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AMPHION NESSUS (SPHINGIDAE) ATTRACTED TO FEMALE ANISOTA VIRGINIENSIS PELLUCIDA (CITHERONIIDAE)
On 24 May 1973 near McClellanville, South Carolina, an Anisota virginiensis pellucida (J. E. Smith) female emerged from a brood reared on Quercus nigra the previous August. She was put outdoors to call in males during the day. Other matters pressing, I was able to spend only short periods at the cage, during which time I saw several males of the same species and also captured three males of Amphion nessus (Cramer) that homed in directly to the cage and buzzed about trying to get in. The data follow, all times being Eastern Standard time:
Anisota virginiensis $ $ : 24 May, 1045; 25 May, 1107 and 1130.
Amphion nessus $ S : 26 May, 1415, 1416 and 1430. The most obvious possibility would seem to be a similarity in the chemical configuration of the sex pheromones of the two species, distantly related as they are. (A previous paper (Dominick, R. B. & C. R. Edwards 1971, J. Lepid. Soc. 25: 84-85) reported on the flight pattern of male Anisota virginiensis.)
Richard B. Dominick, The Charleston Museum, Charleston, South Carolina 29401.
BOOK REVIEWS
The Evolution of Melanism, The Study of a Recurring Necessity, With Special Reference to Industrial Melanism in the Lepidoptera, by Bernard Kettlewell. 1973. Clarendon Press, Oxford, xxiv + 424 p., illus. + plates. Price: $33.00 (U.S.).
This eagerly anticipated work provides a valuable compilation of the data and conclusions of Kettlewell and his associates on the phenomenon of melanism in the Lepidoptera. Although broad in scope and rich in detail, the book possesses some shortcomings which will be discussed following a resume.
The work is divided into 19 chapters (in seven major sections), followed by three appendices, a list of recorders, and a bibliography with better than 600 entries (including references through 1971). There are 38 pages of plates (35 halftone, 3 color), 14 text figures, and some 40 tables.
The book begins with a general consideration of melanism, its nature and functions (3 chapters). This introduction stresses Kettlewell's major theme that melanism has been a recurring necessity in the evolutionary histories of diverse organisms. This section is followed by one on melanism specifically in the Lepidoptera (3 chapters), which includes classifications of both adult and larval melanisms, as well as a general treatment of the phenomenon of industrial melanism, and a review of the worldwide distribution of that phenomenon.
Attention is then focused on the now-famous Biston betularia (3 chapters). The mark-release-recapture selection experiments in Birmingham and Dorset (1953-1955) are recounted, and the history and spread of the melanic forms in Great Britain are documented. Special reference is made to the frequency surveys (1952-1970) which Kettlewell has compiled from the records of nearly 170 observers, and these data are detailed in an 11-page appendix. Kettlewell then turns to consider non-industrial melanisms (3 chapters), in particular his own extensive work, including mark-release-recapture experiments, on Amathes glareosa in Shet-
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land. This section is followed by a treatment of recessive melanism (2 chapters) in which recent work on Lasiocampa quercus is described. A variety of melanisms are then described as miscellaneous (4 chapters). This last section includes examples of aposematic, sex-linked, and environmental melanism, as well as a short consideration of melanism in butterflies. The main body of the text is concluded with a regrettably short synthesis (1 chapter, 6 p.), and there follow appendices on breeding techniques (4 p.) and melanism in British moths (38 p.).
To turn now to criticisms of the book, I would first point out certain matters which may provide some annoyance to readers. The most important of these concerns the arrangement and numbering of the "plates." These plates (actually halftone figures) are numbered in the order of their citation within the text, but are arranged into bundles of halftone pages in an of times different sequence. Thus, one finds for example, plates 3.1 and 7.2 on the same halftone page. I sought plate 5.17a for a full five minutes after coming to its citation in Chapter 5. (The situation is rendered more confusing in my copy of the book by an error involving reversal of the plates belonging between pages 56-57 and pages 120-121.) A lesser annoyance is created by the absence of titles in some five percent of the bibliographic references. Finally, I note that at least one investigator whose work is critically discussed has been omitted from the author index.
A few more substantive matters are of greater concern. The quality of some of the black-and-white photographs is quite poor (e.g. plates 10.4 and 14.6), and one wishes that better specimens could have been selected for certain illustrations (e.g. plates 10.5 and 13.2). With regard to the literature, a few recent papers have been overlooked, in particular those of Klots (1964-1968, J. N. Y. Entomol. Soc.) and others dealing with melanism in North American species.
