20 



The obvious question arises as to whether it is indigenous to 

 Britain at all, and whether the few recorded captures may not be 

 accounted for in some similar fashion to the above. As this is 

 not the place, however, for a discussion, I will at once assume that 

 it is a genuine British species, and will honestly avow that it 

 answers my present purpose to do so. 



If you will permit me, gentlemen, I will read a short extract 

 from Mr. Bates' address at the beginning of this year to the 

 Entomological Society of London. After lamenting " the too ex- 

 clusive devotion of our native entomologists to the formation of 

 purely British collections," he goes on to say, " the exhaustion of 

 our limited insular fauna, and the extreme unlikelihood of the dis- 

 covery of new species, seem to teach no lesson to the purely British 

 collector, and he goes on collecting, observing, and recording what 

 has been collected, observed, and recorded over and over again. 

 Some, it is satisfactory to notice, break through the artificial 

 limits imposed by the majority, and extend the range of their 

 excursions and observation to the continent. The ice once broken 

 this way, a boundless field of interesting study lies before them; 

 for by exchange, and a trifling outlay of pocket-money, large 

 collections can be formed, and the mind expanded by the study of 

 the whole Palgearctic Fauna, of which that of the British isles is 

 only a half-starved fragment. Even if it were only for the pleasure 

 of tracing the wonderful local variations, the formation of sub- 

 races and races of our common English insects — some of them of 

 surprising beauty — over the wider continental area, one would 

 think that every intelligent entomologist with us would be eager 

 thus to extend his studies. And it could be done with no more 

 expenditure of time, and very little more of money, than the 

 present exclusive pursuit of home productions." Now, it appears 

 to me, that when a man so universally respected as Mr. Bates, has 

 the courage to formulate and give expression to an idea which 

 many have entertained, but have feared to publish, it is at least 

 becoming in a young Society like ours to look into it. 



I will freely confess that, for my own part, I should be 

 extremely glad to see the adoption of broader views as to the 



