1.12 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



right to confine themselves to working out their own fauna ? I 

 cannot help thinking that they have not only a perfect right, but 

 that it has been even an advantage to the science of Entomology 

 that this sytem of insular study should be followed, for, at least 

 in this part of the Palsearctic region, the insects are as well known 

 and perhaps better understood than elsewhere in any equal extent 

 of country in the same region, notwithstanding our habit of send- 

 ing abroad our obscure species to be named. This will probably 

 be considered, by some of the readers of the ' Entomologist,' to 

 be an egotistical statement, but I venture to differ with those who 

 think so. To continue the question of British insect- collecting. 

 As a large number of collectors work a limited fauna, the rarer 

 insects of that fauna naturally soon command a certain market 

 value. As the number of persons interested in the subject increases, 

 so does the value of the particular species most wanted. It is all 

 ver}' well for some people to say that a species is only a species, 

 no matter whence it comes ; but for really scientific research it 

 does matter very much if one's specimens from the Shetlands get 

 mixed with those from the Amoor Valley, and we forget which is 

 which. Another reason that certain moths command a larger 

 value than others, is that they are obtained in remote parts of 

 this kingdom by persons who have made it their business to 

 remain in those remote places whole seasons, at considerable 

 expense of time and money, while to most of those who study our 

 beloved science, loss of the former alone makes collecting in such 

 out-of-the-way places impossible. Allowing then, that bond fide 

 British specimens of certain or all species have a right to certain 

 monetary value, then comes another point of view, viz., to those 

 who have tolerably complete collections of British insects. Many 

 of these have, at great personal cost and in many cases much self- 

 denial, obtained that which, were it a collection of some article 

 of vertu, would be considered amongst a man's estate when 

 he dies, and be realized at a time when his capital is most wanted 

 by his survivors. If we are to permit unprincipled collectors to 

 fraudulently palm off spurious articles upon us, they render our 

 collections onl}'^ equally valuable with those of the collector who 

 obtains butterflies from all parts of the world, sticks a pin 

 through them, places them in his beautiful cabinet drawers, 

 without even localities or date attached, simply because they are 

 pretty ! 



