68 Mr. MarsHAM’s Obfervations 
in greater numbers than ufual could caufe fo ferious an alarm to the 
inhabitants of London and its environs, as happened in the year 
1782, when the churchwardens and overfeers of the neighbouring 
villages, after ordering rewards for colleéting thefe caterpillars, at- 
tended to fee them burnt by bufhels; furely much praife was due to 
the author of that curious and well-timed Effay on the Brown-tail 
Moth, in which, by a circumftantial and faithful hiftory of the little 
innocent animal, he reftored tranquillity to a terrified multitude. 
It is from fuch accurate and critical. inveftigations of the nature 
and ceconomy of thefe lower orders of animals, and a mutual com- 
munication of our difcoveries, that we muft expect profit. For al- — 
though the labours of an individual taken feparately may afford 
little; yet when collected, compared, and digefted, they may very 
much enrich the general {tock of knowledge. Could we with certainty 
attain a true hiftory of the different ftates of each particular infect, 
we might be enabled to form a complete fyftem, andalfo a method of 
claffification more natural, eafy, and lefs liable to error and confufion 
than thofe now in ufe; but this, if ever accomplifhed, muft be a 
work of time. In the mean while let us try how much is to be 
gained from a careful attention to fpecific diftinétions. It is abfo- 
lutely neceffary to confider the different ftates of the infect, becaufe 
many {fpecies that appear fimilar in their larvæ are totally different 
in their perfect ftates, and vice verfa. Few people difcover any 
difference between the maggot of a nut and that of an apple; and 
yet there are fcarce any two infects more unlike when arrived at 
perfection: the one a beautiful little moth, and the other a remark- 
able beetle of the genus Curculio. They are however eafily diftin- 
guifhed, even in their firft ftate, by an attentive obferver. An ento- 
mologift fhould always endeavour to be acquainted with his infect 
in all its changes, as a good botanift always defires to know his plant 
in every ftage of its growth. Varieties in the fame fpecies of infect 
are 
