COMMONLY CALLED BUGS. 153 



pieces of blotting-paper so as nearly to fill it and prevent 

 them shaking about, is the general receptacle. Their an- 

 tennae and legs are very delicate, and require the nicest 

 manipulation, or it will be found difficult to set out a perfect 

 creature. After they have lain for about twenty-four hours 

 in the phial, they will be found to have lost all the rigidity 

 occasioned by the death to which they have been subjected, 

 and are then ready for setting. 



We never pin any of them, large or small, but card all 

 species. The gum used is the same as for beetles, viz. 

 Tragacanth. One specimen, at least, we set out with the 

 wings expanded, another showing the underside, and the 

 remainder of each species in the ordinary way. On the Con- 

 tinent the Semiptera have won the sympathies of famous 

 men, such as Baerensprung, Dohrn, Fieber and Flor as well 

 as others, and we sincerely hope they will find admirers other 

 than ourselves here. They were sent for our instruction, and 

 what He has created is surely not beneath us to study. 

 There is more than beauty in them, and it only remains hidden 

 and in obscurity because of the unwillingness to give them 

 the attention they merit, and thereby place them in the niches 

 intended for their reception, and for which their forms and 

 robes have been specially designed. Our own ignorance 

 only becomes the more apparent as we turn over leaf after 

 leaf of the book of nature. New sights are unveiled and 

 we wonder that such things are and should have escaped our 

 observation hitherto. 



I would here call attention to some of the apparently 

 scarcer species which we wish to obtain, as also notices of 

 their times of appearance, locality and other general infor- 

 mation relating thereto. The places where they are found, 

 and the plants, &c. to which they are attached, are those 

 quoted by Fieber in his late work j but with the exception of 



