60 



THE YOUNG 



NATURALIST. 



mologate your remarks about trying to find 

 out first. That is how I had to do, and I 

 never forgot what I learned myself. Never- 

 theless, assistance is invaluable with difficult 

 species. 



THE YOUNG NATURALISTS 

 FIELD CLUBS. 



No. 2. 



The Birmingham and Midland Coun- 

 ties Young Naturalists Field Club. — 



W. H. Bath, President. 



H. Warwick, (Acting) Hon. Sec. 



F. Mundye, Curator. 

 Several have already joined this club, we 

 shall be very glad to receive more, Those 

 who wish to join may apply for rules to H 

 Warwick, Trinity Road, Aston Park, Bir- 

 mingham. — H.Warwick, (acting) Hon. Sec. 



FIELD CLUBS. 



The Whitby Field Naturalists' Club was 

 commenced from a club in connection with 

 the "Union Jack" with about eight mem- 

 bers, but at an invitation from the Y.M.C.A. 

 we joined that society, although separate as 

 to power, rules, &c. The Y.M.C.A. also 

 placed at our disposal two large rooms ; 

 one for the club meetings, and the other for 

 a museum, as well as others for Taxidermy 

 and mounting objects, which now contain 

 some thousands of specimens of geology, 

 botany, zoology, conchology, entomology, &c. 

 At this stage, some of the members refused 

 to own the Union Jack as the organ of the 

 club for various reasons, and from that day 

 the club was called the Whitby Field Natu- 

 ralists' Club. Essays and Lectures are 

 given at the club meetings, weekly in winter 

 and fortnightly in summer. The club began 

 in the autumn of last year, and now has 

 between twenty and thirty members, mostly 

 gentlemen. The first annual exhibition of 

 this club was held in October. Every 

 member is a curator of some branch of 



natural history, except when it is not his 

 wish to be £,0. — John A. Tate, 61, Merlin 

 Street, Liverpool, 



NOTES ON TINEINA. 



Lithocolletis. 

 This genus of minute, yet beautiful insects, 

 nearly all pass the winter in the pupa state, 

 and may so be collected when the lepidop- 

 terist has little else to do. The larvae make 

 puckered blotches on the under and upper 

 sides of leaves. They change to pupas in 

 the mine, and in this state may be gathered 

 when the leaves have fallen. Go under 

 some tree and search among the fallen 

 leaves, and when you find one with a blister- 

 like blotch upon it, hold it up to the light 

 and see if it contains a pupa. Oak yields 

 many species chiefly on the underside of 

 the leaf. Birch, beecb, thorn, and apple may 

 also be examined, as well as hornbeam. 

 Nut, alder, and sallow, are among the trees 

 less frequented by this genus, while a few 

 feed npon low-growing plants, like Vaccmium 

 vitis-idaa'. 



Some collectors have been very successful 

 in forcing this genus, that is, applying arti- 

 ficial heat, and so causing the moths to 

 appear sooner than they otherwise would. 

 The advantage of this is that the insect can 

 be set out and placed in the cabinet before 

 the busy season for collecting comes on. 

 An apparatus for forcing is described by 

 Mr. Elisha in the Entomologist, vol. xii., 

 p. 238. 



BREEDING VARIETIES, 



By John E. Robson. 

 Great interest is attached to varieties of 

 Lepidoptera, especially to abnormal forms, 

 and collectors generally are desirous to 

 know how to be successful in rearing them. 

 Many suggestions have been made. One 

 advises frequent changing of food, another 

 that the food be the same throughout, while 

 a third recommends that the larvae be half 



