176 



Among the Geometrides, Mr. Christy's success in rearing Xijssia 

 lappimaria is far and away the best record, especially when we con- 

 sider that an unique specimen was all that had been previously recorded, 

 although from a scientific point of view the chance pairing of a late 

 female Ew/onia ani/ularia and male E. autuinnaria (cdniaria), which 

 produced fertile eggs, and from which Mr. Davis reared a brood of 

 hybrid imagines, is of perhaps almost equal interest. Large numbers 

 of pupfe of Kuiiithi'cia jasioncata will probably yield specimens to many 

 collections, whilst Eiiniiclesia taeniata, too, we understand, was taken 

 in considerable numbers in Ireland by the professional collectors. 

 The Orkney (Joronia iiiunitata were peculiar, and Cidaria saijittata is 

 recorded from Wicken — the first for many years. 



Among the Incompletae, the principal capture, perhaps, was 

 Funica hetulina, by Mr. W. H. B. Fletcher, in the New Forest, whilst 

 a large number of Xeda scoliifdniiis were taken in Ireland, a useful 

 additional locality to the Scotch district, which bears, it is said, remark- 

 able signs of having been considerably overworked during the last two 

 years ; a result, I fear, which is sure to take place wherever professional 

 collecting occurs over a limited area, however thoughtful, careful and 

 conscientious the collector may be. Zj/i/acjia cd'idans appears to have 

 been as abundant as ever, and the Shetland Hcpialus huiiniU, with its 

 yellow males, was taken in considerable numbers. Time was, when 

 collectors of the smaller species were infinitely more scientific than 

 their brethren who confined themselves to catching and buying the 

 larger species. In those days one heard of the habits and life-histories 

 of the " smaller fry." They were collected by those who loved them; 

 but the Micro-man now hoards his ground like any Macro-hunter, and 

 although he is most willing to read the notes of his good-natured 

 brothers of the net, he rarely puts pen and ink to paper on his own 

 account. A professional collector, he avers, could exterminate many a 

 rare species in a short time if its habits were explained, and its food- 

 plant published, and largely one feels it is true. 'Tis a sorry thing for 

 scientific entomology, though. Mr. N. M. Kichardson stands out 

 among the collectors of the smaller species with the addition of Tinra 

 rinculella, H.-S., to the British list. Mr. E. A. Atmore records the 

 more than usual abundance of ]>i(injctria abictdla ; Mr. Thurnall the 

 breeding, after some sixteen years, of Alisjia aiuimtdla : Dr. Wood 

 gives some short notes on the life-histories of certain Tortricides ; Mr. 

 Bower a short note on Sraparia hasistri;/alis in Kent, but the oracles 

 of Messrs. W. H. B. Fletcher, Eustace Bankes and Lord Walsingham, 

 are dumb. 



There have been few really good scientific papers published this 

 year, although there can be no doubt that the general level of the 

 printed matter has been raised. The " epoch-marking " paper of the 

 year is undoubtedly Dr. Chapman's " Notes on Butterfly Pupje, with 

 some remarks on the Phylogenesis of the Rhopalocera " {E)it. Ilcronl), 

 and this leads me to suggest that 1895 will be handed down to future 

 generations as that in which evolutionary theories as to classification 

 took shape and structure. They have been seething for a quarter of a 

 century now, but the papers of Chapman, Dyar, Comstock, Kellogg, 

 Packard and Hampson, and the discussion which has grown out of 

 them, have largely welded together the heterogeneous material, and 

 given us a firm basis on which classification must proceed. Most of 



