SOCIETIES. 95 



G. T. Bethune-Baker showed a lar^e number of ScoparicB, from St. 

 Helena, which differed from all otlier Scop.xrice in the possession of 

 deeply serrated antennae; some of the specimens too being almost black. 

 Mr. Baker said that even from the mainland of Africa, nearest to St. 

 Helena, he knew of no Scoparia. with the same characteristics. Mr. 

 G. H. Kenrick read a paper : — " Some considerations on insects confined 

 to small areas." He touched briefly upon self-evident causes ot locali- 

 sation, mountain chains, etc., and then entered more fully into the 

 causes of the presence on our coast lines, in the fens, woods, etc., of 

 many species only found in those restricted districts in our country, 

 though found in similar ones on the Continent. He remarked that it 

 was strange to find so many species restricted to so small an area as our 

 "fens" for example, and showed that those "fens" represent a very 

 wide extent of country, all fen, extending over the German Sea to, and 

 including, Holland, and of which our Lincolnshire and Norfolk Fens, 

 and those in Holland, are all that is left. The insects inhabiting this 

 wide extent of country are now, to a considerable extent, crowded in to 

 the few surviving spots, and hence we get many peculiar species in a 

 small area ; he believed the same applied to coast species, our coast 

 line having once formed a part of a very much more extended Conti- 

 nental coast line ; to wood species, our woods being the remains of 

 former extensive forests, etc. He concluded by pointing out many 

 much more complicated questions of distribution and localisation, of 

 which he could offer only slight explanation, and which he said opened 

 out a wide and interesting field for study. A discussion followed, in 

 which the Rev. C. F. Thornewill, Messrs. G. T. Bethune-Baker, R. C. 

 Bradley and C. J. Wainwright joined. — Colbran J. Wainwright, 

 Ho 71. Sec. 



Lancashire and Cheshire Entomological Societv. — March 14th. 

 — Messrs. H. Locke, of Birkenhead, and G. Norel Deville, of Crosby, 

 were elected members. The President referred to the loss the society 

 and naturalists generally had sustained by the death of Francis Archer. 

 Mr. William Webster, of St. Helens, read a paper entitled "Was 

 Shakespeare an Entomologist?" The author stated he had examined 

 the works of the poet, and found 207 references to insects, and, as far 

 as could be ascertained, mention of 30 kinds of insects, and showed, by 

 numerous quotations, that Shakspeare not only possessed a fair know- 

 ledge of entomology, but that he was a philosophical observer of nature. 

 Mr. Willoughby Gardner, F.R.G.S. read a short note on the " Popular 

 names of insects about Shakspeare's time," some few of which still 

 existed in country places. Mr. Webster exhibited Papilio zalmoxis ; 

 the President, Messrs. Stott, Harker and the Hon. Secretary, long and 

 variable series of Noctua fcstiva and confliia ; Messrs. Harker and Jones, 

 British and Continental forms of Lyccena icarus. — F. N. Pierce, Ho)i. Sec. 



Cambridge Entomological and Natural History Society. — 

 February iph. — A meeting of six old members of the Society was held 

 at the house of Mr. Jones, 59, Trumpington Street, to discuss the possi- 

 bility of setting the Society going again, the last meeting having been 

 held March 8th, 1889. The advisability of altering some of the existing 

 rules was discussed, one item being the changing the name of the 

 Society from "The Cambridge Entomological Society" to "The 

 Cambridge Entomological and Natural History Society." As several 



