The YOUHG NATURALIST : 



Penny Weekly Magazine of Natural History. 



No. 91. AUGUST 6th, 1881. Vol. 2. 



HOW TO BEGIN TO FORM A 

 COLLECTION OF LEPI- 

 DOPTERA. 



IN" our first volume we gave a number 

 of articles intended for Lepidopter- 

 ists who were just commencing the 

 pursuit. One subject it appears we did 

 not touch upon — How shall a beginner 

 do with the first insects he obtains ? 

 He has not enough to arrange with any 

 scientific precision, even if he knew 

 their names, &c, which he does not. 

 Many of his insects are probably in 

 poor condition, and ill-set, but they are 

 all he has, and he must make a begin- 

 ning with them somehow. What shall 

 he do to get most knowledge and make 

 most progress with his first captures ? 

 This question, as put to us, does not 

 seem very easy to answer. "We know 

 how we did ourselves, but we also know 

 that several others who followed our 

 example, tired of the pursuit before they 

 really could be said to have begun ; and 

 it may be that we led them by a bad 

 road. Perhaps if we relate our own 

 experience, others will supplement our 

 remarks by giving us their recollections 

 of their early struggles. 



The accidental sight of a small ill- 

 arranged case of butterflies hung among 



some cases of stuffed birds awakened 

 us to the deeire to have and know some- 

 thing about such beautiful objects, and 

 with the full zest of novelty we went 

 out next day to "catch" some. Our 

 first captures were two moths, afterwards 

 known to be Euclidia mi, and one 

 " Cinnabar," so named by the owner of 

 the case in question. These were grand 

 species for a beginner to take, and, 

 though they were pinned with common 

 pins, and set we don't know how, they 

 were much admired, and sent our 

 enthusiasm up to fever heat. Our cap- 

 tures before the season closed were ten 

 or twelve species of butterflies and a 

 goodly number of moths. They were 

 kept without any sort of arrangement 

 in a soap box. Our friend knew the 

 English names of a few conspicuous 

 species : — V. urticce was the u King 

 "William," Semele was the "Rock-eyed 

 underwing," and so on. The dingy 

 ones he did not know. Stainton's 

 Manual was then publishing and we 

 bought the first volume. Then hour 

 after hour we pored and posed over it, 

 generally wrong in our conclusions, but 

 still getting nearer and nearer to being 

 right. We had a case made with a 

 glass lid. It was well and carefully 



