Insects. 5007 



sent, as closely as he is able to make them, the characters, positions 

 and habits of the insects as he saw them alive — that naturalist has 

 probably done more towards clearing up some of our difficulties than 

 another who may have been, in the field, infinitely more successful, 

 but who has lacked the leisure faithfully to represent nature in his 

 cabinet. 



Of the different modes of setting out these insects, — gumming on 

 points of wedges of card, as was formerly adopted ; setting out on talc, 

 or pinning with iron wire, as obtains on the Continent ; or mounting 

 the specimens on a flat surface of card, — the last is facile princeps, 

 pre-eminently the best. Insects fastened on the points of cards are 

 never safe ; by the least spring of the pin in moving them from the 

 cabinet they are probably lost for ever; and no one who has expe- 

 rienced the difficulty of handling specimens mounted after the foreign 

 method can, I think, prefer that ; but well-carded specimens, with 

 tolerably stout pins, are free from all these objections; if dusty, they 

 may be brushed with a camel-hair pencil : if required to be placed 

 under the microscope, they are most readily adjusted; should they 

 become loose from the cork of the travelling box, they are well pro- 

 tected from injury ; and, which is of the greatest moment, they best 

 represent the insect in its living state. 



The "effects of isolation" and of peculiarity of locality are nowhere 

 more marked, and nowhere more important to be carefully noticed, than 

 among the Rypophaga, though to what extent these manifest results 

 are to be allowed to affect species is a question which presents itself 

 in every department of nature as one of great interest. I do not pro- 

 pose to enter upon this subject now, but notice it as suggesting the 

 great importance of registering carefully the date and locality of each 

 capture : to know certainly that an insect was taken at such a date, 

 from moorland, from mountain, or from fen, is not merely knowledge 

 that makes the collection of greater interest, but the only process by 

 which we can hope to assign to each of the many varieties of this 

 group its proper position and typical specific representative. 



As to the nomenclature of the species, no two authorities and no 

 two cabinets agree ; the subject has received comparatively little 

 attention, and hence there is no ground for surprise at meeting with 

 difficulties : these difficulties may perhaps be an excuse for me, should 

 any error be discovered in the synonymy proposed ; but that they have 

 not been insurmountable is owing to the great and valued assistance 

 which I have received from Dr. Power and Mr. Waterhouse. I do not 

 say that these excellent entomologists have endorsed every name, as 



