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Zbc Stub^ of leutonioloQi^. 



By G. Chaloner, F.C.S. 



I PROPOSE to furnish the student with a few brief hints 

 respecting the best mode of obtaining information and the 

 collection and preservation of specimens. Though the best 

 method of study is the practical one of catching and breeding 

 one's own insects, a few books are indispensable. Of these there 

 are now so many of a cheap and popular character, that it is quite 

 unnecessary to single any out. We may, however, mention Kirby 

 and Spence's Introduction to Entomology, the Young Collector's 

 Handbooks, and the well-known works of the late Rev. J. G. 

 Wood. Those who can afford it will do well to procure Stephens' 

 Illustrations of British Entomology, in ten or twelve voluaies, 

 which are worth seven guineas. Curtis's British Entomology is 

 also a good but expensive work ; it contains nearly eight hundred 

 coloured plates. These latter works, however, are luxuries which 

 the many cannot afford, and there are now to be had, for a very 

 small sum, excellent handbooks on every branch of entomology. 

 Useful, however, as good books are to the student, the study 

 of insects themselves is much more so. It is very well to read 

 that the stag-beetle has five-jointed tarsi, lamellated antenna, and 

 so forth, but the mind and memory are far more impressed by an 

 examination of the insect itself, and by jotting down its peculiar- 

 ities in one's own note book. The student should not imagine 

 that he knows all about any insect, even the most familiar, but 

 should make a point of describing every insect he finds, leaving a 

 blank space at the head of his description for its name to be 

 inserted when ascertained. An illustration will perhaps be 

 advantageous. 



April 20, 1 86 1. — A — took a caterpillar from the black currant, 

 in a web of its own construction ; | inch long, slightly covered 

 with hairs on the lower part of the sides, with a broad, black 

 stripe down the back ; on each side of this are black dots, alter- 

 nating with reddish dots. Head black, and the first three seg- 

 ments tinged with reddish brown. Besides six thoracic legs, it 



