5 2 



THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



seems at present little opportunity of their being bred, and thus 

 satisfactorily proving their identity. This being so, must we take the 

 colouring, which we know by other species is unreliable and misleading, 

 to say that one species is, or is not, identical with another ? Would 

 any of us be guilty of asserting that because we find a hermit crab in 

 a whelk shell, that it must be a whelk ? Would we not rather examine 

 it, and finding by its structure, that it was not a snail, come to the 

 conclusion that some unseen circumstance had compelled it to take a 

 covering so unnatural. Hence, when we come to insects so closely re- 

 sembling each other as Zygoma meliloti and trifolii, the mere outward 

 form and colouring is not sufficient, we ought to examine deeper 

 into the structure. 



With other orders we find men define their species structurally, 

 for instance, the number of joints in the antennae, the number of 

 spines on the tarsi, and even in the Tineina it is necessary to study the 

 palpi, but in the macro-lepidoptera no such scientific means are 

 adopted for specific distinction. Occasionally we hear of some one 

 "going to study the scales," but as a rule this idea is quickly given 

 up with "it won't work." The late Beeber Bowman Labrey had 

 worked up the scales of butterflies, and completed a life-long work, 

 which was stolen from the railway carriage, while he was on his way 

 to the publishers, and his life was not sufficiently long to re- write and 

 re-figure this work, though with a patience few men possess, he did 

 the great portion of it before his death. 



I have examined the scales of the British Zyg&nee, but there is very 

 little difference in them, with the exception of minossmd exulans, in which 

 they are distinct, the others are practically all the same. With a 

 knowledge of these difficulties, some three years ago I determined I 

 would try and find some structure that was specifically constant, and 

 sufficiently distinct to determine one species from another. I have 

 had extreme difficulty in obtaining useful material, and with a very 

 limited time at my disposal to devote to lengthy preparations, it is 

 not surprising that at the end of three years work I have not done a 

 very great deal, but still I think I have done enough to prove that the 

 idea is sound, and simply wants material, time, and care to work it 

 out. 



The portions of the insect I selected for my experiments, were the 

 anal appendages of the male insect. These I carefully prepare as 

 transparent objects for the microscope, arranging the parts as neatly 

 and as much in the same style as I could, and when put under the 

 inch objective, the wonderful and extraordinary beauties of these 



