126 
THE ENTOMOLOGIST’S WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER. 
English Present ; and it is no less evi- 
dent that those entomologists are far 
from knowing much of their favourite 
Science who content themselves with an 
acquaintance with insects in the Imago 
state. 
I had been conscious of my own 
ignorance for some time before I read in 
the ‘ Intelligencer,’ about a year ago, 
Mr. S. J. Wilkinson’s paper, containing 
liis plan of a journal; but that showed 
me the way to mend, and through the 
last season I have acted upon it, with 
great pleasure and profit to myself, and I 
hope that a few' extracts from my journal 
may not be uninteresting to others. 
I do not pretend to have made any 
discoveries at present, as my observations 
have chanced to fall chiefly on common 
species; but the exact descriptions of 
larva made by oneself are much more 
satisfactory than the vague and general 
sketches one finds in books, resting prin- 
cipally on foreign authority. Larva? of 
the same species, we know, often vary 
from each other, and individuals assume 
different tints and markings in different 
stages of their existence ; so that we 
should not too hastily condemn the de- 
scription of another because it does not 
correspond with our own; but we are not 
sure that those foreign authorities, to 
whom it seems we are indebted for de- 
scriptions of our commonest larvae, took 
the same trouble that Mr. Wilkinson re- 
commends us to take in his paper. Some 
of their descriptions were perhaps made 
from memory, and not with the insect 
before the eye ; in other cases the larvae 
may not have been kept apart, and may 
thus have been referred to the wrong 
moths. But when we know that we have 
faithfully described one larva, and no- 
ticed any remarkable changes in its ap- 
pearance during its growth, and kept it 
in a separate box numbered as the entry 
in our journal, and when some fine 
morning we reap our well-earned reward 
in the sight of the fresh and beautiful 
imago, there is a degree of satisfaction 
— a feeling of certainty delightful to the 
scientific sense — which no book-informa- 
tion can give, and which seems to 
strengthen while it delights us. 
I would strongly recommend all my 
young entomological friends to try this 
method of study; they will find it very 
healthy for their own minds, aud Science 
will be a great gainer by it. 
Now for my extracts: — 
1859. 
No.&Date. 
Food- 
plant. 
Description. 
Habits. 
Pupa. 
Name. 
Remarks. 
3. April 6 
10. April 26 
Wild 
straw- 
berry. 
Sallow 
Oeometra. Entirely light 
green. Dorsal 1. darker, 
subdorsal lines whitish 
Ocom. Reddish grey, ru- 
gose, flat and pale green- 
ish below. Didymated 
dorsal spots most con- 
spicuous on 5th, 0th and 
7th segments, where they 
are continued in rings 
round the body as far as 
legs. On 13th segment 
2 black tubercles, tipped 
with white. Head drab 
before, with black arch 
above 
Curls up an- 
terior seg- 
ments when 
disturbed 
May 8. Green, 
changing to 
duller 
May 20 
II. Russaria. 
May 31. 
71/ . Margarit- 
aria. 
June 23. 
20. May 15 
Cistns 
beads 
Legs 16. Head black, 
shield block. Body dirty 
white, with purplish dor- 
sal vessel. Spots minute, 
with short hairs. 
Very active 
Qrt. Scguax. 
July 12. 
Malvern. 
