286 THE entomologist's record. 



members, who cannot attend the meetings and yet pay their subscrip- 

 tions. The second is a serious item, for, if a scientific paper be worth 

 anything, it will always find room in one of the magazines, and a man 

 who spends a considerable time on a subject, will always prefer sending 

 it to a magazine, where it will be presented to a large circle of readers 

 and maintained in a permanent form, than to read it at a meeting, after 

 which no more will be heard of it. The Liverpool, Birmingham, and 

 Yorkshire Societies are all in an active state, and the number of Natural 

 History Societies in the country is rapidly increasing. In fact, it is the 

 exception rather than the rule to find a large provincial town without one. 



Passing from the Societies to our literature : The Transadiotis of the 

 London Entomological Society occupy the first place. They are 

 splendidly got up, and the papers are always of the highest order and 

 generally exhibit a great deal of original research. Of the magazines, 

 the Entomologisfs Monthly Magazine is facile priticeps from a scientific 

 point of view, and, whilst the advanced entomologist would often be in 

 an awkward fix without it, it is not altogether without interest to the 

 collector. The Young Naturalist, now the British Naturalist, contains 

 a large amount of general information, but most of the contents relate 

 to entomology. The Entomologist, for many years the popular magazine 

 of this country, changed its proprietor and editor in the early part of 

 the year, and, in the 1890 volume, above one-sixth of its contents 

 consists of descriptions of insects from India, China and Japan, and its 

 new owner, apparently, wishes it to become a purely technical magazine. 

 To fill the position vacated by^the Entomologist, our own magazine was 

 started. That ic has "taken on " goes without saying, and I suppose 

 no entomological magazine can point to 60 entomologists who have 

 subscribed articles and notes to any one number, as was the case with 

 our last (No. 9) number; nor perhaps, has there been an entomological 

 magazine published before, which has so immediately become popular 

 as has the Entomologisfs Recoi-d and Journal of Variation. 



Turning to general scientific matters. Variation has kept well to the 

 front, and has now become a recognised part of our scientific work, and 

 those who commenced by jeering, have ceased to scoff and become 

 ardent students of the subject. As we devote a special column to the 

 subject, I need not point out how much better it would be, if those 

 interested in the subject would strive to keep their records together, 

 where they can readily be found and referred to, rather than spread 

 over several sources and mixed with other matter. — J. W. Tutt. 

 January 1st, 1891. 



Notes of the Season of 1890 (Lepidoptera). — York. — The season 

 here has been anything but a good one, the only redeeming feature is, 

 that I have again been able to get Euptthecia albipunctata larvte in some 

 quantity. For the last six or seven years I have only been able to find 

 odd ones. — G. Dennis, Tower Street, York. December, 1890. 



Liverpool. — The rain here has put a stop to almost everything in the 

 way of imagines, but larvas are pretty plentiful. I took a large quantity 

 of Nyssia zonaria larvae this year, and on examining the pupse the other 

 day, found that most had the wing markings showing through the pupa 

 cases. None, however, have emerged up to date. I am anxiously 

 awaiting the next move. I have previously bred one or two in Sep- 



I 



