250 The Scottish Naturalist. 



and is being done by British entomologists ; such labours as 

 Mr. Stainton's "Tineina," Mr. Smith's "Catalogue of Bees," 

 Dr. Blackwall's "Spiders," &c., speak for themselves, and the 

 journals and transactions which have from time to time been 

 devoted to the study have had a fair proportion of their space 

 occupied by what are truly contributions to our knowledge. 

 That much is still undone which ought to have been done, 

 seeing what an army of workers profess the study, I think no 

 one who has examined the question will dispute. What, for 

 example, do we know of the life-histories of the greater portion 

 of British Coleoptera or Hymenoptera? And how much of 

 our knowledge of them is borrowed from Reaumur and his 

 successors? What, further, do we know of the Diptera or 

 Hemiptera of the country, beyond bare lists of species that 

 have, in many instances, by the merest accident found a place 

 in our collections ? I would by no means be thought to dis- 

 parage such important and necessary labour as the collecting 

 and registering in proper catalogues of insects of all kinds, but 

 I would most emphatically distinguish between such accessory 

 work and the study of entomology. 



If we briefly consider our methods of pursuing the study of 

 entomology, we may discover some of the causes which have 

 apparently hindered that progress of the science which, as we 

 have asserted, is to be desired, and the enquiry may suggest 

 some slight modifications in our systems of working, and point 

 out the true way to study entomology. 



Imagine a schoolboy, who, from reading such books as the 

 " Introduction to Entomology" and the "World of Insects," from 

 seeing a collection of insects, or from having accompanied a 

 friend on a collecting excursion, feels a desire to take up the 

 subject for himself; what mode of procedure will be suggested 

 to him ? At the very outset he will in all probability be led 

 to misunderstand entirely what it is he is about to do ; whether 

 he consult a collecting friend or a book of " hints to collectors," 

 he will run away with the idea, that it must be his first and 

 principal object to get together as many species as he can, 

 either by his own exertions or by a system of barter with his 

 fellows, for a large collection is a sine qua non. He will be 

 recommended to procure this or that style of net, setting 

 board, and store-box; will be advised to try this and that 



