190 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 
be placed, before Mr. Butler draws the Grey Dagger, and calls upon us to 
surrender at discretion, and make humble confession that under the name 
Acronycta we have hitherto huddled together representatives of eight genera 
belonging to four distinct families; that three-fourths of these so-called 
Noctue are in truth Bombyces; that of our English species rwmicis and 
auricoma are Arctiide ; leporina and aceris are Liparide ; megacephala, 
strigosa, and the common dagger-moths psi and tridens, are Notodontide ; 
and that only alni and ligustri are Noctue, the former being the type 
of Jocheawra, whilst the latter is relegated to Mamestra. Such is the result 
at which Mr. Butler has arrived, chiefly from a consideration of the larval 
characters, but relying also upon the wing-venation and structural characters 
of the moths. ‘That a casual peep at a drawer-full of larvae should produce 
such a transformation-scene says little for our lepidopterists ; and if Mr. 
Butler’s views are to prevail, it shows that wholesale disintegration of 
a system, based on mere superficial resemblance of the imago, in which for 
years we have all been content to acquiesce, may be expected to ensue when 
atteution is paid to the earlier stages, and when, instead of merely collecting 
so many butterflies and moths and arranging them in a cabinet, the insects 
are studied ab ovo, and their metamorphoses and habits are thoroughly 
investigated. 
“T may say that the interest of our monthly meetings has been fairly 
sustained; the record of our Proceedings shows that many valuable 
exhibitions have been made, and important subjects discussed or ventilated. 
In proof of this statement it will be sufficient to refer to the interesting 
conversations which have arisen from the introduction of such subjects as» 
for instance, the stridulating power of the Mantide, Brazilian Caddis-flies 
and their cases, flights of locusts and migrations of butterflies, flowers 
and their unbidden guests, the destruction of insects by flowers, sericiculture, 
the metamorphoses of the blister-beetle, the mimicry of insects by insects, 
the effects of temperature upon insects and insect-life, the existence of 
branchiz im the imago-state of certain Trichoptera, sculptured markings on 
cretaceous pebbles from the Lake of Geneva supposed to be due to insect 
agency, sugar-cane borers, the correlation of mutilation in the larva with 
deformity in the imago, and variations in larve of Smerinthus ocellatus 
fed on different species of Saliv. It has afforded me additional pleasure to 
observe how many of the subjects have been introduced or elucidated by 
the remarks of some of our junior members. This is as it should be. 
The younger the better and more welcome. The least experienced, if he 
will make use of the powers of observation with which Nature has endowed 
him, is sure to see something which is new to the oldest among us. There 
is a fair field and no favour. Those who have learnt the most are the most 
ready to learn, and glad to extend the right hand of encouragement to every 
fresh worker in the field.” BA 
