DIRECTIONS FOR COLLECTING, ETC. 135 
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ascertain the specific name, as the different species of this genus are at once obviously distinguishable by their 
various markings alone, without reference to their minute structural characters, which should, however, always 
S ever, alway 
be attended to by the student. If, after pursuing this course, he finds he has an insect evidently of the genus 
Vanessa, or any other, but that it accords with none of the recorded species, he may hope to have been the 
discoverer of a new species, particularly if he reared it from the caterpillar, and, (having procured an accurate 
drawing of it) if he finds it differ from that of the species in question, he must then, from its characteristic 
differences of structure or marking, seek to give it such a specifie name as will be acknowledged by science, and 
will serve to distinguish it from the rest of the. genus, and also describe it by such a character as he will 
find at the head of every species in this work. It is true that in butterflies, which, besides tivcir conspicuous 
colouring, fly at high noon, the collector can hope to make few discoveries of this description ; nevertheless, 
several such have occurred even within the last three or four years; and when we consider that the beautiful 
Lyczena dispar was only discovered about the year 1822, there are doubtless still some novelties in store for the 
industrious collector, even among our butterflies ; but among our moths, of which I am preparing a series of 
similar illustrations to those of the butterflies, very numerous discoverics may be expected; for, flying at the 
dead of night, or at the early dawn, many must at present have escaped the search of entomologists, particularly 
among those which appear in the winter, when the collector is seldom abroad. 
In conclusion, I have only to say that if the reader has any doubts respecting the utility and importance of 
entomology as a science, let him not only inquire what eminent men have devoted a large portion of their lives 
to its pursuit, but let him at once read Kirby and Spence’s Introduction to their beautiful work upon the subject ; 
one of the most interesting and convincing pieces of writing in the language—and let him there learn what light 
has been thrown by the science upon the labours of the silkworm, whose product furnishes labour and subsistence 
to millions, upon the ravages of the turnip-fly, or the instinctive mechanism of the bee or the ant, and upon 
those links which it furnishes to the great chain of organisation and intelligence, from infinite perfection, to the 
brink of dreary nothing,—H. N. H. 
