CURRENT NOTES. 101 
species of field mice in Puglia doing enormous damage to all the crops, 
in 1911 and again in 1916. 
In the Ent. News for February, Prof. T. D. A. Cockerell gives an 
account of the species of Halictus (Hym.) which visit evening flowers, 
with a large number oi personal observations carried on for many 
years. He reports some species as flying about the flowers earlier in 
the evening before any signs of opening was visible. W. L. MacAtee 
writes on “ Specific, Subspecific and Varietal Categories of Insects and 
asserts that ‘‘ Entomologists will do well to profit by the experience of 
workers in ornithology and mammology,” a remark which to ento- 
mologists is like asking that the “ mountain go to the molehill.” The 
writer sums up the forms which up to a few years ago were lumped 
together under the term “variety.” We quote his remarks—‘ A 
variety in entomology, actually of less than specific rank, may be one 
of three things: (1) It may be a true subspecies or geographic race, 
present material being insufficient to decide the point; (2) It may be 
a colour phase, that is, albinistic, melanistic, erythroic or the like, an 
appearance it may assume anywhere in the range of the species that 
may affect all subspecies alike (proof of its nature) but which usually 
is recognisable as a phase of a simple colour gradation, often as the 
alternative of two colour states as albinism and melanism, and it 
should not have a name which will have to be reckoned with in 
scientific nomenclature ; and (8) It may be a variety such as is known 
in many insects that cannot be subspecific in its nature, because 
unrelated to distribution, that does not answer to the definition of 
colour phase, here given, but the real nature of which admittedly is 
not understood. It seems to the writer that these varieties have the 
importance, and in a way the attributes of subspecies except correlation 
with geographical distribution, and that they should be named. From 
a purely nomenclatorial point of view the fact that we do not know 
what colour varieties really are is unimportant, and the writer’s 
contention is that we shall be much longer learning what they are, 
unnamed, than if named.” We would add, what has always been our 
contention, that each name.after the species name should have its 
nomenclatorial rank prefixed, to inform readers and subsequent 
students the position of mind of the writer as to the gradation of the 
form. Much of the article gives food for thought on the vexed Nomen- 
clatorial question. We note that a duplication of names, to which we 
called attention some months ago, has now been corrected. The 
Coleophora apicella being a pre-occupied name, C. apicialbella is 
proposed for the species described in Ent. News, xxx. 109 (1909). 
The Irish Nat. for March contains an article on the “ Coleoptera 
in Co. Kerry,” by Oliver EH. Janson, ¥.E.S., giving an account 
of a holiday spent there in June, 1919. He records eight species not 
recorded in Johnson and Ga lerts Trish List, and mentions a number 
of species in which melanism was much pronounced. The Rey. 
W. T. Johnson gives a series of further notes on “ Irish Jehnewmonidae 
and Braconidae,” and Sir Charles Langham, Bart., deals with the 
occurrence of Odonata in 1919 in Co. Wicklow. Practically the 
whole number treats of Entomology. 
The Hnt. Mo. May. for March gives a very interesting account of 
the life of Lord Walsingham from the pen of Mr. J. H. Durrant, who 
for so many years was associated with him at Merton. Dr. R. ©. L. 
