272 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



The ground colour of the Lancashire specimen is pale grey ; 

 the whitish transverse lines do not show clearly, but the black 

 edging is very distinct, as also are the white spots on costa. The 

 central lines approximate above the inner margin, but the longi- 

 tudinal connecting bar is only faintly outlined ; and there is a 

 black dash between the lines on the inner margin. Fringes pure 

 white. I may add that another specimen, received from Mr. 

 Baxter, is in most respects of the ordinary testacea form, but has 

 the central line connected by a black bar along inner margin, and 

 there is no trace of the usual longitudinal discal bar. 

 15th October, 1889. 



INVESTIGATION OF VARIATION. 

 By J. W. TuTT, F.E.S. 



Me. Carrington has hit at the root of the difficulty of 

 forming a " Variation Investigation Society " in the one word, — 

 " funds." Given sufficient " funds," anything might be done. 



I think that almost all entomologists are agreed on the value 

 of the study of Variation. It is the one purely scientific view of 

 our subject that all entomologists can work at, with all due 

 respect to those who would teach us that every entomologist 

 ought to be the happy possessor of a chemical and a physiological 

 laboratory, and that the biological view is the " be-all " and " end- 

 all" of our subject. The rapid strides which individual work has 

 brought about in our ideas of variation are beyond question, and 

 there are very few lepidopterists (at least), who are not interested 

 in this phase of the subject. 



Mr. Carrington asks two pertinent questions, the first of 

 which appears to depend on the second. Are there a sufficient 

 number of students to support such an association ? Of students 

 in the strict sense I would answer, — No. Of those interested, 

 and thus indirectly students, I would most decidedly answer, — 

 Yes. But the latter must be subdivided into two distinct 

 sections, viz., those who know that when a scientific work has to 

 be carried out, it costs something, and, second!}', those who do 

 not appear to have grasped this principle. I would have put it 

 differently, and suggested that the second class must know that 

 there is a cost, but that they do not care to pay, although they 

 do not mind being the recipients of that knowledge which others 

 have dearly bought ; but I think " Evil is wrought from want of 

 thought," and not from want of sympathy. Entomologists have 

 never supported their literary men. Our best entomological 

 works have nearly all been brought out at a positive loss. Until 

 the general entomologist recognises the fact that he ought to 

 subscribe to a scientific work which is really wanted, nothing 



