CUERENT NOTES. 217 



send copies to the chief societies and to the chief exponents of the 

 particular group or groups discussed. We have long been too insular 

 in our work, and it lies with ourselves to make a determined effort to 

 break down the isolation in which continental workers for the most 

 part have kept us. 



In this connection we see that the April number of the Deutsche 

 Entom(ilo(iische yational- Bibliothek contains an article contributed by 

 Dr. Burr, "A Preliminary Revision of the Labiida?," the April number 

 of Societas hlntoiuohxjica contains " Descriptions of New Genera and 

 Species of Chalcididse," contributed by P. Cameron, and the April 

 part of the Annaies de la Suciete Kiito)iiol<>(/iqi(e de Beli/ifjue contains 

 " Notes on the Salivary-Glands and Syringe of two species of Hemiptera," 

 by J. C. Kershaw, F.E.S., and " On some controversial items con- 

 concerning a few Khychota" by W. L. Distant, F.E.S. 



Tbe Transactions of the t'iti/ of London Entowolofiical and Natural 

 JJistorif Societt/ for 1910 was issued shortly after the belated number 

 for 1909. It is the twentieth number of a series of annual records of 

 a Society which has been doing very steady work in natural history 

 education for many years past. One always looks for a contribution 

 from Mr. L. B. Prout, and this year we have a long and excellent 

 article from his pen, "Notes on the Acidaliinte." Mr. C. P. Pickett 

 has an article on field work and breeding, in both of which he excels, 

 and there is a chatty reminiscence of the old days at Wicken Fen by 

 that veteran collector. Dr. .1. S. Sequiera. 



In the Knt. Mo. Ma;/, for April Mr. A. E. Carter describes a Dipteron 

 Jlilaria aeronetha, Mik., as new to the British List, It had been in 

 his collection unidentified since July 1907, when it had been taken at 

 <.'omrie in Perthshire. It is closely allied to both H. interstincta and 

 H. waara. In a footnote Mr. Collin remarks that the species was 

 reported many years ago from Leith Hill and from Tunbridge Wells. 



We hear that the acceptance of the collection of British Lycsenids 

 made by the late Dr. Gerald G. Hodgson, of Red Hill, was only 

 provisional on the part of the Trustees of the British Museum. No 

 guarantee was forthcoming that the collection would remain intact, 

 and in consequence the otter Avas withdrawn. We believe that the 

 authorities of Cambridge have been offered the collection and have 

 accepted it. The great national collection is thus the loser of a very 

 fine exposition of variation in one of the most attractive families of 

 the Lepidoptera. Would it were not so starved by , finance, with its 

 consequence, want of adequate accommodation for the collections and 

 for students. 



A perusal of the section devoted to Lepidoptera in the current 

 parts of VerhandliuKjen der k. k. zoolo)iisch-botanischen (iesellschaft in 

 Wien has recalled to our mind the bare, non-informational system of 

 loose nomenclature, which is gradually creeping into our entomological 

 literature. If we are to have trinomial names, why not multinomial, 

 and so back to the oldpre-Linntean times when species had no definite 

 naines, but were designated bj^ phrases, very diffuse and indefinite. 

 But it is not so much at the use of the multinomial names that we 

 are carping, as at the bare and empty phrases that are being used, e.t/., 

 Erebia (ilacialis alecto pallida. This hypothetical name does not give 

 us the information it should do. By putting it thus : Erebia r/lacialis 

 var. alecto ab. pallida, we understand that alecto is the name of a race 



