2a 



EECEEATIVE SCIENCE. 



passed, when the insect will relapse into the 

 previous state of torpid repose. This is one 

 of the proofs put forward by entomologists 

 to show that insects aro almost insensible to 

 pain, and that the sensation of a moth in 

 such a position as the one described is rather 

 that of submitting to an inconvenience than 

 of any acute sense of pain. The anatomical 

 structure of insects is such, indeed, especially 

 in the distribution of the nervous system, 

 that any concentrated sense of pain, similar 

 to that conducted to the brain by the nerves 

 in the higher classes of animals, appears 



I would call the collector's attention, as they 

 are well worthy of examination. Many of 

 these, from being of nearly the same size, and 

 generally of a brownish colour, are thought 

 by the tyro to be all of the same kind. 

 Every species is termed " a moth " — neither 

 more nor less — a comprehensive term by 

 which the uuentomological world describe 

 any of the tribe that happen to enter the open 

 window late on a summer night, and flutter 

 round the candle. The moth and the candle 

 have, indeed, been associated in many a couplet 

 and many a proverb, neither the poet nor the 



to be impossible to them. This will relieve 

 the minds of many tender-hearted collectors, 

 who might refrain forming a collection 

 through fear of causing unnecessary suffer- 

 ing. Some of the most splendid of our native 

 moths fly either very late in the dusk of the 

 evening, or at different hours of the night ; as, 

 for instance, the G-reat Red Underwing, the 

 still more beautiful Lilac Underwing, and 

 many others ; but these do not so often enter 

 living rooms as some of the smaller and 

 less conspicuous species, to which last kinds 



proverb-maker imagining that, even during 

 the same evening, a dozen or more very 

 distinct species may be observed, each ap- 

 proaching the light inhis own peculiar fashion, 

 and each having a pecvdiar flight, by which 

 its species may be distinguished as cha- 

 racteristically as by the differences of the de- 

 licate markings, or the structure of the palpi 

 and antennse. 



Linnajus, in his " SystemaNatura;," placed 

 all the moths, with the exception of the Spliin- 

 gidce, m one grand group, which he called 



