Insects. 3775 



down here and there, gave it a double charm. After I had gazed awhile I turned ray 

 face eastward. The sunlight fell full on the broad valley, and there was the river 

 Teith, stretching away in tortuous windings towards Stirling, here and there encir- 

 cling small islets, like liquid silver inclosing emeralds. For the time I forgot where I 

 stood. T felt the blood run coldly through my veins, and " each particular hair to 

 stand on end.'' Involuntarily I exclaimed, — " Wonderful ! How wonderful are thy 

 works, O God ! " Often have I gazed from greater heights, and looked down on ma- 

 ny scenes both before and since ; but none of them have ever struck me so forcibly as 

 did this one. Another thing also seems to be much wanted, which would greatly fa- 

 cilitate the progress of the beginner; and that is, a description of the meanings of the 

 generic names applied to each family. All are not linguists, and anyone might natu- 

 rally wonder, and ask why to such a thing has been given such a strange-sounding 

 name. And to hear a man calling them by their scientific names, mouthing words 

 without knowing the reason why, also appears ridiculous. If all the names were ex- 

 plained, a key would be given whereby the learner could detect allied species, and be 

 wonderfully assisted in describing anything he might possess ; the door which before 

 held fast the mystery would be unlocked, and there would the student stand, as if re- 

 lieved from the weight of some burden beneath which he had been sinking. Perhaps 

 the " Poser for Papa," which appeared in ' Punch ' a few weeks ago, may be cited as 

 as strong an argument in favour of such a thing as could well be hit upon. It is a 

 cumbering of the mind without enlightening it. As a further proof of this, and in 

 conclusion, I may add an anecdote which occurred to myself this last summer. At ' 

 the little house where I lodged, about a mile from Loch Rannoch, the guidwife, well 

 known for her kindness to one or two who have staid there, was very desirous to tell 

 me about some one insect in particular which had been taken there the year before,, 

 and which I was to look for. She puzzled herself for a long time, and at last came 

 into my room in a great hurry to say that " the beast was ca'd Colia pulter,'' (meaning 

 Polia occulta). T looked astonished, not expecting to hear such an attempt, and she 

 saw it ; so, with a good-natured smile on her honest face, she added, — " Bless me ! 

 Surely they could find English for the beast, wi'out a' that nonsense! But maybe it 

 was the fashion to puzzle folk." — John Scott ; London Works, Renfrew, October, 1852. 

 Inquiry respecting certain appendages to the Haustellum of Diurnal Lepidoptera. — 

 Perhaps some contributor to the * Zoologist ' can explain the cause and use of certain 

 little yellow excrescences which I have more than once observed on the haustella of 

 our diurnal Lepidoptera, but which, so far as I can learn, have not hitherto been de- 

 scribed in the principal works on insect physiology. At first sight they might be taken 

 for some extraneous substances adhering accidentally, but on endeavouring to remove 

 them, I have found them so firmly fixed as to make me suppose that they really formed 

 part of the haustellum. Last summer I captured at Charlton a female specimen of 

 Hipparchia Janira, with no less than six of these excrescences attached ; their colour 

 at the base was yellow and somewhat transparent, and at the larger extremity whitish, 

 there were also a few hairs growing from the same part of the haustellum : but one or 

 two other specimens of this species taken at the same time were free from anything of 

 the kind. As the subjects are somewhat akin, I inclose a sketch of the Lepidopterous 

 larva with fungus-like excrescences exhibited at the July meeting of the Entomologi- 

 cal Society, (Zool. 3564) ; and to the facts there mentioned I may add that during 

 the time it remained concealed in the moss, the latter was occasionally moistened for 

 the benefit of the chrysalides lying in the clay underneath ; a circumstance that no 



