



S. H. Scudder. 



Ceylon Butterflies. The Lepidoptera of Ceylon, by F. Moore, F.Z.S., Vol. I., (pub- 

 lished under the special patronage of the Government of Ceylon) London : L. Reeve 

 & Co.. 1880-81. 4°. 



The butterflies of the East India region appear to be now in a fair way of receiving 

 their due share of attention. We have already called attention to Distant's invaluable 

 work on the Malayan butterflies, and to the hand-book to the butterflies of India and 

 Burmah, by Marshall and De Niceville. On many accounts neither of these is so impor- 

 tant as the earlier work on the Lepidoptera of Ceylon by Frederick Moore, which we 

 desire to introduce to the readers of the Canadian Entomologist, principally on account 

 of the very considerable accession to our knowledge of the earlier stages of eastern 

 butterflies which is here given in the plates, and also to draw attention to the notes on 

 the natural history of the insects given by Dr. Thwaites, which are embodied in the text. 

 The work as a whole consists of three volumes ; but we speak here of the butterflies only, 

 which are comprised in the first volume, published in 1880-81. It is a large quarto, with 

 71 excellent coloured plates, in which the early stages are in very many instances figured 

 side by side with the butterflies. Notwithstanding that it is published under the special 

 patronage of the Government of Ceylon, the work is a costly one, and to one residing in 

 the United States an embargo is laid upon its purchase by the fact that the duties upon 

 such a work are so high. This single volume cost me $15 for duties and transportation 

 alone. Thus is science encouraged with us ! 



We are here introduced to a new set of illustrations of the early stages of butterflies, 

 many of which are of extreme interest, and these in every family of butterflies. It is the 

 most important and considerable contribution to our knowledge since Horsfield's memor- 

 able volume. It is a pity, however, that in many instances no reference is made in the 

 text, either to Dr. Thwaites' notes, or Mr. Moore's descriptive portion, as to the meaning 

 of certain figures which differ strikingly from those of their allies. Thus the pupa of a 

 species of Cirrochroa is represented as hanging by its hinder end, as in all Nymphalidse, 

 but bent so at the end of the abdomen as to lie parallel to the horizontal branch from 

 which it is suspended, much in the way that we find it in our own species of Chlorippe ;. 

 but there is no appearance in the figure and no mention in the text of any greatly elon- 

 gated cremaster with its row of hooklets down the side, which in Chlorippe stiffens the 

 pupa into what would seem to be an unnatural position. We have some interesting 

 additions to our scanty knowledge of the early stages of the Lemoniinse and an unusual 

 wealth of larvse and pupae of Lycaeninae. Here again is a figure of a species of Spalgis 

 hanging by its tail without the median girt, which is wholly anomalous in this subfamily,, 

 but, as there is no explanation of the matter in the text, it is to be presumed that it is 

 not meant to represent the insect in its natural position, the more so as the same is the 

 case in a species of Appias, one of the Pierinse, represented in two figures as hanging by 

 its tail only, while the whole structure of the chrysalis indicates that it must have had a 

 median girt. Yery interesting are the figures of the early stages of the Papilioninse, 

 which add very considerably to our knowledge, including as they do some figures of the 

 younger stages of the larva — presumably younger from their appendages, though here 



