214 THE entomologist's record. 



discoveries and work, to follow the Staudinger and Rebel L'atalon of 

 1901. Poor boeticm and telicanus, the Everids, Plebeiids, and true 

 Lycsenas still find themselves in a common stew under the name 

 Lycaena. At the other end of the work betnlina, Zell., and mlicolella, 

 Bruand, are put into Finiiea. One would urge that such glaring 

 inconsistencies as these should, at least, be remedied, even if all 

 modern work that has been accepted be not recognised ; whilst one 

 wonders why the Lemoniidae are still sandwiched between the 

 Diniorphids [Endromidae) and Attacids {Saturniidae). An author 

 should be a teacher and stand for progress, and Dr. Rebel has just 

 missed, in his useful work, touching that modern view of the 

 things he deals with, by means of which he would have brought the 

 younger entomologists into line with what has been done by special 

 workers since the publication of the 1901 Catalu(/, and would have (1) 

 enabled them, through the means of his work, to pick up without 

 effort the strands of such advances as have been recently made, (2) 

 prevented them assuming (as beginners always must assume) that in 

 Dr. Rebel's mind the Catalof/ still illustrates all that is best and newest 

 in this excellent lepidopterological world of ours. In the use of his 

 terminology. Dr. Rebel is orthodox and accurate, following out none 

 of the new-fangled ideas relating to subspecies and forms, hybrid- 

 species, and hybrid-subspecies, by means of which certain lepidopterists 

 with much energy and little entomological knowledge are trying to force 

 their opinions to the front. Science must be based on facts and logic, 

 not words and bluster, and we are glad to see that Dr. Rebel maintains 

 the old and excellent methods which the newer terminologists seek to 

 destroy ; " varieties" for local races, " aberrations" for occasional or 

 frequent sports, " hybrids " for crosses between distinct species, and 

 "mongrels" for crosses between forms of the same species, appear to be 

 good enough for Dr. Rebel as they are for us. Dr. Rebel must forgive 

 us our howl. We recommend his book to our readers as the best work 

 of its kind yet published, and advise them to get it in preference to any 

 of the other illustrated works on European lepidoptera now laying 

 claim to their spare cash. Certainly no collector of European lepi- 

 doptera, or butterflies only, should be without it. 



Jg^^OTES ON COLLECTING, Etc. 



Abundance of Vanessa id. — There has been a noticeable increase in 

 the numbers of this species here during the last few seasons; indeed, 

 during the present summer, both in the larval and the imaginal states, 

 it has been more abundant even than A[/lah urticae. I counted two 

 large broods of larvse on one patch of nettles in mid- July, while, at the 

 present time, the Hemp Agrimony [Kuitatoriuin cannabinum), which I 

 had planted to attract the Vanessids in my kitchen-garden, has rarely 

 less than a dozen imagines feeding on it at a time. — Cecil Floersheim, 

 B.A., F.E.B., Pennyhill Park, Bagshot, Surrey. Augui^t Sl.sf, 1910. 



Thais medesicaste ab. honoratii at Digne. — Whilst collecting 

 Rhopalocera at Digne, from May 30th to June Uth, 1910, I had the 

 good fortune to take a specimen of Thais mededcaste ab. honoratii on 

 June 9th. I found it just settling on the steep and stony path 

 which commences the ascent of the hill "La Collette " from 

 the Dourbes road, about 10.30 a.m. I did not succeed in getting 

 any of the ordinary type of the Thais, but, on showing the above 



