1879.] 
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NOTICES OF BOOKS. 
Scientific Lectures. By Sir John Lubbock, Bart. London : 
Macmillan and Co. 
In this volume the author gives a clear, though necessarily much 
condensed, view of the results of modern research on the mutual 
adaptation of plants and insecfts, and on the habits of ants — a 
subjecft which he has personally investigated with perseverance 
and success. 
A particular interest attaches to the attempt made to explain 
not merely the general colouration, but even the pattern of cater- 
pillars, by a reference to their necessity for concealment. The 
view taken by Dr. Weissman in his able monograph on the 
larvae of the Sphingidae, and, we believe independently, by the 
author, is that longitudinal lines prevail among such species as 
feed on grasses or other narrow-leaved plants, whilst such as 
browse upon broad-leaved plants exhibit diagonal bands. Thus 
Smerinthus quercus, S. tilice, S. populi , and Sphinx convolvuli — 
feeding respectively on the oak, the lime, the poplar, and the 
convolvulus — are all characterised by diagonal lines on their 
sides. On the other hand, Anceryx pinastri , which eats the 
narrow needle-like leaves of fir trees, has merely longitudinal 
lines. The chief difficulty in the way is that the larvae of not a 
few species have more than one food-plant, and may be found 
both on broad leaved and narrow-leaved vegetables. Thus 
Chcerocampa celerio, C. elpenor, and C. porcellus feed upon com- 
paratively narrow-leaved plants, such as different species of 
Galium and Epilobium. Certain entomologists, however, — such 
as Meigen, — declare that they feed also upon the vine, one of 
the broadest-leaved of European trees. We have ourselves 
taken C. celerio upon the vine, and can testify that C. elpenor 
and C. porcellus in captivity feed quite contentedly upon its 
leaves. Still it is probable that the bulk of these insecfts found 
in Europe have been fed upon Galium , and are descended from 
ancestors whose diet has been similar. Hence we need not pro- 
nounce it an exception to Dr. Weismann’s law if C. elpenor and 
C. porcellus have only doubtful diagonal bands, and C. celerio 
none at all. The strongly-marked diagonal pattern of Sphinx 
ligustri may seem unsuited to a species living on so narrow- 
leaved a shrub as the privet, but the larva feeds also upon the 
lilac and the ash. The large blue eye-spots of C. nerii are ex- 
plained as resembling the nowers of the periwinkle, on which it 
is said to feed in this country. On the coasts and in the islands 
of the Mediterranean, which may be considered its true home, 
