attention, whether they include such examples in their 

 collections of British insects or not. The value of a collec- 

 tion of purely insular specimens is in no way diminished 

 because we happen to possess a collection of foreign 

 specimens also. 



Closely connected with the wider interest home collectors 

 are taking in European species and specimens is the matter 

 of setting. Should the system that obtains everywhere 

 outside these islands be adopted ? is a question which many 

 entomologists in this country answer in the affirmative. 

 Does anyone now set out his insects by means of paper 

 braces above and below the wings, as used to be done before 

 saddles or setting-boards were invented ? So long as the 

 method of setting we have been accustomed to answers 

 our purpose we shall probably continue to use it ; but 

 directly we find that it impedes progress in any direction 

 we wish to go, we shall employ any other system that 

 promises to assist us in attaining our desires. No doubt 

 the old brace arrangement was a long time in going out of 

 fashion, if it really has entirely gone out, and it is equally 

 without doubt that the "saddle" will be slow in retiring 

 to make room for the " high set." Probably, however, 

 we may assume that the saddle will be superseded in the 

 course of time. 



The variation of species has always been a subject of 

 interest to many lepidopterists, but during the last few years 

 it has received a larger amount of attention than was 

 previously accorded it. Not only have the various mutations 

 in a species range of variation been discussed in considerable 

 detail, but a large number of the forms have been furnished 

 with varietal names. Entomologists are not at all in unison 

 with regard to the naming of all the more or less unimpor- 

 tant aberrations of a species, but there is little difference of 

 opinion concerning well-defined varieties. In the case of a 

 local race we have a form with special characters clearly dis- 

 tinguishing it from the type, and it is therefore entitled to 

 rank as a sub-species. Application of the trinomial system 

 beyond these limits involves the whole matter in complexity. 

 The practice may possibly not be without advantages when 

 monographing an entire group of Lepidoptera, but even then 

 it is apt to be overdone. The great difficulty is when varietal 

 names are published in works that are not consulted by 

 entomologists generally. If it is considered to be really 

 necessary that a certain form of a species should have a 

 distinctive name, it is surely only reasonable to suppose that 



