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1959
Journal of the Lepidopterists' Society
245
REVIEWS
GEOGRAPHIC VARIABILITY IN SPEYERIA. COMMENTS, RECORDS AND DESCRIPTION OE A NEW SUBSPECIES. By Arthur H. Moeck. 1957. 48 pp., 2 pis., 7 maps. Paper presented to and sponsored by the Milwaukee Entomological Society. [Privately printed in limited edition. A few copies remain available through the Secretary to the Society, Miss Florence Schiller, 2915 North Bartlett Avenue, Milwaukee 11, Wise, U. S. A. Price $1.00.]
This is a rambling essay, of a sort rapidly vanishing from the literature, a frankly "unscientific" discourse on the travels, adventures and discoveries made by the author during many summer vacations spent in quest of Speyeria.
Oldsters recall when such papers were commonplace. Nowadays, lepi-dopterology is becoming an aseptic science with a technical jargon having few words to spare for the sweat, toil and excitement of the chase in the field where the material originates. The pace has stepped up; rising costs of publication and the taking over by professionals of what once equally was a domain of amateurs has brought tighter organization and higher scientific caliber to the contents of our journals.
But something has gone that was intrinsically worthwhile. Those who remember Henry Bird's delightfully written accounts of Papaipema, to cite a classic example, can attest that basic values were not wholly neglected in the earlier luxuriances. Occasionally, even now, a breath of sweet air manages to waft between the rows of statistics, as when the Stallings clan write of a hegira into the Southwest for Megathymus, but such literary interludes are becoming rare pleasures.
The values which are to be discerned in Moeck's article are largely of this sort. At the same time, hitherto unpublished records and descriptions are included, of subspeciation probably new to most students.
There are some minor annoyances: the print job is atrociously poor; the proof-reading somehow got bungled; the composition is somewhat uneven. The author nevertheless has written a paper which fills a definite need, giving a summary of the genus which is reasonably up-to-date and quite comprehensive; the freedom from any provincialism is noteworthy but is to be expected from a collector who takes the continent for his playground.
In truth, more than any other student, this man has slain his thousands of argynnids. From Maine to California, from Mexico to Manitoba, it is all one to Moeck — if a question arises of variation in an isolated desert range, or of where a cline ends, or of where distinctive subspecies may be intergrad-ing, off he goes, the uncanny thing about it all being his knack of blundering into precisely the right spots. His many friends who know of his physical handicaps and his lackadaisical collecting pace would not wager a chipped nickel on his chances of success. But back he comes, with rarities overflowing, from places which more stalwart and supposedly more capable collectors will
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REVIEWS
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not, cannot, or at least do not explore to full potentiality. It may be stretching the legend a bit to say that this one person discovers annually more new facets of Speyeria than do all of the remaining fraternity of Speyeria buffs, but it is not too far from the mark, at that. We can but shake our heads and wonder —■.
Those procuring this summary of Moeck's field work expecting, from the title, help in classifying a difficult genus may be disappointed. Still, his remarks do add up to an indispensable approach philosophy, which, along with the many little-known variations described, will repay careful reading. The tyro, especially, will be put on the right track. The size of the geographical canvas and the enormity of the problems are given in faithful and rare perspective. Additionally, the beginner will be disabused of the feeling of inferiority to the "experts", for Moeck clearly puts the case as it really is, namely, that the main source of knowledge lies in the geographically representative series, in fields and woods which are open to all.
The new subspecies described is S. zerene gloriosa, from the vicinity of Selma, Josephine County, southern Oregon toward the coastal slope. Almost equal in interest are descriptions of some other Oregon varients unnamed and not mentioned in the standard literature. However, the Oregon data are not singled out for special commendation; there are many of these highly important references, for almost all of the regions where speyerians occur; the breadth of view is the most appealing feature.
L. P. Grey, Route 1, Box 216, Lincoln, Maine, U. S. A.
MOTYLE SLOFENSKA. OBLAST SLOFENSKEHO RAJA. [Lepi-doptera of Slovakia. The region of the Slovak Paradise.] By Andrej Reip-rich. 1960. 553 pp., 137 figs., 68 pis. Published by the Slovak Academy of Sciences, Klemensova Street 27, Bratislava, Czechoslovakia; price 50.-Kcs.
In the general part of this work the author introduces a short survey of the studied area, which is shown in two maps (pp. 373-374). The Slovak Paradise is situated in the eastern part of Central Slovakia. The author worked mainly in the neighbourhood of the town Spisska Nova Ves.
In the systematic part of the book (pp. 64-365) the author gives information about all 859 recorded species. In this part there are a number of interesting biological observations. The majority of all observed species is figured in the 68 plates. Very nice are the photos of the living butterflies, caterpillars, and their localities. The book is in Czech, with Russian and German summaries (pp. 405-416).
The book is of importance to the knowledge of the Lepidoptera in Slovakia.
Josef Moucha, Narodni Museum v Praze, Praha 2, CZECHOSLOVAKIA