86 THE ENTOMOLOGIST S RECORD. 



worn or not out, owing to the forwardness or otherwise of the weather. 

 Of course dates vary according to the northern, midland or southern 

 situation of the particular county ; for instance I find Leptima sinapis 

 fully out in mid May in the South, whilst in the Midlands it is not in 

 full flight until the second week in June. By this means, too, one 

 could get notice of the abundance of species that rarelj^ occur, such as 

 ColiaR edusa, C. hyale, etc. Usually one only learns at the end of the 

 season that a particular species has been common. Perhaps any 

 entomologist to whom the idea appeals will communicate with me. — 

 S. G. Castle Eussell, "Monkswood," Woking, Surrey. 



(CURRENT NOTES AND SHORT NOTICES. 



The South-Eastern N^atnralht for 1916, the annual issue of the 

 Transactions of the South-Eastern Union of Scientific Societies, 

 contains matter which only very broadly can be considered as natural 

 histor}^, yet as usual the volume is a most interesting record and there 

 are some valuable educational papers. The first fifty pages or so 

 contain official matter, the annual report, reports of the sections, 

 botanical, regional and treasure trove, the library, the spring and the 

 autumn meetings, etc. Some twenty pages are taken up by the 

 Proceedings of the 21st Congress held in June, giving an account of 

 the meetings, a resume of the discussions and interesting details of the 

 visits to places of local interest. Then follow further twenty pages 

 devoted to an annotated list of the Hepatnae and Mosses of Tunbridge 

 Wells, the Congress town of the year, by W. E. Nicholson, which had 

 been too late for insertion in the official Guide to Tunbridge Wells 

 issued for the Congress. The special papers read take up nearly 

 seventy pages but none of them deal with any branch of zoology. A 

 further twenty pages deals with other official matter. Messrs. Alfred 

 Sich, F.E.S., and Hy. J. Turner, F.E.S., are the Union's referees for 

 matters lepidopterologioal, and the following instructions to correspon- 

 dents may be found of use elsewhere : — 



" Specimens, especially if small, should be in good condition, and 

 sent in wooden, metal, or corked entomological boxes, with a copious 

 packing of shavings or cotton wool outside, covered with stout 

 paper securely stringed. Living perfect insects should have fixed in 

 the box a rigid perch, such as a stout grass stem, to cling to, and should 

 be sent singly. Unset perfect insects can be laid between cotton wool 

 in metal boxes with little outer packing, but if set require most perfect 

 packing. Larvas can be sent in similar boxes, with an immovable 

 spray of the food plant enclosed. They must not be crowded or they 

 will sweat. In addition a sufficiency of the food-plant should be sent 

 as an aid to identification. Eggs can be sent between cotton wool in 

 metal boxes, or inserted in a small quill or a hole in a block of wood so 

 that they may not rattle. Pupre must each be separately wrapped 

 firmly, but not tightlj^ in cotton wool, and placed in a rigid box with 

 copious outside packing. The address should be placed in and on the 

 parcel and on an attached luggage label with the stamps." 



The Naturalist for January contains a summary of the year's (1916) 

 scientific work of the Yorkshire Naturalist's Union. In the Lepidoptera 

 B. Morley announces that black specimens of Eiiiaturija atomaria have 

 now been taken on all the moors in the S.W. Riding, and that the 



