140 THE entomologist's record. 



passes would just now give a marvellous harvest, and no doubt a 

 lantern after dark on a favourable night next autumn would show 

 crowds of the two species naiiied, with Himera pennaria and other 

 species whose larvfe were recognised. — J. W. Tutt. June \st, 1909. 



(CURRENT NOTES. 



A few entomological friends foregathered at " Delamere," South 

 Woodford, on the afternoon and evening of May 12th last, at the 

 invitation of Mr. A Harrison, and spent a most delightful time. Mrs. 

 Harrison served tea at 6 p.m. ; nearly a couple of hours were then 

 expended in examining the results of the race- breeding experiments, 

 which Mr. Harrison and Mr. Main have been conducting with Pieria 

 napi, ('alias nliisa, Aplccta nebiilnsa, etc. Supper followed at 8 p.m., 

 but it was 11.30 p.m. before Messrs. R. Adkin, G. T. Porritt, A. Sich, 

 R. South, H. J. Turner, and J. W. Tutt, the London portion of the party, 

 found themselves on Liverpool Street station, on the way home. 



It is not often that an entomologist drops the study of his favourite 

 hobby for considerably over a quarter of a century, and then, the 

 serious business of life over, sets systematically about seeing the world 

 in his leisure, and takes up entomology again as a complement to the 

 mental enjoyment of seeing new places and things. Still more rarely 

 is it that one is willing to make (even what must always, under the 

 given conditions, be hurried) notes of what he sees, and to try, at 

 least, on his return, to overcome the diflSculty of finding names for 

 the hundreds of butterflies observed, even during a trip in the sub- 

 tropical parts of the Old and New Worlds, many of which have never 

 been seen before, and possibly will never be seen again. To do this at 

 all requires a great amount of pluck and determination. The attempt 

 to get something scientifically useful out of observations made thus, 

 deserves success, even if it cannot command it. 



Thoughts of this kind at once came into our mind, when we 

 received from Dr. G. B. Longstaft" a separate copy of his paper 

 "Bionomic notes on Butterflies," recently published in the Trana. Ent. 

 Soc. London, and, although the opening words of the author, and one's 

 knowledge of the difficulties under which the observations were made 

 (difficulties not lessened, as the author points out, by the fact that he 

 suffers from " the disadvantages inseparable from the loss of the sight 

 of one eye, the other eye being both myopic and astigmatic, the 

 astigmatism being only in small part capable of correction by optical 

 means "), largely disarm criticism, a word or two may not be out of 

 place. 



The two points that strike one about the bulk of the observations 

 made are (1) The humanity of the entomology. (2) The huge amount 

 of uncertainty about most things recorded. One of the most difficult 

 things in making scientific observations is to oinit, as far as possible^ 

 the human element, i.e., to view things from an external, and not an 

 internal, standpoint. One may safely say that almost the whole of 

 Dr. Longstaff's observations are made from the internal standpoint, 

 and that, therefore, their value is lessened from the purely scientific 

 point of view, in direct ratio as the observations are internal and not 

 external. This is excellently illustrated by the conclusions on 

 "scents." Assuming as practically proved that the scents of butterflies 



