JULY. 135 



good temper. It is rather disheartening to a young 

 beginner to turn over the earth at the roots of several, 

 perhaps a great number of trees, and find nothing to 

 reward him for his trouble ; but he must not give up, 

 but keep steadily at his work and remember the lines — 



" If you find your task is hard, 

 Try, try, try again ; 

 Labour brings its sure reward, 

 Try, try, try again. 



He must keep cheerily on and he will doubtless, after 

 his day's work is done, find himself in possession of a 

 goodly number of pupae, which, if he had allowed his 

 energies to be cooled by the unproductive trees, would 

 still have remained snugly ensconced in " mother 

 earth," instead of finding a "local habitation and a 

 name" in his pupa-box. 



In digging for pupae the young Entomologist need 

 not try every tree he comes across ; it is useless to try 

 young trees of any kind, large timber trees being most 

 favoured by Lepidopterous larvae ; and all species of 

 trees are not alike productive of pupae, and some more 

 productive at one season than another : thus the oak 

 produces the greatest quantity of summer species, and 

 the beech and poplar the greatest quantity of insects 

 tli at pass the winter in the pupa state. The Rev. 

 Joseph Greene, in his admirable paper on " Digging 

 for Pupae of Lepidoptera" (Proceedings Entomo- 

 logical Society, April 4th, 1853), observes, " The trees 

 which I have found the most productive are the fol- 

 lowing : — elm, oak, ash, poplar, beech and willow. I 

 never found anything at birch, maple or chestnut. 



