THE ENTOMOLOGIST’S 
WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER. 
No. 145.] SATURDAY, JULY 9, 1859 [Price lrf. 
CENTENARIES. 
A considerable portion of the Metro- 
polis has lately been celebrating the 
Centenary of the death of a Musician. 
Are no Centenarian honours to he paid 
to the manes of Linrireus? Carl von 
Linne was a greater benefactor to 
Zoology than Handel was to musical 
science, and surely it is but fitting 
that the world, the unzoological world, 
should be informed by some public de- 
monstration that Science is grateful to 
Linrueus. 
One of the greatest compliments that 
can be paid to a departed writer is 
the careful study of his works, so as 
to discover the hidden meaning of 
much that is primarily indistinct and 
obscure. The recorded observations of 
o-ood observers a hundred or fifty years 
ago are as worthy of careful attention 
as those of our worthy friends, Messrs. 
Scott, Wilkinson, &c., at the present 
day. In all authors on Entomology 
you may find passages which have re- 
mained obscure and neglected almost 
from the date when they were penned 
to our own time. 
We will quote a case in point, just 
to illustrate our meaning, though our 
quotation is from Fabricius, not from 
Linnaeus. 
In the third volume of the ‘Ento- 
mologia Systematica,’ at p. 286, we read 
the following description of Pyralis 
Rutana : — “ Alis depressis fuscis ; line- 
olis transversis numerosis albis, tliorace 
denticulis duobus dorsalibus. 
“Habitat in Galliae Ruta, cujus folia 
contorquet. 
“ Statura et magnitudo P. applana. 
Caput et thorax fusca, immaculata. 
Thorax fasciculis duobus erectis, com- 
pressis pilorum. Alae depressae, fuscai, 
lineolis abbreviatis, numerosissimis, te- 
nuissimis, transversis albis. Praeterea 
puucta duo parva, elevata, approximata, 
atra in medio.” 
“ Form and size of Applana, wings 
depressed brown,” “with two black spots 
in the middle.” Clearly we have here 
a Depressaria. But who ever heaid of 
Depressaria Rutana ? Is then the spe- 
cies extinct? “It twists up the leaves 
of rue, in France.” 
Fabricius was, then, acquainted with 
the habits of the larva. Rue (Ruta 
graveolens) is an old-fashioned plant of 
very powerful odour, to be found in 
most gardens in this country; in the 
South of Europe it grows wild, and 
there search should be made for the 
larva of Depressaria Rutana. 
We presume it is Ruta graveolens to 
which Fabricius alluded, for Ruta 
Q 
