The Butterflies of Europe

Abstract

WE have received Part I. of this work, the approaching publication of which was announced in these columns a few weeks back. The whole of the species (and some prominent varieties, &c.) inhabiting Europe proper will occupy about twenty monthly parts, each containing sixteen pages of text and four coloured plates. The plates are chromolithographed from the author's own drawings, which appear to be exceedingly well done. We defer a more extended notice until more parts shall have appeared, especially because the subjects illustrated in the first part are almost the least difficult for the chromolithographic process. The text is clearly printed, but a little more care in writing the short descriptions should be exercised. Thus at the very commencement we read as one of the characters of the family Papilionidæ, “Larva cylindrical, not spiny, furnished with two retractile tentacles on the second segment.” We doubt if this is correct for all the European species of Papilio; it certainly is not so if exotic species of the same genus are considered; and almost immediately afterwards the author, in defining the genus Thais (one of the Papilionidæ), says, “Larvæ armed with spines.” Nowhere do we find any reference to the veining of the wings, which certainly should have formed part of the sketch of the principal groups given in the Introduction. The author will do well to consider the importance of this suggestion. We presume the chief object of the work is to enable collectors of European butterflies to name their captures, and especially by means of the figures. For this purpose it promises to be exceedingly well adapted.

The Butterflies of Europe.

Illustrated and described by Henry Charles Lang. Part I. (L. Reeve and Co., 1881.)