The lO^m HATOSAUST: 



A Penny Weekly Magazine of Natural History. 



No. 107. NOVEMBER 26th, 1881. Vol. 3. 



IT'S ONLY A MICRO. 



HOW often it happens when a young 

 beginner is out for a few hours 

 collecting with an "old hand," to whom 

 he looks up as a guide and instructor, 

 he will call the attention of his com- 

 panion to some minute gem sparkling 

 with gold and silver, but so small that 

 he doubts if it be really a moth or not, 

 but feels sure if it be so, that it is a rare 

 prize. How often it happens that his 

 instructor stamps all the enthusiasm out 

 of him by the remark, " Oh, it's only a 

 micro ! I never went in for those." 

 And the despised micro is left without 

 further notice. If the experienced 

 collector did not go in " for micros, 

 the beginner is not likely to take any 

 further notice of them. In this way many 

 a good micro-lepidopterist may have 

 been, so to speak, nipped in the bud 

 before the bud was ever formed. 



We desire now to urge this branch of 

 collecting upon the attention of our 

 readers in the hope that some of them 

 may take to it ; and it is much easier 

 for observers and collectors when several 

 are working together at one branch, and 

 can give mutual assistance by comparison 

 of notes and an intimation of what each 

 is doing. It is not very creditable to 



British entomologists that nearly all of 

 them tread constantly in the same well- 

 beaten track, rarely diverging either to 

 one side or the other. The macros are 

 well collected, so well that many of 

 them are almost exterminated in their 

 best known localities. The Large Copper 

 is a thing of the past, though a speci- 

 men is said to have been seen not very 

 long ago. P. acts is almost as rare. 

 P. arion and H, actcBon are both spoken 

 of as being very rare now compared to 

 what they used to be. So of many 

 other species that could be named. On 

 the other hand, it is seldom the case 

 that a new species turns up, and to find 

 a novelty might be considered the 

 ultima thule of a collector's ambition. 

 Among the smaller lepidoptera there 

 are, no doubt, very many species yet 

 to discover, and a large proportion of 

 them are probably new to science, have 

 never been discovered before. Many 

 and many a square mile of British ground, 

 especially in the wilder parts of our 

 island, have never been trod by the 

 foot of an entomologist; and in such 

 places, numbers of these little gems are 

 patiently waiting discovery. But even 

 close to our own doors there are dis- 

 coveries to make. It is seldom that a 



