138 NEW WORKS ON ENTOMOLOGY. 



" Dear Sir, 



" I lately found a hairy caterpillar of a bright yellow, 

 with long red tufts of hair, and a black chain-like mark down the 

 back. I have tried it with various kinds of food, and it will not 

 eat. Can you tell me what it is ? and on what plant I should feed 

 it ? Your invitation to those in search of information encourages 

 me to trouble you with this inquiry. 



" Believe me, dear Sir, 



" Yours very truly." 



From Mr. Wollaston's " Notes on the Collecting and Preserving 

 of Coleoptera," the following extract furnishes a good specimen of 

 the pleasant genial style of that writer. 



"It is a mistake to suppose that the progress of agriculture 

 needs to lay waste our Entomological preserves and to exterminate 

 insect life. In some few instances i as in the destruction of forests), 

 this may be and probably is the case, but I am convinced that, in 

 a general way, the very reverse is nearer the truth. The vast 

 superiority of the London district (highly cultivated as it is) over 

 almost every other in England, may be quoted in support of this ; 

 and I may add, from personal observation, that I have never met 

 with such marked success as along railway embankments, and on 

 other grounds recently turned up by the edges of gardens and fields 

 where the vegetation is rank and redundant. Let not the collector 

 assume, therefore, that he must needs sally to a distance for his game, 

 since he will often reap a richer harvest a hundred yards from his 

 own door than by taking a 'return ticket' (which involves moreover 

 the loss of time) for a hundred miles into the country, perchance into 

 some cold clayey region where his exertions will prove comparatively 

 fruitless. 



" Let the moss be carefully examined (for the minuter tribes) 

 wherever it can be procured, though more especially from off the 

 trunks of trees. The best plan in the winter months is to shake it 

 over a large bag, the contents of which may be gradually turned 

 out on a sheet of white paper at home ; and if overhauled in front 

 of a window nothing will be lost, as those species which escape will 

 almost invariably fly or Tun to the light, and may be immediately 

 secured from off the glass." 



