522 VARIETIES. 



entomologists whose addresses could be obtained :" such ought 

 to have been the case ; and we presumed too readily that it 

 was so ; — but we must add our firm conviction, that there was 

 no other reason for the omission, so justly complained of, than 

 the neglect of the parties by whom the task was undertaken ; 

 the onus is not with the Society, or any of its officers, — for let 

 us call to Mr. Chant's recollection, that the Entomological 

 Society dates its existence from the day on which the meeting 

 we gave an account of was held at the Thatched House; — at 

 that meeting the officers were appointed ; — before that meeting, 

 therefore, there could be no officers ; and whatever party feel- 

 ing was exhibited previously is not chargeable on the officers 

 then appointed ; — we know of no such feeling ; — and, did it 

 exist, there is no more effectual way of anjiihilating it than 

 for all honest and independent men, like Mr. Chant, to join 

 the Society instantly ; and, by a majority of votes, stultify all 

 attempts at illiberal measures, supposing that any should be 

 proposed. We appeal to Mr. Chant's good sense, whether he 

 ought to say " party feeling has actuated some of the officers," 

 when he confessedly refers to what took place before those 

 officers were even thought of. We hope to see Mr. Chant 

 and his four friends, at eight o'clock on the first Monday in 

 November, enter all their names, as original members, at 

 17, Old Bond Street ; and we hope we may meet them, and 

 all other right-spirited entomologists, on the first Monday of 

 every succeeding month, for many, many years. — Ed.] 



Q>G. Observations on Varieties. — Sir, Every entomologist 

 resident in the country, who consequently has not the privi- 

 lege of inspecting, any day, the unrivalled cabinet of Mr. 

 Stephens, or some other of the larger metropolitan collections, 

 must frequently be at a loss to satisfy himself whether any 

 variety of the species of an insect differing much from the 

 type, especially amongst the Noctuiche and subsequent families 

 of the Lejndoptera, is in reality a mere variety, or an unde- 

 scribed species. On the other hand, the London entomologists, 

 from the nice distinctions which the number of species they 

 possess enables them to draw, are too ready to consider such 

 varieties as distinct species, especially if the insect is not found 

 near town ; and few specimens have got into their cabinets. I 

 need not here allude to the numerous supposed species of the 



