GBNfiRlC NAMES iN Tfift NOCTUlDJE. 8l 



An experience of more than thirty years with the Nocjtuidae, the 

 literature, and contenipt)rary people, gives food for much reflection, so 

 that many unwritten chapters arise in my mind. From a scientific 

 standpoint I could show at length the necessity of revising the classi- 

 fication of the English Owlet Moths upon a structural basis. 

 Historically, so far as the names are concerned, I could show, in 

 another chapter, how the chauvinistic spirit fostered the growth of 

 peculiar names in the different European entomological circles, 

 gathered around this or that prominent but passing authority. 

 Sometimes the difference in language has impeded, but most often 

 personal assumption has prevented the quiet comparison of results 

 attained in studies of structure and nomenclature. The law of 

 priority found at times a national barrier to its application. Again, 

 the charactei's of the different systematists impressed itself often upon 

 the nomenclature adopted. Here is vindicated the truth of my 

 aphorism that *' we are men before we are entomologists." Not all 

 systematists are gentleman in the sense that Don Quixote was one, 

 willing to forget themselves and to break a lance for that which is and 

 which must seem to them everlastingly right. For entomology 

 presents, not only a field for the exercise of mental activity and 

 practical manipulation, but for the display of light and education also. 

 Finally, 1 might devote an entirely new and lengthy chapter to a 

 systematic and well-deserved abase of the British Museum Lists, 

 which chapter, indeed, I commenced as long ago as 1851, but cui bono ? 

 Against much more deliberate and flagrant injustice in this world one 

 beats one's wings in vain. Perhaps such a chaj^ter might abruptly 

 terminate with the conclusion of the farmer, when his applecart upset 

 and the neighbours gathered to hear him swear : " It's no use, boys, 

 I give it up, I can't do justice to it ! " and my readers, with the farmer's 

 hearers, might be in the end disappointed. All these chapters I 

 might put on paper, but now I fear the patience of the Editok and 

 the interest of the Reader is exhausted, and I come to a full stop. 



1'lie Life-jiistory of a Lepidopterous Iiisect, 



Comprising some account of its Morphology and Physiology. 



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

 (Continued from page 8). 



Chapter V. 



THE LARVA OR CATERPILLAR. 



PART I.— THE NEWLY-HATCHED LARVA. 



1. — On the hatching of the lauva. — In the previous chapter we 

 reached that point at which the embryo is fully-formed inside the egg-shell. 

 The next stage in the life-history of the insect is the hatching })rocess. 

 This may take place almost immediatel}' on the completion of the de- 

 velopment of the larva inside the egg-shell, or be delayed for a con- 

 siderable time. When the time arrives for the larva to escai)e, it gnaws 

 a hole from the inside through the cell-wall and thus li])erutes itself, 

 after which it fre(iuently eats the remainder of the egg-sht'll. It has 

 been asserted that the larvti) of the Hcsperiidac take a day or two to 



