xlviii 



amend in the parts that concern them, and other Entomologists 

 object, and I think with justice, to the unnecessary and pe- 

 dantic changes made in the orthograph}^ of generic names ; but 

 the work is of great use to all students as a collection of raw 

 material which each specialist may, if he chooses, elaborate into 

 a good Catalogue at less expenditure of time and labour than would 

 be requisite without it. 



In the ' Stettiner Entomologische Zeitung' I find a very readable 

 paper by Peter Maassen, of Eiberfeld, on a subject which will be 

 interesting to most Entomologists. It is an attempt to compute the 

 total number of species of Lepidopterous insects existing in nature, 

 and is written in correction of a previous crude essay by Keferstein 

 on the same subject. In his estimate the author takes for his basis 

 the curious fact that in all complete lists of local Lepidopterous 

 faunas in Europe the number of moths to butterflies is as 26 to 1. 

 He then gets at the probable number of butterflies in existence, by 

 arguing from the number published, districts unexplored, and so forth, 

 and believes the number to be not fewer than 8740. Unfortunately 

 in pursuing the calculation he forgets his datum-line of twenty-six 

 moths to one butterfly, and takes the proportion as it stands in 

 Staudinger and Wocke's Catalogue of European species, where the 

 proportion of course is much less, because the smaller moths have 

 not been so exhaustively collected throughout Europe as the butter- 

 flies. In this way he arrives at the total number existing in the 

 world as 129,740 — a surprising amount, but still far below the truth 

 if the proportion found in well-worked districts in Western Europe 

 is maintained throughout the world, which would produce the 

 incredible total of 227,240 species. 



With the present evening, gentlemen, terminates the second year 

 of my office as your President, when, bj^ our regulations, you are 

 required to choose a successor. Permit me to thank you for the 

 indulgence you have shown towards all my shortcomings during the 

 two years I have enjoyed the honour of presiding over you. Should 

 the gentleman recommended by the Council be chosen by you, as 

 I have no doubt he will have been before the termination of this 

 Address, it will be my great pleasure to resign the chair to one 

 whom I esteem as my old travelling companion, and for his great 

 attainments in Entomology and the kindred sciences. 



