The YOtfHG HATBBAMST: 



A Monthly Magazine of Natural History. 



Paet 71. NOVEMBER, 1885. Vol. 6. 



THE ENTOMOLOGICAL YEAR. 



By ALBERT H. WATERS, B.A., F.S.Sc., &c 



NOVEMBER. 



NOW sad the change which comes o'er nature's scene, 

 The butterflies, which lately we have seen 

 Flitting from flower to flower, have vanished, 

 And the erst active insect world seems still and dead. 

 The leafless twigs are dripping all around 

 The mossy trunks, and on the sodden ground 

 The rain drops fall, as if the trees each one 

 Was weeping for the summer time that's gone. 



To those who only see the surface of things, the task of portraying the 

 aspect of the insect world in November, doubtless seems a very easy one. 

 " Insects in November ! " says the unobservant reader who only sees such 

 objects in his daily walk as he cannot help seeing, " Insects in November ! 

 Why there are none ; they're all dead and gone." And really to a casual 

 observer it seems so. Ladybirds, humble-bees, dragon-flies, hoverer-flies, 

 butterflies, moths, and the thousand and one other insects which were so con- 

 spicuously visible in the summer and autumn, no longer give animation to a 

 country walk, and seem to have completely disappeared. But come with me 

 on an imaginary ramble on a November day and we shall see there are many 

 more insects to be found than one not an entomologist would suspect. 



It will be necessary for us to take with us an ordinary garden trowel, a tin 

 box, a blunt strong-bladed knife, and a small square sieve, for pupa digging 

 and chrysalis hunting will occupy a large portion of our time, and we shall 

 find all these useful to us. I like small oblong tin boxes, such as cartridges 

 are sold in, better than any, as they pack up well, and I prefer to take several 

 of this description rather than one large one. The little square sieve I have 

 just mentioned a tinman would readily make for a few pence, and it is very 

 useful for finding small pupse in loose dry earth. I recommend a square 

 form as being easier to pack up, and if made of such a size that four tin boxes 



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