CURRKNT NOTES. 139 



tion of the members of the committee. Those, as a rule, who talk 

 most about nomenclature, know least, as a rule, of its intricacies, and 

 there are, in our opinion only three men now in this country who have 

 sufficient knowledge of the literature and facts to constitute such a 

 ■committee so far as lepidoptera is concerned. If Messrs. Durrant, 

 Kirby and Prout could be persuaded to act for lepidopterists, the result 

 could not help being satisfactory, but we suspect vested interests and 

 personal considerations would make the selection of such an ideal 

 committee impossible. 



At the meeting of the Entomological Society of London held 

 February 6th, Dr. T. A. Chapman exhibited a large series of Endrosae 

 collected during the last few years l)y himself, Mr. A. H. Jones, and espe- 

 cially by Mr. Tutt. These included K. ivscUa, which is a very distinct 

 dwarf form, and from frequenting marshy flats must live on lichens 

 growing in such localities and not growing on stones as the others do ; E. 

 irrorella, which should be the rarest species in the Alps judging by the 

 comparatively few specimens met with ; F,. anrita, in very great variety, 

 including a good many specimens that are called E. Luhhrenii var. 

 aljirstris, none, however, reaching the type of E. kitJdiremi, but sufficient 

 to show with something like certninty that E. Inihbcenii is simply an 

 extremeformof E. anrita. E. anrita and E. irrnrella, Dr. Chapman said, 

 are very near together, no point in their anatomy being absolutely 

 distinctive, while the genitalia are practically identical ; E. irrnrella 

 always looks much slighter, being lighter scaled and the hairs short 

 and smooth. It always has a yellow patch on the mesothorax. The 

 neuration is also distinctive, yet individuals of each species approach 

 ■each other completely in each of the distinctive items of the neuration, 

 but never in all of them, so far as examination of a number of speci- 

 mens goes. The specimens exhibited consisted of 24 E. ruscida from two 

 localities, 22 E. irrorella from eight localities, and 20-I E. aurita from 23 

 localities. Except E. irrorella from England, Finmark, and the Tyrol, 

 and a few E. anrita from the Tyrol, all were from the Western Alps of 

 Switzerland, Italy, and France. Examples from each locality when 

 sufficiently numerous usually have a special facies. Some, as all 

 those from Arolla, are radiate ; those from Bourg St. Maurice are with- 

 out radiate forms, and so on. Some are more yellow ; others deeper 

 orange ; some more mixed. Elevation tends to produce radiation, 

 but no other general conclusion as to the effect of height, latitude, or 

 longitude, seems fully justified by the specimens. 



The Third Annnal Report of the Kendal Entomological Societi/, 1900, 

 has come to hand and shows how much can be done by a keen and 

 energetic naturalist in a small provincial town. The Kev. A. M. 

 Moss is the moving spirit of the Society, and the Report contains an 

 interesting " Presidential address," and papers entitled " Notes on 

 Coliati ednsa and Acherontia atropos,'" by Mr. Moss, " Bearing of 

 lepidoptera," by Mr. F. Littlewood, and more important still, in spite 

 of the obsolete nomenclature used, ■■ a " List of the Macro-lepidoptera of 

 the Kendal district (a radius of twenty miles)." One wants noAV, built 

 on this foundation, a county list worked out with localities in detail, 

 and including such Micro-lepidoptera as can be definitely identified. 

 An annual subscription of 6d. per member, a balance in hand of 



* We would suggest to all local societies drawing up local lists, the use of the 

 nomenclature adopted by Mr. L. B. Prout, in the " London List," published in the 

 Trans. City oj London Ent. Soc, 1898, 1899, 1900. 



