iSgi.] 



THE BRITISH NATURALIST. 



213 



Notes. 



Nomenclature. —Allow me to point out that the only remedy for 

 the existing uncertainty in Entomological nomenclature, is a list of 

 names issued by an authority, which all entomologists would 

 acknowledge. The lists issued in 1870, 1872, and 1876, to which you, 

 Mr. Editor, refer in the last number of the "British Naturalist," bear 

 the names of their respective authors, who are entomologists of high 

 repute. But it does not appear that they were adopted at a general 

 meeting of the London Entomological Society. The L.E.S. has, no 

 doubt, passed a resolution that it is incumbent upon the society to 

 issue such lists, but the matter has ended there. In 1872 the late Mr. 

 W. A. Lewis moved against the principle of priority, and prepared a 

 circular, of which I have a copy, w4iich shows that he had obtained 

 about 50 signatures to a petition to the Entomological Society on the 

 subject, but after his melancholy decease, the subject was dropped. 

 We have too many lists of names compiled by individuals, and, of 

 course, each differing from the others; our want is an authoritative 

 list w^hich shall supersede these. In its compilation existing lists must 

 be consulted, and due weight given to them. But a list bearing the 

 authority of the L.E.S., and obtained by some such scheme as that 

 which 1 sketched in the September number of the B.N. will alone put 

 an end to all differences and secure universal acceptance. — (Rev.) J. 

 Watson, Upper Norwood, September 7th, 1891. 



Lyc^na Alexis in North Kent.— This species seems to have 

 been unusually large and abundant this past spring and my son and 

 I have taken a fine series, including many good vars. Some of the 

 males closely approached Adonis in colour, and in one the fringe was 

 distinctly spotted. The females were exceptionally "blue" and 

 varied more than any I have ever before noticed; the greatest 

 variation was, of course, in the undersides. One is similar to the 

 second fig. in "Newman" (Bond's vars ) but the strokes or dashes are 

 much more pronounced in the one taken by us. Another, also a male, 

 is "spotless," and many others of both sexes are more or less wanting 

 in the usual markings. But what I think the best var. is a male, 

 the upper side of which is a dull smoky blue and the under, an uniform 

 smoky brown, having the usual black spots, but small and without 

 the white rings, the orange spots are pale in colour, ratlier large, and 



