242 
THE WEEKLY ENTOMOLOGIST. 
enable another to frame a life history 
full of marvels. 
Are the “ breeders” of the present 
day sleeping, that they, write no 
notes ; or writing - , cannot publish ? 
How and then, certainly, there comes 
a light out of the darkness, and we 
send our subscribers such a tit-bit as 
the Rev. Mr. Hellins’s very interest- 
ing notes on Bqarmia Cinctaria. 
But they generally rest in silence 
and many a valuable hint is lost. 
There are few - who breed w - ith 
success anything but Lepidoptera. 
Perhaps, the other orders present 
more difficulties ; but there certainly 
are entomologists who study them 
with quite as real an interest. Row 
and then we hear stray facts about 
these “ neglected orders ; ” but their 
history appears, to a great extent, 
to be veiled in darkness. Anything 
that tells us of the primary stages 
of an insect’s life, has a double value ; 
for it serves as a stepping stone on 
which to base future discovery. 
Did Linnoeus, w - e wonder, find the 
same difficulty in bringing the 
minute details of a butterfly’s life to 
light, that our contemporaries meet in 
their researches among the Diplera, 
Goleoptera, and Neuroptera ? And 
yet the lives of most of our butter- 
flies are not easily observed. How 
many of our readers have ever see n 
the larva of Hipparcliia Janira ? one 
of the most abundant species. 
Perhaps, we may all have seen that 
of Pieris Brass tea ' — and eaten it too 
— but the secrets of these marvel- 
lous creatures are not easily dis- 
covered. 
“ He W'ho can see nothing to 
admire in the wing of a butterfly ” 
— v - e quote from the “ Daily Tele- 
graph,” in a leader on scientific dis- 
covery — “ is a dolt” ; but how much 
more should we condemn the intelli- 
gence of him who could watch the 
whole round of an insect’s life, with- 
out feeling an intex - est roused in his 
mind. 
And yet, such wonders of nature 
are always near us. Some men pass 
through the world with closed eyes, 
unconscious of half its beauty, and 
only waking up, now and then, to 
stare at some common phenomenon 
that the van crowd in front of them 
saw and admired long before. Some 
way in advance of them, comes the 
dreamy minded man, who lifts up 
his hands in surprise and delight, 
because the earth is a lovely whole ; 
and again we find the highest intel- 
lect that can draw the elements 
from the grand mechanism of 
nature’s system, treading God’s 
paths, with reverent steps, and 
rendering worship to earth’s great 
creator. 
The Weekly Entomologist may be 
obtained from Mr. T. or Mr. J. B. 
Blackburn, the Yews, Woodford, 
London, N.E., by post, price Three 
Shillings and Three-pence per 
quarter, prepaid. 
