64 



Some look down on this and rather scornfully speak of 

 " mere collectors." 



Others, while enjoying to the full the hunting, whether 

 with net, or treacle, or searching with lamp at night, or 

 " beating," or searching for larvae, take delight also in keeping 

 some of their captures alive in the hope of obtaining eggs, 

 and thus being able, when these hatch, to see the young 

 larvae, to feed and watch and study them through the various 

 stages of their growth, till they enter the pupa state, and 

 afterwards they are rewarded with series of the insects 

 which are far more perfect and better specimens for the 

 cabinet than could possibly be captured. This entails great 

 expenditure of time and patience, but no entomologist 

 worthy of the name ever begrudges this. 



Some of the more scientifically inclined have in this 

 manner the opportunity of describing and figuring the ova, 

 the larvae in each instar, and the pupa ; and though the 

 number of these latter workers is small, the amount of work 

 they have done in recent years is very striking and valuable, 

 as, for instance, in the groups Pterophoridae and Coleo- 

 phoridae. Those who do not care to indulge in this highly 

 specialised work, but who still take pleasure in rearing 

 insects from the egg state, may get very valuable results 

 bearing on the laws of heredity. Much remains to be done 

 to see whether Mendel's hypothesis holds good with insects, 

 and I hope before many seasons have passed that more 

 experiments will be made with this object in view. There 

 is abundance of material, and there is nothing more stimu- 

 lating to work than having some definite object in view, 

 some, problem to solve. So far as my knowledge goes the 

 results obtained by Mr. Bacot with Triphcena comes, using 

 melanic and reddish-coloured forms, and by Mr. Harris with 

 the melanic and the ordinary typical forms of Hemerophila 

 abruptaria, do not come out at all in Mendelian proportions. 

 The specimens bred in each of these experiments were 

 exhibited here at our meeting on November 23rd. 



Such species as Amphidasys betularia, with its melanic 

 form doubledayaria, Acidalia aversata, with its reddish-clay 

 and putty-coloured forms, or its banded and non-banded 

 forms, and doubtless many other species presenting two well 

 defined characters which do not, when crossed, produce inter- 

 mediates, would be suitable for experiments. 



Full particulars of the life-history of many of our British 

 Lepidoptera, even oftheMacro-Lepidoptera, are still unknown. 

 No one up to the present has ever been able to rear Lyccena 



