ANNUAL ADDRESS TO THE MEMBERS 



£outh London dsntomological and statural JMstorii 



Read January 28///, 1909. 

 By Alfred Sich, F.E.S. 



The attendance at our meetings and the number of 

 exhibits during the past year have been fairly up to 

 the average. With regard to the exhibits, I should like to 

 say a word or two. The exhibits of lepidoptera greatly 

 preponderate over all the rest. That is perhaps inevitable, 

 considering the fact that we are nearly all of us students of 

 that order. Next on the list come some exhibits of other 

 orders of the Insecta and then a few of plants ; but exhibits 

 of the other divisions of the animal kingdom come, so to 

 say, nowhere at all. Now, I do not for one moment 

 suggest that we should have fewer exhibits of lepidoptera ; 

 on the contrary, let us, by all means, have still more 

 exhibits of lepidoptera, but, at the same time, let us not 

 forget that we are a natural history society as well as an 

 entomological one, and, instead of scarcely any, let us have 

 many exhibits of objects illustrating the other divisions. 



Among the events of the past year, the Conversazione, 

 held on the 15th May, under the auspices of the Entomolo- 

 gical Society of London, and in the organisation of which 

 two of our members took a prominent part, must not be 

 forgotten. Meetings of this nature help greatly to advance 

 our favourite study, as they bring together entomologists 

 who would, possibly, otherwise not meet, besides affording 



