Advanced Theories 



that are not natives of our country hunt game 

 of the same order. Unfortunately, informa- 

 tion on this point is scanty and, in the case of 

 most of the species, is lacking altogether. 

 The chief cause of this regrettable lacuna is 

 the superficial method generally adopted. 

 People catch an insect, stick a long pin 

 through it, fix it in the cork-bottomed box, 

 gum a label with a Latin name underneath 

 its feet and let its history end there. It is not 

 thus that I understand the duties of an ento- 

 mological biographer. It is no use telling 

 me that this or that species has so many joints 

 to its antennae, so many nervures to its wings, 

 so many hairs on a region of the belly or 

 thorax; I do not really know the insect until 

 I am acquainted with its manner of life, its 

 instincts and its habits. 



And see the immense and luminous ad- 

 vantage which a description of this kind, told 

 in two or three words, would possess over 

 those long descriptive details, sometimes so 

 hard to grasp. Suppose that you wish to 

 make the Languedocian Sphex known to me 

 and you begin by describing the number and 

 distribution of the nervures of the wings; you 

 speak to me of cubital nervures and recur- 

 rent nervures. Next comes the insect's pen- 

 ny 



