4 THE ENTOMOLOGIST S RECORD. 



also with regard to the enquiries he made into the effect of selection 

 with other species. 



The societies are still doing excellent work, and I am pleased to 

 state that the readers of the Entom. Record responded very satisfac- 

 torily to the appeal, made last January, to become Fellows of the 

 Entom. Soc. of London. I like to feel that this magazine is respon- 

 sible for about half the entries each year, and we have again almost 

 reached this point. The excuses offered by entomologists, who ought 

 to join, are practically : — (1). Inability to attend the meetings. (2). Too 

 expensive. I will not discuss either of these points. I shall be very 

 pleased to hear from any of our subscribers who would like to join 

 this (or other) society. The South London Entomological Society 

 has, during the past year, taken an important step forward. This is 

 no less than the publication of its Proceedings half-yearly, so that the 

 part for the first half year is already to hand. The City of Loudon 

 Society will now have to look to its laurels, and when it comes to the 

 consideration of the publication of its Transactions, it is hoped that the 

 members will treat the matter in such a manner as will show ento- 

 mologists that they can be as generous as they are known to be 

 scientific. The Leicester is the only other society, I believe, that 

 publishes its papers and proceedings, and, although the entomological 

 branch of the Yorkshire Nat. Union has the Naturalist at its back, the 

 entomological work systematically published is nil. Such space as 

 can be ill-spared in the magazines suffices for a brief notice of what 

 the Birmingham, Cambridge, Carlisle, Lancashire, Nonpareil, and North 

 London Societies do. One cannot help feeling that some permanent 

 record of the work done by these societies should be on the specialist's 

 bookshelves. 



Growing out of our consideration of the Societies, we may con- 

 sider some of the principal papers of the year. These papers are such 

 that it is hoped that all entomologists will make it a point to see 

 them : " The utility of specific characters and physiological cor- 

 relation " (Meldola, Trans, Ent. Soc. Land.). " Mimetic attraction " 

 (Dixey, Tr. Ent. Soc. Lond.). " On the prothoracic gland of Dicranura 

 vinnla, &c." (Latter, Tr. E^it. Soc. Lond.). '• The philosophical 

 aspect of entomology " [Trans. City of Lond. Ent. Soc). " Development 

 of the wing, wing-scales and their pigments in butterflies and moths : " 

 a critical summary and review of Mayer's paper of the same title [Ent. 

 Record). " Some observations on the moulting and pupation of 

 Chara.res jasins " (Chapman, /'T^^ Record). These important observa- 

 tions are likely to be overlooked, attached as they are to a life-history 

 of Chara.res jasins. " The genus Oporahia " (Prout, Entom. Record). 

 "Representative species" (Grote, Proc. StJi. London Ent. Soc). 

 *' Some considerations of natural genera and incidental references to 

 the nature of species " (Tutt, Proc Sth. Lond. Pint. Soc). "British 

 day butterflies and the changes in the wings of butterflies " (Grote, 

 Proc Stli. Lond. Ent. Soc). "Hybrid Smerint/tits ocellattts-popidi " 

 (Bacot, Ent. Record). "Mimicry and Homooochromatism in Butterflies" 

 (Blandford, Proc. Ent. Soc Lond.). " Classification of the Pyralidfe " 

 (Hampson, Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond.). " On the Classification of the 

 Thyrididffi " (Hampson, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond.), and the large paper 

 of the year, "Revision of the Oriental Hesporiidjie " (Elwes and 

 Edwards, Trans, Zool. Soc. Land.), 



