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THE YOUNG NATUEALIST. 



THE ENTOMOLOGICAL YEAR. 



By ALBERT H. WATERS, B.A., 



Author of " Helps and Hints for Young Entomologists" fyc, fyc. 



To tell the tale 

 How month by month through the revolving year 

 The insect tribes—Beetles and butterflies, 

 Moths, bees and dragon flies, 

 Grasshoppers, ants, and every varied form 

 Which sport in Summer's sun or brave the Waiter's storm, 

 Come each in turn as moons and meons appear. 



The above lines will serve the purpose of defining the scope of the series 

 of papers herewith commenced. It is designed to give each month a brief 

 account of the principal insects the young and inexperienced Entomologist 

 should look out for, and also the localities in which they may most probably 

 be met with. The papers will, in fact, serve as a guide to entomological 

 work all the year round. 



Persons whose mental vision is limited, regard all entomologists with more 

 or less contempt, but they do so in ignorance of the important part the 

 insect section of creation plays in the economy of nature. Insects are every- 

 where. Every plant has its tenants ; every tree trunk — every dead wall even 

 — its occupants. They fly in the air ; crawl on the earth and burrow beneath 

 its surface ; swim in the waters, and climb the mountain height. Every clod 

 and every stone shelters them. They are incessantly at work, fulfilling the 

 purpose of their existence. Some, when ignorance of their habits permits 

 them unduly to increase, are among man's worst foes, and work him more 

 mischief than creatures a thousand times their bulk, and if not checked, 

 might even imperil the very existence of the human race throughout large 

 tracts of country. It is sufficient to merely mention the locust and the tsetse 

 fly. Other examples will readily suggest themselves to the reader. 



Not that all insects are man's enemies — some are his best friends. Several 

 species are of use in keeping down destructive kinds; thus the various 

 species of " Lady-birds" (Coccinella bipunctata, C. 1 -punctata), do an 

 immense deal of good by clearing off the aphides which infest our fruit trees, 

 &c. Many species of caterpillars feed solely on noxious weeds, and probably 

 exert no small influence in keeping them down. Moths, as well as other 

 insects, have much to do with the fertilization of flowers, which otherwise 

 would prove barren and produce no fruit. Some species too — needless to 

 particularise — minister directly to our ^necessaries or luxuries. 



But the purpose of this series of papers is not to describe the advantage to 



