43 
one may go still further, and say, that, but for a little collecting, 
lepidopterology is defunct, and has been since the death of Dr. 
Buchanan White. Years pass by and no one rises to take his place, 
at once an observant field naturalist, a reader, and an intellectual 
thinker. Mr. Kane, of course, is without a peer, as an authority on 
Irish Lepidoptera ; we can only hope that Scotland will soon give us 
a man who will have the same authority on Scotch, as has Mr. Kane 
on Irish, Lepidoptera. In England, the best practical work has been 
done by Dr. Riding and Mr. Bacot, with their experiments in the 
hybridisation of Tephrosia bistortata and T. crepusculana. I have 
had the pleasure of studying the insects that they have bred, and 
summarised the results. The conclusions have been submitted to, 
and, I trust, will in due course appear in the Transactions of, the 
Entomological Society of London. In many points, the results bear 
out Standfuss’s conclusions ; in others, they appear to be somewhat 
at variance, but I doubt whether the latter has ever had a tithe of the 
specimens, in a single year, that have gone through our experimenters’ 
hands. There is one paper of great importance to scientific entomo¬ 
logists likely to be overlooked, because of its being mixed up with the 
life-history of Charaxes jasius, the species in which the phenomena 
were observed. I refer to the observations on the moulting and 
pupation of this species, published by Dr. Chapman in the Entomolo¬ 
gist’s Record (vol. ix., pp. 218-220). All entomologists can read them 
at leisure, so that there is no need for me to repeat them. 
But if the entomological world has not been much startled this year by 
any remarkable publication, it has received with pleasure the announce¬ 
ment, by the British Museum authorities, of a stupendous undertaking 
to be accomplished, we hope, in the near future. This is no less than 
the compilation of a series of volumes on the “ Lepidoptera of the 
World,” by Sir George Hampson. All we can say of the proposed 
work is, that if it is to be done scientifically, skilfully, and with a 
minimum of error, no better man could have been selected for this 
gigantic undertaking. We wish the talented author every success. 
One other matter has been brought to head. The committee 
formed by the Entomological Society of London for the protection of 
insects in danger of extermination, has had several meetings. At 
its last meeting each of the affiliated town and provincial societies 
was asked to elect a representative who should be de facto a member 
of the committee. These members were, I believe, in many cases elected, 
but, by some oversight, we do not seem to have yet held a meeting 
to welcome them as helpers in what is, I think, a good cause. It is 
too early yet to tell how much or what moral effect the committee 
has had ; that it has had some is quite evident. So much for the 
more important entomological matters of 1897, that occur to me. 
We may now turn our attention to other matters. 
DOUBTFUL SPECIES. 
Year by year we are faced, in some form or other, with the ques¬ 
tion—“ What is a species ? ” Year by year this question is discussed 
in our magazines without getting any nearer to a definite issue ; year 
by year the discussion will go on so long as there are those who think 
that every species can be defined with unerring accuracy, so long as 
there are those who think that every species is distinctly cut off from 
its nearest allies, that there are no species in the process of making 