This book is a highly personal document, and as such must reflect the personality of its author. This reflection is generally engaging, and some occasional lapses of objectivity, particularly with regard to certain theoretical areas of biology, serve to enliven the sometimes tedious text. There are, however, certain dangers in this approach, and sometimes a question of fairness arises (e.g. with regard to ornithologists, p. 121). More serious, of course, would be any unfairness to specific individuals. On occasion, to this reviewer's mind, the data and conclusions of certain workers are disputed, re-interpreted, or rejected without an adequate airing.
Elaboration of the following example may strike some as improper, but I risk that judgment in order to call attention to what I regard as a serious misrepresentation. In the section of the book dealing with experiments on the background preferences of moths (p. 68-72), Kettlewell cites four papers of this reviewer, and details strong criticisms of the experimental techniques therein reported. He goes on to assert that in these studies "the main issue is missed," i.e. whether the forms of polymorphic species differ in background preferences. In response, I must contend that the criticisms of techniques would only be applicable had those techniques failed to yield readily interpretable results, and would point out that two polymorphic species (with a melanic form in each case) were tested for background preferences in the papers that are cited. (Kettlewell rather curiously overlooked another paper (1969, Nature, Lond. 222: 585-586) in which the background preferences of the typical and melanic forms of Phigalia titea were tested.)
This book is primarily, and properly, a vehicle for the elaboration of Kettlewell's own ideas on all aspects of melanism, but one might have hoped for a fuller treatment in certain areas. For example, little treatment is accorded the possibility that various factors associated with industrialization, other than darkening of the environment, might act, either directly on the insects, or indirectly through effects on predators or the vegetation, to provide an advantage to melanic individuals. Another idea which receives scant attention, and for which there is considerable experimental evidence, is the possibility that the melanic forms of cryptic species
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might differ genetically from their typical counterparts in terms of background resting preferences.
In summary, while this book may fall somewhat short of expectation with regard to scholarship and synthesis, it is on the whole an ambitious and admirable project. Herein are compiled the results of two decades of substantial and varied investigations by the author and his associates on the phenomenon of melanism in the British Isles. As a single source of these many results, this book will have a permanent value.
Theodore D. Sargent, Department of Zoology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts 01002.
Butterflies of the World, by H. L. Lewis. 1973. Harrap Books, London; and Follett, Chicago, xvi + 312 p.; 208 pis. Price: about $30.00 (U.S.).
No book could begin to live up to the pretentious title of this one, though in some respects Butterflies of the World makes a good attempt. There are recognizable figures of many (definitely not even most) of the world's species, and the figures alone would make the volume worth far more than its purchase price if all of the species were correctly identified.
Regrettably such is not the case. I have the feeling that Brig. Lewis prepared the text and the legends for the figures based on one idea of how the insects on each plate would be numbered, but that someone else did the final numbering. Those plates with even columns and rows of figures do not show transpositions, only those with irregularly placed specimens. Nevertheless, the presence of such easily avoided errors suggests careless proofreading and is inexcusable. A partial listing of the plates affected by transpositions of numbers includes plates 19, 60, 63, 64 and 118; there are others. Such errors greatly diminish the accuracy and usefulness of the book.
Errors of fact are even less excusable. Anartia amalthea (L.), figured on Plate 13 and listed from "N. and C. America," is in fact a South American butterfly that has not been recorded from either North or Central America, though Seitz lists it without documentation from Central America. Troides aeacus (C. & R. Felder) from the Indo-Australian region is figured on Plate 24 as Eurytides xanticles (Bates) from the American tropics: even utilization of a rudimentary knowledge of Lepidoptera could have prevented this mistake. The genus Anetia has been variously considered a danaid (correctly) or simply a nymphalid, but not a heliconiid as figured on Plate 43; and the danaid genus ltuna is included on Plate 44 as a heliconiid. Tellewo, the only Indo-Australian ithomiid, is shown on Plate 156 as a danaid.
Lewis states (p. xii), ". . . the names given in the book are those commonly in use, and to be found in the latest works of scholarship. . . ." Unfortunately, the "latest work of scholarship" published in the Western Hemisphere seems to be Klots' 1951 Field Guidel At the same time Forster's Bolivian satyrid work is partially, but not critically, accepted, resulting in Altopedaliodes tena (Hewitson) being figured as that on Plate 54 and as Pedaliodes tena (Hewitson) on Plate 63. Some nomen-clatorial questions that were thought to be solved have been rescrambled, such as the distinction between Euphyes and Atrytone (Plate 21) and the replacement of the preoccupied Plestia by Zestusa (Plate 22).
There is a small Corrigenda sheet accompanying our copy of this book: unfortunately it should be much larger! The number of inadvertent synonyms created is very large (e.g., Mitoura spinctorum for M. spinetorum on Plate 20), and a full errata sheet should be forthcoming to rectify these errors. Since this book is