278 THE entomologist's record. 



that our mission is to study Nature, not to improve upon her. Many 

 of the most important scientific problems in natural history are 

 worked out chiefly or entirely on data of geographical distribution. 

 And no naturalist has any right to hinder, or even risk hindering, 

 the progress of scientific research in the department of which he 

 professes to be a devotee, merely for the sake of some selfish gratifica- 

 tion, or even for the sake of giving pleasure to the lovers of variety in 

 natural surroundings. Transplantation without the fullest publicity is 

 an acted lie against scientific knowledge. Transplantation to save exter- 

 mination is chiefly, or entirely, within the same district. Transplanting 

 to restore extinct forms is indefensible. Accidental transplantation is 

 sometimes inevitable, but that, of course, was not under consideration, 

 and is generally too inconsiderable in extent to do any serious harm. 

 Summing up, Mr. Prout said that biological science demands accurate 

 data of geographical distribution ; that transplantation, especially of 

 the more obscure forms of life, can hardly possibly be made so public 

 that all consequent error is avoided ; and that only too often, if 

 naturalists do not set their faces firmly against the whole practice, 

 there will be found those who are willing to transplant with the intention 

 to deceive, and a very fruitful source of error and trouble is thereby 

 created. Mr. Bacot said, that with regard to its causing ditficulties in 

 settling the geographical distribution of animals and plants, would 

 Mr. Prout consider, because 100 or 1,000 specimens of any given 

 species were to be found in a certain district, that this would prove it 

 to be firmly established in the country ? Would he not try and 

 discern if its environment were suitable to it, and whether it might have 

 been transplanted by some agency other than its own, before con- 

 sidering the point settled ? After reading a modern work on the 

 distribution of organic life, is it not patent that every portion of the 

 globe must be visited occasionally by winged or finned animals, or 

 seeds, and that there are numberless chances of getting from place 

 to place for species which do not possess these advantages ? Was not 

 the crucial question of distribution rather one of suitability of environ- 

 ment and adaptability of the organism, than of actual opportunity of 

 the plant or animal, in one or another stage, to reach any particular 

 destination ? There were, of course, exceptions to this, but they were 

 not so numerous as might be supposed, at first consideration. The 

 question being subsequently put to the vote, the meeting decided in 

 the alflrmative by 8 to 5. 



Cambridge Entomologicax, and Natural History Society. — Oct. 

 16th, 1896. — Dr. Sharp exhibited a larva, believed to be of a species 

 of Hepialufi, which is at present doing much damage to vegetation in 

 Northamptonshire ; a pupa of SpJiinx convolnili, prepared to show 

 the way in which ihe proboscis is folded in its case ; also one of the 

 colonies of " white ants " {('alotermes (hwieftticits), exhibited a year ago, 

 " ill extremis." He said that one of the individuals had been trans- 

 formed into an egg-producer, and specimens of the other Termites 

 were seen in the spring carrying the eggs ; the small colony had, in 

 fact, established a " substitution queen," after the fashion described 

 by Grassi. 



The Nonpareil Entomological and Natural History Society. — 

 October 15th, 1896. — Exhibits: — Mr. Huckett : a living specimen of 

 Pijrameiit cardiii, which had emerged that day, also a living specimen 

 of Boarmia (jemmaria {rhomhoidaria). Mr, Lusby : several dwarf 



