Insects. 3955 



the Larva, Pupa, or Imago state ? Certainly in the larva state. 

 However simple and easy it may appear to a beginner to colleet the 

 perfect insects by scores off some favourite paling, yet, when he has 

 collected them, pinned them, and set them, what is he to do with 

 them ? Put them in his collection. Very well ; but as what ? As 

 specimens of the genus Nepticula ; for he must be a bold man who 

 would offer to assist him to the names of the species, thus taken at 

 large. Some few conspicuous species may indeed be identified with 

 tolerable ease ; but there will probably always be a sufficient quantity 

 of nebulous matter to render the identification of all the specimens 

 caught in the perfect state almost an impossibility. Yet I do not 

 deny that some conspicuous new species may occasionally be found 

 in the perfect state, so that looking on palings may still be of some 

 use ; though to collect from them ordinary-looking species, might be 

 of no use. 



As, except in two instances, we do not know where to find the pupae 

 of Nepticulae, it is manifestly of no use attempting to collect them in 

 the pupa state ; but even if we could find the pupae, and could ascer- 

 tain from what tree or plant they had come, unless that tree or plant 

 produced only one species, we should still be deficient of our chief 

 means of identifying the species. By collecting the Nepticulae in the 

 larva state we can distinguish the species ; and frequently we can col- 

 lect them in a wholesale manner, of which we could have no chance 

 if collected in any other state. Thus, in less than a quarter of an 

 hour, one morning last October, I collected about 500 of the larvae 

 of the small miner of the nut. 



6. How are we to proceed to collect the Larva of Nepticula} ? 

 These larvae are so plentiful that, when once observed, the wonder is 

 that they should not sooner have attracted our attention ; only the 

 matter is, they require to be looked for : you must not expect to find 

 them unless you stop, stand still, and examine attentively the plant or 

 bush that is before you. I will mention a striking instance that hap- 

 pened to myself, which may be of use as illustrative of the necessity 

 of continuing to look, and not despairing because a first glance is not 

 productive of any results. About the middle of last October I paid a 

 visit one morning to a bush of Rhamnus catharticus, on which I ex- 

 pected to find the autumnal brood of the larvae of N. Catharticella. 

 To my surprise, on carefully examining the bush I could not find a 

 single larva : however, I was so satisfied that they must be there, that 

 I continued to look, and as my eyes gradually became more accus- 



