DIRECTIONS FOR COI.I.IX'TINO, KTC. jg- 



ascertain tlio spucific name, as the different species of this genus are at once obviously distineuishable by their 

 various niarl<ings alone, without reference to their minute structural characters, which should, however, always 

 be attended to by the student. If, after j.ursuing this course, he finds he has an insect evidently of the genus 

 Vanessa, or any other, but that it accords witli none of the reconhid species, he may \w]w 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 specific name as will be ackuowledfed by science, and 

 will serve to distinguish it from the rest of the^ genus, and also describe it by such a ckaracler as ho will 

 find at the head of every species in this work. It is true that in butterflies, which, besides their 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 whe7i we consider that the beautiful 

 Lycaena 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 jireparing a series of 

 similar illustrations to those of the butterflies, very numero\is discoveries may be exjiected ; 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 u])on 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 vipon 

 those links which it furnishes to the great chain of organisation and intelligence, from infinite perfection, to the 

 brink of dreary nothing. — 11. N. II. 



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