Butterflies: their Structure, Changes, and Life-Histories, with Special Reference to American Forms

Abstract

MR. SCUDDER'S great reputation as an entomologist will cause many readers to turn to this beautifully got up volume with eager curiosity. They will expect to find a tolerably full account of all those interesting and complex phenomena of metamorphosis, variation, dimorphism and polymorphism, protective colouration, mimicry, and distribution, for the elucidation of which no class of organisms offers such abundant and striking materials; while they might not unreasonably anticipate that the bearing of the whole series of these phenomena on the “Doctrine of Descent” would be clearly indicated and the necessary conclusions to be drawn from them strongly insisted upon. The first separate work ever published on the general history of butterflies, as distinguished from their classification or specific description, would naturally excite some such expectations as these; but those who have entertained such ideas will be disappointed, and may perhaps be inclined to give the book less credit than it really deserves. We will therefore briefly indicate its contents and point out a few of its merits and deficiencies.

Butterflies: their Structure, Changes, and Life-Histories, with Special Reference to American Forms.

Being an Application of the “Doctrine of Descent” to the Study of Butterflies. With an Appendix of Practical Instructions. By Samuel H. Scudder. (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1881.)