THE 
WEEKLY ENTOMOLOGIST. 
“ ENTOMA QUIDQUID AGENT NOSTRI EST FARRAGO LIBELLI.” 
No. 25.] SATURDAY, JANUARY 31, 1863. [Price 2d. 
NOTES. 
w a recent number of the “ En- 
^ tomologist ” we referred to the 
probability that no collector’s note 
book which had been kept for a pe- 
riod extending over several years was 
without something (if its possessor 
knew it) in its pages, that well mer • 
ited publication. Rut although this 
may be a fact, we fear it is also a fact 
that in the note books of many En- 
tomologists, we should often find in- 
dications of opportunities which, if 
the collector had understood them at the 
time, he might have seized upon and 
turned to good account, but, through 
his ignorance he tailed to avail him- 
self of. It may be that we find re- 
corded, the capture of a larva concern- 
ing which in our Entomological 
books the woi'ds are written “Larva 
undescribed.” Yes, and if it falls 
into the hands of mere “collectors” 
only, or of those who through ignor- 
ance breed it and do no more, it is 
likely to remain so for a very long 
time. Surely the words “ Larva un- 
described ” when they meet the guilty 
eyes of such a one, must fill him with 
remorse. 
How this difficulty is to be met, is 
a question that may well be asked, 
and in endeavouring to answer it one 
or two methods immediately occur 
to us. Certainly the simplest plan is 
to take a description of every larva 
that was not previously known to its 
captor. The only objection to this 
plan, or rather, difficulty in executing 
it, — consists in the necessity it enfor- 
ces of breeding each described larva 
separately, or at least nearly so. To 
the Entomologist whose knowledge of 
larvae is very small indeed this draw- 
back is a very serious one, for it is 
quite out of the question to breed 
separately every species of Lepidopter- 
ous larva captured in a year. If how- 
ever an Entomologist by this means 
obtains accurate descriptions of only a 
comparatively small proportion of all 
that he meets with, each year, — say 
20 or 30 Bpecies, — in two or three 
years he will have acquainted himself 
with almost all the very common 
species that he breeds, and will not 
often find himself taking a description 
of the larva of Pronuba. We wonder 
how many Entomologists there are in 
England who do not know this cater- 
pillar. 
A second method is, to preserve a 
