The Butterflies of Australia: a Monograph of the Australian Rhopalocera

Abstract

THE scientific study of the butterflies of Australia is certain to be greatly advanced by the appearance of this admirable work, although it is to be feared that the high price will tend to prevent a very wide circulation. It is obvious, however, that a costly book is implied by the presence of forty-three excellent quarto plates, of which four are coloured. In addition to this abundant and most necessary illustration in plates, the reader is provided with numbers of text figures as well as a valuable map-index of localities. One of the plates is devoted to larvæ and pupæ, one coloured plate to the variations of the Satyrine butterfly Tisiphone Joanna, the three others to special Satyrinæ, Lycænidae, and Hesperidæ. The remaining thirty-eight uncoloured plates contain 793 figures, all natural size, of the 332 species recognised by the authors as at present known in Australia. The Butterflies of Australia: a Monograph of the Australian Rhopalocera. By G. A. Waterhouse G. Lyell. Pp. vi + 239 + plates. (Sydney: Angus and Robertson; London: Oxford University Press, 1914.) Price 42s. net.