208 THE entomologist's record. 



outline of the argument, with which the writer is almost entirely in 

 accord. Capt. Kerremans' paper followed on the necessity of 

 restraining varietal names and replacing them by a letter or number. 

 We felt strongly with the speaker as to the need of restraining the 

 naming of aberrations — mere individual aberrations — but we cannot 

 see what object would be gained by cataloguing them with a letter of 

 the alphabet or a number. If that method is to be admitted there is 

 no reason why a name should be refused. From our point of view 

 the need is to induce all editors of our magazines and Transactions to 

 decline to accept a name of a mere occasional aberration. Monsieur 

 Olivier then read his short paper on the " Necessity of the Latin 

 tongue for Entomological De?criptions," and so closed a very 

 interesting session. 



The final word of the Congress on " Nomenclature " took place at 

 the closing meeting on Friday afternoon when the Executive 

 Committee reported their deliberations on the one Eesolution that had 

 been referred to them, and it was a great satisfaction to learn that for 

 all practical purposes they adopted our Entomological Society's 

 suggestion, viz., that National Committees should be formed to assist 

 the International Committee on Nomenclature for Entomology, and 

 that these Committees should be formed by the different countries 

 themselves. Some little discussion followed, during which the 

 President of the London Society referred to some criticisms of his in 

 certain secret places and was so good as to withdraw them all. One 

 of the American delegates (we believe but we are not certain) also 

 asked what would happen if the Entomological International 

 Committee came into definite conflict with the Zoological Commission 

 on Nomenclature. This seemed almost a " poser," but Dr. Jordan 

 stood to his guns and expressed the opinion that in such a case the 

 Entomological Committee would be able to, and would, stand alone, a 

 reply which drew forth a round of applause. The report of the 

 Executive Committee was then voted on and carried unanimously. 



In the Bionomic and Mimicry Sections many interesting exhibits 

 took place, but among them all Dr. Perkins' small box of Hawaian 

 wasps was perhaps the most impressive. In these islands the primitive 

 wasps were black, later on the yellow banded form came in anci 

 became more or less dominant, with the result of evolving a yellow 

 banded form among the indigenous species; this occurred in all the 

 islands but one, situated far out in an isolated position. To this one 

 island the yellow banded species also made their way, but have not 

 become dominant, and the interesting result has been brought about 

 that the indigenous black species have so influenced the younger yellow 

 banded ones, that they are producing varieties that are entirely black 

 on the dorsum. 



Professor Wheeler's observations on the Acacia Ants of Central 

 America were most instructive and elicited many queries from those 

 present, whilst Mr. Donisthorpe's and I\Ir. Crawley's papers also gave 

 one food for thought. On the last day Dr. Seitz read in English his 

 experiments on the eye and how insects see the world. These 

 experiments showed that he could attract butterflies with paper models, 

 which he showed, together with a box of Antlunharis c/iaiionia, many 

 of which had been caught toying with the coloured models that had 

 been pinned on to a board ; this tended to show that the eye was the 



