410 EEVIEWS. 



XLII. — Blackwall' s Spldeks op GtvEAt Beitae^ and Ieelaot?, 

 Published by the Bay Society. 



All naturalists must feel much indebted to the Eay Society, and to 

 Mr. Blackball more especially, for the publication of this volume. 

 It must, we think, be admitted that Insects, particularly the Coleop- 

 tera and Lepidoptera, have of late years nearly monopolized the 

 attention of Entomologists ; and even Mr. Stainton might see with- 

 out jealousy some part of the " collecting power" of this country 

 diverted from the Microlepidoptera, and " turned on" to the other 

 groups of Annulosa. Owing to the enormous variety of insects, the 

 entomologist is always in danger of merging the philosopher in the 

 collector, and of devoting to particular groups the labours which 

 would produce a richer harvest if spread over a wider field. 



Partly perhaps for this reason, entomologists are a class too much 

 separated from and too little appreciated by their fellow naturalists. 

 Their delight is to wander, net in hand, in the woods and fields, collect- 

 ing specimens and watching the habits of their favourite insects. To 

 do this successfully, it is necessary to know by sight and name a great 

 many species, and this is done to a wonderful extent. But any 

 group in which the species are difficult to name and to preserve, is 

 almost certain to be neglected, 



This has been hitherto the case with the Spiders ; but, as far at 

 least as Mr. Blackwall's work goes, the former difficulty is now 

 much diminished, copious descriptions being given, with excellent 

 coloured* figures of almost every species. 



"We hope, therefore, that the appearance of this work will stimu- 

 late our naturalists to cultivate the field thus thrown open to them.f 

 How much there is to be done may be judged of from the fact, that 

 though Mr. Blackwall is careful to record the names of those who 

 have captured specimens of any rare species, he only mentions four- 

 teen persons, three of whom are ladies. Moreover, of these fourteen, 

 five appear only once. Mr. Blackwall himself, Mr. Cambridge, Mr. 

 Clark, Mr. Meade and Mr. Hardy have indeed been indefatigable, but 

 so few labourers could do but slight justice to such a plentiful har- 

 vest. The art of collecting insects is brought to a high pitch of 

 perfection ; and Mr. Stainton's list in the Entomologist's Annual 

 informs us that there are more than 1400 entomologists in the king- 

 dom. By far the greater number are ardent collectors, as may be 

 shown by the collateral evidence that a penny weekly paper, the 

 " Entomologist's Intelligencer," which circulates entirely among in- 

 sect collectors, has more than 600 subscribers. Yet not a month 

 passes without adding some new insect to our lists ; and we may 



* Mr. Blackwall most liberally defrayed half the charge of the colouring, which 

 was all done by hand, and was therefore a considerable expense. 



f In Carus's recent " Bibliotheca Zoologica," twenty pages suffice for the Arach- 

 nida, while the Insecta occupy more than two hundred. 



