12 THE ENTOMOLOGIST S RECURU. 



secretaries, who provide an excellent bill of fare for the members, have 

 long since learned what a mistake it is to leave things to chance. The 

 South London Entomological Society does good work, but has yet to 

 issue a winter's card which shall attract that large and brilliant 

 assemblage of entomological workers, which for a time eclipsed even 

 the Entomological Society of London itself. This Society has a remarkable 

 membership. The leading entomologists in all parts of the British 

 Islands are included in its ranks ; talent exists in plenty, then why is 

 there no regular list of papers issued to attract the people who are 

 ready to come ? The present Secretaries have cleared off vast arrears of 

 work ; now they have the future to look to, for when all is said and 

 done, the secretary of a society makes the society, to a large extent, 

 what it is, and spells for it success or failure. As to the doings of our 

 provincial societies, we are largely in the dark. Either most of them 

 do not issue Transactions or we do not see them. Of the North London 

 Society we hear occasionally, and understand that good work is done 

 by young asj^irants to literary and scientific fame — that it is indeed a 

 nursery of men who will some day do great things. The Lancashire 

 and Cheshire Society, under my good friend Mr. S. J. Capper, is a 

 model family, but one wants to see those papers in print, of which one 

 at present only reads the titles. An intelligent body of entomologists 

 like this should not have their papers relegated to obscurity, or trust to 

 chance publication in one or other of the Magazines. The Birmingham 

 Society, too, with a remarkably strong contingent of workers, has never 

 yet favoured us with a sight of its Transactions. We do not even know 

 whether it issues any. The Cambridge Society is a little Si)hinx-like, 

 but we suppose that the constant flux of members into and out of the 

 University, leaves no permanent basis to work on, but this is all the 

 more reason why the leading residents (both belonging to the 

 University and the town) should unite into a strong club, of which the 

 undergraduates should only form the floating population. It should be 

 within the bounds of practical politics, with men like Dr. Sharp, Mr. 

 Batesou, Mr. Farren and others available. The Leicester Society has 

 advanced beyond its neighbours, for it has printed its two " crack " 

 papers. Let us hope the energetic secretary will continue to peg away 

 until he gets the whole year's work into print. Of the Entomological 

 branches of larger societies we learn nothing. We should be glad to 

 see the Transactions of the Essex Field Club, the Derby (Burton-on- 

 Trent) Society and others, but they never come to hand, and here I may add 

 that any Philosophical or Scientific Society (British or Foreign) which 

 publishes the papers read before it in the form of Transactions, is 

 cpiite welcome to The Entomologist's Record in return for copies of its own 

 work. May the Societies go on and prosper, is our most sincere wish ! 

 They are the centres of enlightenment and encouragement to younger 

 workers ; they ring the certain knell of the good old butterfly-catching 

 days without science ; they are the living witnesses of the dawn and 

 progress of a new era in scientific life. 



The scientific articles which have appeared, and which have certninl}^ 

 been more numerous than usual, are quite up to, if not beyond, the 

 ordinary standard, and they are not so restricted as usual to a few 

 workers. "The notes on the earlier stages of Nejiticidae " (E.3I.M.) by 

 Dr. Wood, have been completed, whilst Mr. Bankes' able paper on 

 " Lita instabiliella, and its nearest British allies," in the same magazine, is 



