THE ENTOMOLOGIST’S WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER. 
63 
of our coimnon larvae are met witli every 
year, and yet we go to a foreigner for a 
description. 
My principal object now, however, is 
to direct attention to the rich mine which 
is open for our working in the unknojvn 
larvae ; and to urge collectors to devote 
some of their energies specially to this 
department, and think a little less of 
merely securing the images of species of 
which they have already enough and to 
spare. Indeed, in working for this ob- 
ject, the other {viz. having our own de- 
scriptions of our own larvae) may he 
also carried on ; for it will necessarily 
happen that for one unknown larva found 
there will be more than twenty known 
ones. 
The desirability of reducing the num- 
ber of our unknown larvae being ad- 
mitted, the question is, which is the best 
course to be pursued? An analysis of 
them will be some guide. More than 
half are Tovtrices ; nearly eighty are Py- 
ralides and Crambidoe ; rather over fifty 
are Geometrina, despite the discoveries 
made within the last year or two; the 
Noctuae number nearly thirty ; the 
Bombyces, Sphinges and Butterflies 
about four or five each. The Tortrices 
have had but few students, while their 
habit of twisting their food into a com- 
fortable home, makes them, to a great 
extent, proof against the persuasions of 
the beating-stick. A majority of the 
known Pyralides and Crambidae are her- 
baceous and low-plant feeders, as are 
probably nearly all those which are un- 
known. The large number of unknown 
Geometrina seems almost unaccountable 
when it is remembered that the majority 
of that family are tree and shrub-feeders, 
and adopt no peculiar means of conceal- 
ment. It is, however, quite possible that 
nearly all the unknown members are 
herbaceous feeders, the majority of those 
last discovered being of that character. 
Probably the unknown Noctuae are also 
of this class, and, with the others, have 
succeeded in eluding observation. 
The work appears to resolve itself into 
two kinds ; 1, special searching, where a 
particular insect is known to occur; and 
2, promiscuous searching in favourable 
spots. With respect to special searching, 
every collector who is in the habit of 
taking an insect of which the larva is 
unknown, besides endeavouring to get it 
to lay eggs, would do well carefully and 
repeatedly to explore the locality a month 
or six weeks before the imago is due. 
The neighbouring species or genera may 
be some guide as to the food or habit of 
tbe insect. So many species continue in 
the imago state to exhibit a partiality for 
their larval food-plants, or for plants of 
the same natural order, that nature may 
thus at once give the clue to the mystery 
of the food. The best means of carrying 
out promiscuous searching will strike 
every one — a careful scrutiny by day, and 
at night with a lantern, and by sweeping 
or beating the herbage, bushes, &c., into 
a proper receptacle. Night is of course 
the best time for discovering larv®, as 
many remain concealed during the day. 
It would be desirable, whenever a strange 
larva is taken, for the collector to make a 
note, on the spot, of the time, place and 
food, and on reaching home to write a 
short description of it in his journal. If 
it turns out to be an old familiar friend 
the description, written from observation, 
may prove useful ; and if only a very 
small per centage of the larvae found 
prove to be of the unknown class, the 
collector’s labours will be well repaid. 
I hope these remarks will induce at 
least a few to occupy themselves in this 
apparently dry, but really interesting and 
