INVESTIGATION. 127 



of Anglers,' by John Curtis, published in the London and 

 Edinburgh Philosophical Magazine, vol. iv. 4. Re- 

 searches into the History and Anatomy of the Phryganites, 

 ('Recherches pour servir a I'Histoire et a I'Anatoraie des 

 Phryganides'), by Frangois Jules Pictet ; one volume, 20 

 plates : a work of very great research and extraordinary 

 merit. 5. Monograph of the European Dragon-flies, 

 ('Monographia Libellularura Europoearum'), by P. L. 

 Vander Linden, 42 pages, without plates. This little work 

 is MTitten in Latin, and is very complete and excellent of 

 its kind. 6. Entomological Hours, ('Horae Entomologicae'), 

 by Toussaint de Charpentier, one vol. 4to., with plates. In 

 this work the species of the genus Libellula are accu- 

 rately described in Latin. 7. ' Synonymy of the Perlites, 

 together with brief descriptions of the old, and of a few 

 new species,' by Edward Newman, published in vol. iii. 

 of the Magazine of Natural History. 



Of Investigating Insects. — Having pointed out the best 

 mode by which a collection may be made, and the books 

 which will be most useful in naming it, it remains that 

 we add a few words on the application of objects to de- 

 scriptions, and descriptions to objects. 



Character in insects is the variation in the mode or 

 measure of development of any integral portion of either 

 system of organs. Those characters are the best which 

 are founded on such portions of a system of organs as are 

 most readily observed ; the organs of support afford these. 

 It would be a work of insuperable difficulty had we to 

 examine the interior of an insect to decide its species. All 

 animals have a tendency to vary in those parts of the body 

 which are the most remote from the centre : the extremi- 

 ties in quadrupeds, or in birds, afford us the best charac- 

 ters on this ground. Take a lobster, a prawn, a shrimp. 



