THE ENTOMOLOGIST’S 
WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER, 
No. 85.] SATURDAY, MAY 15, 1858. [Price Id. 
FEN INSECTS. 
Wf. believe the impression is a very 
general one that the glorious old days 
of undrained fens and extensive swamps 
are gone, “ never to return,” and that 
the “Large Copper” is now, in England, 
as unlikely to be met with as the Dodo. 
A controversy is going on, in the pages 
of a monthly periodical, on the im- 
portant question of whether the “ Large 
Copper” might, could, would or should 
have been taken ; and if it might, could, 
would or should have been taken, when 
it might, could, would or should have 
been taken, and where it might, could, 
would or should have been taken. We 
trust, however, the writers will have re- 
course to the net, rather than to the pen, 
to decide this knotty question. 
We mention the “Large Copper,” 
because we kuow that to a large class 
of our readers that insect is itself an 
object highly to be esteemed ; but, in 
our eyes, that insect is mainly inte- 
resting as the symbol of a number of 
fen-loving insects which no doubt will 
be found in localities which the splendid 
Chrysophanus Dispar frequents. 
On the coast of Norfolk is a well- 
known place called Yarmouth. We 
dare say our readers often think of it 
at breakfast time. Yar-mouth, that is 
mouth of the Yare ; but the Yare is 
not the only river which runs into the 
sea at Yar-mouth. Indeed the Mouth 
affords exit to the confluent waters of 
three streams, the Waveney, the Yare 
and the Bure. The latter river flows 
for many miles through a glorious fen 
district, and those who have not seen 
the swamps, sedges and forests of alder 
and sallow that adorn its banks have 
little conception of what still remains 
to be done before we expatriate our 
collectors by sending them to Sierra 
Leone and Rio. Those whose notions 
of fen vegetation are derived from the 
few semi -cultivated fen districts re- 
maining in the vicinity of Cambridge 
would do well to enlarge their ideas 
by travelling into the remote and in- 
accessible districts to which we have 
alluded. Nothing enlarges the ideas 
so much as foreign travel. 
But are these districts so remote 
and inaccessible? By no means; first- 
rate collecting ground is to be found 
■within ten miles of the cathedral city 
of Norwich ! 
Years ago did a little Lilhosia lie 
down to die in a ditch near Horning, 
hoping thereby to attract the attention 
of entomologists to a locality so rich 
in insect-life ; but Muscerda failed to 
H 
