98 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 



In the pages of one of our entomological contemporaries,^ 

 we have read with feelings of anything but pleasure a paper 

 by C. P. Pickett recording the capture of an excessive number 

 of specimens of the Chalk Hill Blue Butterfly {Agriades 

 coridon), in order to secure as large a number as possible of 

 the variety known as roystonensis. The writer remarks that 

 he was able to " work " it as he " had never worked it before," 

 and, let us add the hope, as he will never work it again. He 

 says that after examining some 60,000 specimens his total 

 of the variety amounted to 66 examples. During his stay 

 in the particular locality some 32 collectors were counted, 

 " all more or less keen on semi-syngrapha . . . and as each 

 captor stayed from one or two days to a week, roughly some 

 500 semi-syngrapha were taken." Although the species is 

 stated to have been flying "in countless thousands," yet we 

 cannot admit the justification of such wholesale slaughter of 

 a butterfly and its varieties. We should much like to see 

 some legislation put into force for the preservation of our 

 most beautiful insects, and a " Butterfly Protection Act " 

 would be as welcome as have been those passed in the 

 cause of ornithology. 



James W. Munro has recently published- an excellent 

 account of the larvae of the Furniture Beetles — Families 

 Anobiidae and Lyctidae. From an economic point of view 

 this memoir should prove extremely useful, since it aims at 

 furnishing definite characters for the identification of the 

 larvae of these destructive insects. From an examination of 

 the author's descriptions and analytical keys, together with 

 the beautifully drawn figures which accompany the text, we 

 can cordially congratulate him on having achieved his object. 

 Indeed, the treatise is an admirable one in every respect, 

 and may well serve as a model for other workers in insect 

 morphology. 



1 Entomologisfs Record, March 1916, pp. 59-62. 



2 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society, vol. xix., pp. 220-36 

 (February 1916). 



