Book Description

Excerpt from Entomologist's Record and Journal of Variation, Vol. 19: January to December, 1907 With this number we conclude our 19th volume, and again we tender our heartiest thanks to all those who have so kindly helped to make it as successful and useful as its predecessors - to contributors, subscribers, donors of plates, etc. There has been a tendency during recent years for our British collectors to give us fewer and fewer of their observations on British insects. This has probably been partly due to the series of wretched collecting-seasons through which we have recently passed, partly to the wish not to repeat oft-recorded observations, and partly also to the raid that certain collectors make on a new collecting-ground, when a rare species of the Macro-lepidoptera is found in new haunts; all of which, however, tends to lower the actual amount of the output of scientific notes, bearing on the habits, habitats, and distribution of our indigenous species. During the last year or two this has been less noticeable, and this year we have still less reason to complain, several comprehensive notes on collecting in the British Islands having been received during the past few months, but the interesting notes on collecting in Ireland and Scotland by native collectors which were a feature of the magazine of some ten to fifteen years since, are no longer forthcoming, and field-work in Ireland and Scotland is now largely restricted to visitors from England who make a short stay in one of the better-known localities. An account of the lepidopterous fauna of Ross-shire and Sutherland would be most useful at the present time, i.e., a fauna comprising the Macros and Micros, for the hints of Buchanan-White as to the more lowland character of the fauna of these counties, possibly due to the influence of the surrounding ocean, have never been fairly proved or disproved. Nor is the fauna of the northern Pennines and Cheviots at all well-known, and one could wish that notes from these and other little-worked districts could be received. Our own exhaustive work on "Practical Hints" has rendered our neglect of this phase of field entomology less marked, although we had hoped to have continued the series by dealing with special groups. We desire, however, to proceed with these during the coming year. At our request, Mr. Selwyn Image has generously written us one of his delightful poems to conclude our present volume; for his kindness we offer our grateful thanks. We are again indebted to Mr. H. Donisthorpe and Professor T. Hudson Beare for taking entire charge of the "Coleoptera" section, and have been fortunate in obtaining the aid of Mr. Chitty to help us with other less-worked orders. The Rev. C. R. N. Burrows has again kindly made himself responsible for the "Societies' Reports" and the "General Index," whilst Professor T. Hudson Beare, Messrs. M. Burr, J. E. Collin, and H. J. Turner have again kindly undertaken the "Special Index," which we hope to publish with the January number. For the various plates we have been able to give, we have to thank Messrs. F. B. Browne, H. Donisthorpe, H. M. Edelsten, A, H. Jones, Dr. T. A. Chapman, and Dr. Joy. To all who have helped us during the past year we offer our best thanks, and at the same time crave a continuance of their support for the coming year, which we trust may be fruitful to the collector, and result in the accumulation of many new facts by entomologists of all grades and tastes. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com