Notes and Comments. 377 



the larger animals, his mining and industrial activities are 

 beginning to affect chemistry over wide areas of the earth, 

 and his reckless destruction of forests is so disturbing the 

 rainfall that deserts are appearing which spread like rodent 

 ulcers as the dust raised from them by the wind chokes the 

 surrounding vegetation. Appreciable interference with the 

 course of nature one can see, but the ultimate effect none can 

 foretell. And on this note we must close with what content 

 we may : a note, not of pessimism, but of agnosticism. We 

 know little of man's origin. He comes out of dim mists of 

 uncertainty. The whole course of his existence up to to-day 

 presents a long series of problems before which we stand baffled. 

 And of his final destiny we dare not even guess.' With the 

 exception of the last sentence, the author precisely expresses 

 our feelings on having read the book. Yet the headings of 

 his chapters led us to hope for something more definite. 



LANCASHIRE AND CHESHIRE ENTOMOLOGISTS. 



At a recent meeting of the Lancashire and Cheshire Entomo- 

 logical Society, Mr. S. P. Doudney showed a specimen of Bapta 

 taminata, taken in Eggerslack Wood, Grange, being the first 

 Lancashire record for many years. Mr. J. W. Griffin brought 

 the results of his work from the Wallasey district during 

 the summer ; the exhibit comprised some 70 species, many of 

 them in bred series, the most interesting being a specimen of 

 Sphinx convolvuli, Centra furcula, Notodonta dictcea, Dasychira 

 fascelina, Bombyx rubi (a fine bred series), A crony eta leporina 

 and a series of A. megacephala containing some fine dark 

 examples ; he reported that the larva of this moth has been 

 very common in some of the Lancashire towns this summer ; 

 Agrotis ripce (three specimens) — this has never before been re- 

 ported from Wallasey ; a single specimen of Cleoceris viminalis, 

 also a new record for Wallasey ; Phtsia fesUtcce, Mesotype 

 virgata and Nyssia zonaria, both the last had been commoner 

 on the Cheshire sand-hills than for many years past. Mr. 

 W. A. Tyerman also had a nice series of M. virgata and N. 

 zonaria, a very pretty variety of Chrysophanus phlceas from 

 Woolton, near Liverpool, which had the red marginal band of 

 the hind-wings broken up into narrow red streaks ; a male 

 Bryophila perla with strong rosy ground colour from Cronton, 

 and a fine banded form of Carsia palndata from Simonswood. 

 Mr. W. Mansbridge exhibited bred series of Larentia salicata, 

 Coremia unidentaria, both red and black-banded forms, and 

 Numeria pulveraria, second brood, from Witherslack ; a varied 

 series of Thera obeliacata from Silverdale ; also a number of 

 species of Lepidoptera from Delamere Forest, which included 

 a nice intermediate variety of Amphidasys betularia and a fine 

 lot of Retinia buoliana from the young pine plantations in the 

 forest where they appeared to be doing much damage to the 

 young trees. 



1917 Dec. 1. 



