216 THE entomologist's record. 



This has called forth a reply from the authors, which they have published 

 in pamphlet form, and of which we have just received a copy. One 

 of the charges against them appears to be that they state that they 

 use our arrangement of the Macro-Psychids, as set forth in British 

 Lepidojitera, vol. ii, and yet do not logically include the Tineid section 

 thereof. The authors answer this by stating that " Tutt's definition 

 of the genera, and his study and logical application of the nomen- 

 clature, were necessarily regarded as being of far greater value than 

 the arrangement adopted therefrom for use in Staudinger's Catalxj. 

 We therefore applied it so far as it was applicable. We were restricted 

 from using the whole, by the conception ' Macrolepidoptera,' which 

 excludes the enumeration of the Taleporiid and erstwhile Tineid 

 genera, included by Tutt in Psychids, and here, again, Tutt's system 

 is preferable to the older arrangement, and might certainly be taken 

 into consideration in the next edition of the Staudinger-Rebel Catalo;!." 

 One of our greatest present-day regrets is that in our own earlier 

 entomological criticisms, want of thought and training often led us 

 to discuss entomological matters from what often appeared to be a 

 personal standpoint, a mode which can only lead to personal misunder- 

 standing. Criticism is worthless unless it be honest and trenchant, 

 but it is the way of saying things that does mischief. We cannot 

 afford to have hard workers like Bartel and Herz on the one side and 

 Stichel on the other at variance. Lepidopterology can only lose by 

 personal misunderstandings among its best exponents. 



All our readers are aware that Messrs. Verrall, Moberly, and 

 others have purchased portions of Wicken Fen, in order that the 

 native fauna and flora may not be exterminated by drainage, etc., 

 from one of its last strongholds in this country. It is with the 

 greateit regret, therefore, that we hear that, on June 7th, some 20 acres, 

 recently purchased by Mr. Verrall, were the scene of a devastating fire 

 that practically destroyed the whole of the herbage on this plot. The 

 destruction of the flora and fauna on the ground must have been 

 complete, but still we have no doubt that the land will soon be stocked 

 again with the native plants and insects, surrounded as it is with 

 acres of yet virgin fenland. The damage done to the wild haunts of 

 many animals and birds by fire, through carelessness, is incalculable. 

 In April last we saw hundreds of acres of the lovely Esterel blazing, 

 and other hundreds of acres blackened ruins. Everywhere " Smokers 

 are forbidden to throw down matches " — posted by the French 

 Government, to whom the Esterel belongs — meets one in this lovely 

 southern paradise ; still the careless throw them down, and fearful 

 damage results. One suspects a " smoker " as the cause of this. We 

 trust that no entomologist who has accepted the permit of Mr. Verrall 

 to collect on his ground was lunatic enough to smoke among such 

 combustible material as the dry herbage of the fen affords. For 

 ourselves, we consider that the man who smokes in a pinewood (and 

 who is sure to throw lighted matches among the needles on the 

 ground), or he who smokes among the dried sedge of fenland, deserves 

 something more than censure. 



Our valued correspondent, Mr. W. Reid, of Rondebosch, Cape 

 Colony, having arranged to leave South Africa for a few months' 

 holiday in Great Britain, will be pleased to meet old entomological 

 friends on the field or otherwise, as may be arranged. Temporary 

 address (after July 20th), Pitcaple, Aberdeenshire. 



