CHAPTEK VI 



Insects in Britain Meadow ants The indoor view of insect life 

 Insects in visible nature The humming-bird hawk-moth and 

 the parson Lepidopterist Karity of death's-head moth Hawk- 

 moth and meadow-pipit Silver-washed fritillaries on bracken 

 Flight of the white admiral butterfly Dragon-flies Want of 

 English names A water-keeper on dragon-fliesMoses Harris 

 Why moths have English names Origin of the dragon-fly's 

 bad reputation Cordulegaster annulatus Calopteryx virgo 

 Dragon-flies congregated Glow-worm Firefly and glow-worm 

 compared Variability in light The insect's attitude when 

 shining Supposed use of the light Hornets A long-re- 

 membered sting The hornet local in England A splendid 

 insect Insects on ivy blossoms in autumn. 



THE successive Junes, Julys, and Augusts spent in 

 this low-lying, warm forest country have served to 

 restore in my mind the insect world to its proper 

 place in the scheme of things. In recent years, in 

 this northern land, it had not seemed so important 

 a place as at an earlier period of my life in a 

 country nearer to the sun. Our insects, less nume- 

 rous, smaller in size, more modest in colouring, and 

 but rarely seen in swarms and clouds and devastating 

 multitudes, do not force themselves on our attention, 

 as is the case in many other regions of the earth. 

 Here, for instance, where I am writing this chapter, 

 there is a stretch of flat, green, common land by 

 the Test, and on this clouded afternoon, at the end 



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