THE ENTOMOLOGIST’S 
WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER. 
No. 41.] SATURDAY, JULY 11, 1857. 
Bradyepetes Amataria (the Blood Vein). 
See p. 114. 
PORTRAIT - PAINTING. 
During the summer months, now that 
the collectors and observers of the 
Tineina are so vastly on the increase, 
scarcely a day passes without our re- 
ceiving from some useful correspondent 
some larva which we had not seen 
before, or with the habits of which we 
were not thoroughly conversant. Of 
course it is no great labour to us to 
describe these novelties as fast as they 
make their appearance on our writing- 
table; but then, over and above de- 
scribing them, we wish to have their 
portraits taken: now the correct por- 
traiture of a minute larva is a work 
which requires skill, patience and time; 
they cannot yet be photographed in half 
a second, — they cannot be drawn in 
half-an-hour. Here then we have a 
difficulty ! 
We have succeeded in rousing not 
merely the collectors of this country, 
but those of Europe: during the last 
month larvae have come to us from 
Frankfort-on-the-Maine, from Glogau, 
[Price 1 d. 
from Lyon, from Ratisbon and from 
Zurich. A simultaneous arrival of 
larvae from several quarters upsets all 
our arrangements ; one pair of hands 
cannot depict their physiognomies whilst 
they remain in the flesh. Caterpillars, 
especially after a three days’ journey 
from the Continent, won't wait ; they 
must be done at once. But, why should 
it be restricted to one pair of hands? 
why, as the collectors and observers of 
these insects increase, should there not 
be a proportionate increase of their 
portrait-painters? The portrait-painting 
of larvae of Micro-Lepidoptera is a 
branch of the profession which is yet 
in its infancy ; but it is a branch not 
unattended with difficulty. No one 
could take to it entirely as a means 
of living, because during the winter 
the work is nil, or nearly so. It can 
only therefore be followed as an ad- 
junct to a more regular artistic employ- 
ment. 
We should be glad to hear from 
artists (residing in the neighbourhood 
of London) between the ages of 20 and 
30, who may be willing to devote some 
of their summer hours to this minute 
and microscopic work, in which larvae 
one-eighth of an inch in length have 
to be expanded to bulky individuals as 
big as one’s finger. There will be no 
great lack of occupation of this sort for 
those who are disposed to throw their 
hearts into the work, and as for several 
Q 
