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A Penny Weekly Magazine of Natural History. 



No. 119. FEBRUARY 18th, J 882. Vol. 8. 



AN ENTOMOLOGICAL 

 HERBARIUM. 



AN ingenious friend who is always 

 suggesting something new, asks 

 our opinion of what he calls an Entomo- 

 I logical Herbarium. Thinking the idea 

 imay be worth something to some of our 

 ireaders, we lay it before them. 



Our friend proposes to form a herb- 

 arium, but instead of mounting his 

 iplante on loose sheets in the ordinary 

 •way, he proposes to mount them on the 

 ithird page of a folded sheet. He would 

 lappend the usual label, but would give 

 'separately fuller particulars of the 

 character of the locality, as well as of 

 the place itself where the plant grew. 

 On the second page, facing the speci- 

 men, he proposes to write as neatly as 

 possible, the names of the various in- 

 sects whose larvae feed upon the plant 

 in question. These he will arrange in 

 columns according to the various orders, 

 Lepidoptera, Coleoptera, Diptera, 

 kc. He will also make a further dis- 

 tinction by placing those species that 

 feed on the flowers at the head of the 

 column, those that feed on the leayes 

 next, then those that feed in the stem, 

 and lastly those feeding in the root. 



Having rather an extensive herbarium, 

 we confess we would not like the labour 

 such an undertaking would involve, but 

 were we just commencing to form it, 

 the case might be different. As the 

 rarious plants were procured, the labour 

 of writing all that was known of the 

 enemies of each (if we may call them 

 such), would not be very great, and as 

 the specimens would but increase slowly, 

 the amount of labour involved would 

 never be great at any one time. It is 

 therefore an undertaking that may well 

 be recommended to those of our readers 

 who are just beginning tin ir collec- 

 tions. 



May we suggest other additions to 

 those named, that perhaps might be an 

 improvement. We would add figures 

 of both larva and imago, whenever they 

 could be procured, or if we could use 

 the pencil, would sketch and colour 

 them on the page beside their names. 

 An undertaking of this kind, if well and 

 properly carried out, would occupy 

 many a leisure hour now spent idly or 

 profitlessly. Might we commend the 

 idea specially to ladies. Many young 

 ladies have far too much leisure. The 

 customs of society almost forbid them 

 doing anything useful, and their occu- 



