YOUNG ENTOMOLOGISTS. 



11 



logy, " with good coloured figures of all the species, and 

 with good descriptions." Such a book would be cheap at 

 £100 ; there is no such booh, nor do I anticipate there ever 

 will be one possessing such qualifications. On several orders 

 and groups of insects we possess no systematic British work, 

 but for Lepidoptera we have " Stephens's Illustrations of 

 British Entomology," and for Coleoptera, " Stephens's 

 Manual of British Beetles;" and faulty as both works have 

 long since been ascertained to be, they have not hitherto been 

 superseded by any later works on the same subjects, and how- 

 ever awkward it may be to use a book as an authority which 

 we are well aware is no authority, we must use such tools 

 as we have, and where that cannot be selected which is 

 actually good, we take that which is the best, remembering 

 that " parmi les aveugles un borgne est roi." 



But no doubt I shall be asked are there figures in these 

 works. In the "Illustrations" there are a few, in the 

 " Manual " none. Now my readers are probably more 

 anxious for a book full of figures, than for one containing 

 only descriptions. About twenty years ago a work was pro- 

 jected for figuring all the British Lepidoptera, and it did 

 figure all the species known at that time. I allude to Wood's 

 Index Entomologicus. This work, from the facility with 

 which it enabled isolated collectors to name their specimens, 

 has probably contributee 1 more to promote the study of 

 the British Lepidoptera than any other work ; the figures of 

 many of the species are excellent, and, except in some of the 

 obscure groups, and the Micro- Lepidoptera, there are few 

 figures which may not be easily recognized. Unfortunately, 

 since its publication the progress of the science has led to the 

 adoption of an improved nomenclature, more in accordance 

 with that on the continent (for twenty years ago an insect 

 not unfrequently bore one name here, another in France, and 

 a third in Germany, so that the Entomology of one country 



