NOTES ON REPORTS OF SOCIETIES. 63 



The fact that I know little about the micro-lepidoptera, and 

 that the little knowledge I have rapidly evaporates as the end 

 of the list is approached, scarcely needs emphasisinj];. 



For valuable assistance, with identification of these smaller 

 soecies, I have to thank Mr. B. Morley, of Huddersfleld, and 

 Messrs. Watkins and Doncaster. 



NOTES ON EEPORTS OF SOCIETIES. 

 By F. N. Pierce, F.E.S. 



In the February number of the 'Entomologist' there is a 

 fund of material condensed into such a small space that it 

 reminds one of the diner's reply to the obsequious waiter's 

 •query: "How did you find youi* steak?" "Oh, I found him 

 iit last, the little l)eggar was hiding under a brussels sprout." 

 So we find m this month's 'Entomologist' most important 

 statements almost buried among common-place records. 



On p. 46, embodied in the report of the South London Entomo- 

 logical Society's proceedings, we find the momentous announce- 

 ment of a Geometer new to science condensed into the following 

 sentence : " Mr. Newman exhibited (5) a series of a new species 

 of British Geometeridae, which has recently been differentiated 

 from Lainpropter/jx sujfiiniata by the Rev. W. Metcalfe, and 

 somewhat resembles Emtronia silaceata." Now I think I am 

 ■correct in saying the last Geometer added to the British list 

 was Oporahia christt/i in 1900, described by the late J. E. R. 

 Allen in ' The Record,' vol. xviii, p. 85, occupying four pages, 

 and figured in the ' Entomologist,' vol. xxxiii, pi. II, figs. 7 and 8 ; 

 imd although there has been no addition to the list for seventeen 

 3'ears, the new species is now announced in two and a half lines 

 of letterpress. The British collector who is thirsting for infor- 

 mation has to be content with the official-like announcement, 

 •"has recently been differentiated." How, or why, or when, is 

 left for the realer to fill in himself; yet what interesting pages 

 might have been written in place of this brief paragraph. 



On the next page, included in the report of ttie Derbyshire 

 Entomological Society, we read that Mr. H. G. Hayward exhibited 

 thirty-seven species of Micros not recorded in the county list 

 of the Victoria County History. Embedded in a list of names 

 we find the capture of Sciaphila wahlbomiana at Repton. Wahl- 

 homiana ! What a volume of pleasant memories this name 

 conjures up in my mind during my search for the unknown. 

 For who is bold enough to say what wahlbomiana, L. is '? Wise 

 men have tried to locate this will-o'-the-wisp, but, like the 

 celebrated Mrs. 'Arris, it has never been seen ; and this reminds 

 me that reference to the Linnsean collection sheds some ray of 

 iight on this question. In the collection is a specimen of a 



