360 INSECT MISCELLANIES. 



the egg till its death, marking' its peculiar food, the 

 enemies which prey on it, and the various accidents 

 or diseases to which it may be liable, — the latter ap- 

 pearing, to our limited comprehension, to be some of 

 the means appointed by Providence to restrain ex- 

 cessive multiplication. It is obvious that all this may 

 be done (it actually has been done by an illiterate 

 labourer at Blackheath) without knowing the name 

 of the insect observed, or the rank it holds in any 

 particular system. These, however, it may be inte- 

 resting for the observer to ascertain afterwards, in 

 order that he may compare his own observations 

 "with those of other naturalists. At the commence- 

 ment, therefore, of such investigations, it may be 

 useful, when the name of an insect is unknown, to 

 mark it with some number by way of distinction, till 

 the name (if it have one) given it by systematists be 

 discovered. In our own researches we have found 

 these numeral names — 1, 2, 3, or A, B, C, — of con- 

 siderable use, when we could not readily trace the 

 names we wanted amongst the almost interminable 

 synonymes to be met with in systems of classifica- 

 tion. 



If we should be asked, what is the best place to 

 find insects, our answer must be every-where — woods, 

 fields, lanes, hedge-rows, gardens : wherever a flower 

 blooms or a green leaf grows, some of the insects 

 which feed on living vegetables will be sure to be 

 found, as will those which feed on decaying leaves and 

 decaying wood be met with wherever these abound. 

 In the waters, again, both running and stagnant, 

 fr«>.xn the rill to the river, and from the broad lake to 

 the little pool formed in a cow's footstep, aquatic in- 

 sects of numerous varieties may be seen. Winged 

 insects, of countless species, may be seen in the air 

 during their excursions in search of food, or for the 

 purposes of pairing or depositing their eggs, and the 



