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JOURNAL OF VARIATION. 



No. 2. Vor.. I. May 15th, 1890. 



NEUROPTERA AND TRICHOPTERA. 



By J. W. TUTT, F.E.S. 

 I HERE are two groups of insects which I should hke to 

 see worked up by our Entomologists, viz.: — Trichop- 

 TERA and Neuroptera. These two groups can 

 very readily be worked by lepidopterists, since they 

 are captured by the same means, have somewhat similar 

 habits, and are set in the same way. At the same time they 

 consist of so comparatively few species that they would give 

 but little additional trouble to the lepidopterist in his usual 

 work. The Neuroptera (dragon flies, lacewing flies, stone 

 flies, etc.), only number some 200 British species, and 

 many of them are very common. Their beauty causes us to 

 occasionally capture them for inspection, but lepidopterists 

 rarely go further. If they knew how few species there really 

 are, I think they would be more ready to work them up. I 

 was quite astonished myself when my friend Mr. Porritt urged 

 me to collect them ; I had a vague idea that each group repre- 

 sented a similar amount of work to that required to collect 

 lepidoptera properly, and was much astonished to find how 

 small a number of species there were. The Trichopteka 

 (caddis flies, etc.) are well known to all British lepidopterists. 

 In damp woods we beat them out of bushes, etc., when after 

 lepidoptera, and in marshy localities many of them come freely 

 to the sugar we spread for Nocture. The group itself is not 

 rich in its number of species, only about 160 British species 

 being known, so that they would require but little extra work. 



Mr. Porritt will give any help that is needed in the naming 

 of species not readily made out, and will be thankful for 

 specimens (with data) tr.ken l)y lepidopterists, who will go no 



