178 THE entomologist's record. 



been practically valueless this year to British lepidopterists ; the 

 paper " On the Life History of Tinea vincideUa,'' by N. M. Eichard- 

 son, B.A., F.E.S., together with a few odd scraps by Dr. Wood, and 

 a life-history or two by Mr. Porritt, being all that one can cull of 

 more than the mere "collecting-note" order. It is with regret 

 that one has still to notice the printing of papers which make 

 science absurd. One paper, "On the senses of Insects" (Entovi.), 

 stands unequalled in this direction. It is presented to the "lay 

 mind," a form of aberration we had not previously heard of : evidently 

 it is not due to an excess of scientific knowledge, or of prolonged 

 study. 



The larger societies are doing good work ; the smaller ones 

 (except the North London Society) appear, this year, to have sunk 

 into comparative obscurity. The Entomological Society of London 

 has now very successful and interesting meetings, and appears full of 

 vigour, a great contrast to the "dry as dust" period of — well, not 

 many decades ago. It is now, undoubtedly, in touch with all that is 

 best in British entomology, and its Transactions contain some highly 

 interesting papers on British species. The Transactions are worth 

 all the money one pays as an annual subscription, and again we would 

 appeal to entomologists in the country to join this society. We cannot 

 expect to keep up the high ratio, but the Record's appeal has been 

 responsible, during the last two years, for quite a third of the new 

 Fellows who have joined the Society, and we would again ask would- 

 be Fellows to communicate with us. The City of London Society, 

 from a scientific point of view, is easily second ; its discussions, 

 papers, etc., being of a high standard of excellence ; and with such 

 papers as those read by Messrs. Prout, Bacot, Hanbury and Dr. 

 Buckell, need fear no comparison. The South London Entomo- 

 logical Society is a society where old-fashioned notions, rather than 

 science, are still largely in vogue. It is, moreover, a champion 

 society for promises, but it lacks the virtue of the fulfilment thereof. 

 In February, 1895, the secretaries issued a notice to the effect that 

 papers were promised to be read by Messrs. Billups, Tutt, Robson, 

 Step, Mansbridge, South, Hewett, etc. As the promises have been 

 fulfilled, we have deleted the names in our " Societies " list, but we find 

 that very few names are, even now, absent from that list ; the 

 remainder have never attempted to redeem their pledges, and members 

 have probably attended meeting after meeting, expecting, in vain, 

 that the promises would be kept. The Provincial Societies are not 

 very active, from a scientific point of view. The members appear to 

 meet and exhibit their captures, but we hear of little else. We 

 cannot even refer to a single scientific paper that has emanated from 

 the Liverpool, Birmingham, York or Leicester'''' Societies this year. 

 Perhaps this is due to our ignorance. At any rate, we would suggest 

 to the officers that the essential value of a society is missed unless it 

 fosters in its younger members a real scientific spirit, and unless the 

 seniors show them, both by example and precept, that the exhibition 

 of captures, although a very laudable object, is not all that a so-called 

 scientific society should aspire to, and that there is no raison d'etre 

 for its existence as such, unless the scientific objects of the society 



* Since the above was in type we have received a copy of the Proceedings of the 

 Leicester Society, which will be noticed in due course. — Ei». 



