PREFACE TO VOL. V. 



At the conclusion of our fifth vohnne, we beg to thank our now 

 large circle of subscribers, both for their kind personal support, and for 

 the help and sympathy which tliey have shown us by introducing 

 The Entomologist's Record to their friends. 



We have attempted to make the magazine a real desideratum 

 to entomologists, by discussing such subjects as are from time to 

 time brought under their notice ; by publishing collecting notes, which 

 shall give a fair idea of what is being done from month to month in 

 various parts of the country ; by informing our readers of the important 

 articles and records in other magazines, attempting thereby to separate 

 in some measure the wheat from the chaff ; by attempting to lead those 

 who have but little opportunity and time, to take a scientific interest 

 in their work. In doing this, it has been somewhat difficult to steer 

 safely between Scylla and Charybdis, to avoid falling into the drivel 

 which so often goes by the name of popular science, or, on the other 

 hand, rising to those ethereal heights, where abstruse subjects are 

 wrapped in mystifying verbiage, and are not understanded by the 

 multitude. 



When The Entomologist'' s Record was started, it was felt that de- 

 scriptive monogi-aphs of foreign insects and of little known British 

 Orders, were not altogether suital)le for a monthly magazine ; that 

 entomologists wanted a monthly fillip, the material composing which 

 should be such that any fairly educated man or woman with a bent for 

 natural history could understand it, and possibly learn something from 

 it. This we venture to say we have provided. The readers of The 

 Entomologist's Record have nothing presented to them that does not bear 

 directly on their own work, and are kept au conrant with what is going 

 on in the entomological world. 



The fact that we wish to make the magazine as far as possible in- 

 structive and its contents scientifically accurate explains our position, 

 where the editorial lash has perhaps fallen somewhat heavily. If we 

 have injured the personal feelings of anyone we are sincerely sorry, but 

 there are times when ignorance must be exposed. When a man mis- 

 states facts and mis-leads his readers, he is doing he knows not what 

 harm. The essence of good work in any branch of science is, that the 

 writer should collect and digest his facts for himself first, and not write 

 on a subject until he has mastered it. A writer is a teacher. If the 

 subject we profess to study is to advance, the youngsters must begin 

 where we leave off, and we are doing the younger generation of natural- 

 ists a serious wrong, when those whom they look up to as their 

 masters to-day, teach them error for truth. Ignorance is no excuse 

 for this, and we shall expose it wherever we see that it is doing harm. 



In our younger days, it was our greatest trouble to find out the most 

 recent views and facts connected with entomological work. The 

 material we want is scattered over perhaps three or four sets of magazines, 

 and as many sets of Transactions, which in our young days we can ill- 

 afford to buy. Our Chapters on the Life-history of a Lepidopterous 

 Insect have been compiled, with a view to meet this want. If our col- 

 lector readers think them dry, they must consider what a large share of the 

 magazine they usu;illy get. We can only make them as readable as jDossible, 

 without altering the facts of the science. We all began by collecting. 

 In old days, the collector rarely developed into a scientist ; probably not 

 one per cent, became imbued with a desire to know anything of the 



