226 A FEW WORDS ABOUT MOTHS. 
dopterous Insects of Georgia, collected from the Observa- 
tions of John Abbot, with the Plants on which they Feed.” 
London, 1797. 2 vols., fol. Besides these two rare vol- 
umes there are sixteen folio volumes of drawings by Abbot 
in the Library of the British Museum. The plate given with 
this article is selected from a thick folio volume of similar 
drawings presented by Dr. J. E. Gray of the British Mu- 
seum to Professor Asa Gray, to whose kindness we are in- 
debted for an opportunity of figuring the transformations 
before unknown of over a dozen moths, whose names are 
given, as far as possible in the present state of our knowledge, 
in the explanation of the plate. 
The study of insects possesses most of its interest when 
we observe their habits and transformations.  Caterpillars 
are always to be found, and with a little practice are 
easy to raise, and we would advise any one desirous of be- 
ginning the study of insects to take up the butterflies and 
moths. They are perhaps easier to study than any other 
oup of insects, and are more ornamental in the cabinet. 
As a scientific study we would recommend it to ladies as 
next to botany in interest and the ease in which specimens 
may be collected and examined. The example of Madam 
Merian, and several ladies in this country who have greatly 
aided science by their well filled cabinets, and thorough and 
critical knowledge of the various species and their transform- 
ations, is an earnest of what may be expected from their 
followers. Though the moths are easy to study compared 
with the bees, flies, beetles and bugs, and neuroptera, yet 
many questions of great interest in philosophieal entomology 
have been answered by our knowledge of their structure and 
` mode of growth. The great works of Herold on the evolu- 
tion of a caterpillar; of Lyonet on the anatomy of the 
Cossus; of Newport on that of the Sphinx, both in their 
various stages; and of Siebold on the parthenogenesis of 
insects, especially of Psyche helix, are proofs that the moths 
have engaged some of the master minds in science. 
