THE ENTOMOLOGIST’S 
WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER. 
No. 43.] SATURDAY, JULY 18, 1857. [Pbioe U. 
MARSH INSECTS. 
A vast number of insects are partial to 
swampy places, such as the Typhci and 
Reed love to inhabit. At this season of 
the year, when so many of the “ Wain- 
scots” are on the wing, there are no 
doubt many marshes which get well 
hunted by those in search of them, but 
still we doubt whether these localities 
receive the due share of the collector’s 
attention which they merit. Some no 
doubt are, to a considerable extent, im- 
penetrable to the collector, be his love 
of sport ever so keen, for no one likes 
to be immersed up to the chin in liquid 
mud! But in many marshy places 
there is a good hard bottom, which will 
resist the utmost pressure of the col- 
lector’s foot. We all know that the 
plants growing in such localities are 
peculiar, that but few are identical with 
those which grow on dry land : is it not 
probable that many of them may be fed 
upon by larvae which we should seek for 
in vain elsewhere? We don’t wish our 
readers to be too sanguine as to the 
novelty of a larva found on a strange 
plant, for Tnrlrix Spectrana, in its varied 
taste for marsh plants, is no bad imitator 
of the universal-feeding Sciaphilce. Of 
course we can understand that it is 
much pleasanter collecting on terra 
Jirma, but still there is no need to turn 
one’s back to a good locality, simply 
because it is rather boggy and humid. 
Any of our fen collectors will tell you 
this. 
Independently of the Noctuee already 
alluded to there are many other insects 
which frequent marshes, and are rarely 
found out of them, and several of these 
continue rare in our collections, such, 
for instance, as the almost unique La- 
verna Phragmilella, and that little gem 
Cosmopteryx Lienigiella. Then, as an 
incitement for those who do not at 
present condescend to Micros, is there 
not the pretty little Noctua, Bankia 
Banhiana ? 
Marshes are often not odoriferous (at 
every step on the damp decaying vege- 
tation gases of disagreeable scent are 
apt to be evolved), but neither are dead 
cats, and what Coleopterist would pass 
one without giving it a due investiga- 
tion ? The zeal of that entomologist 
is slight indeed which will not impel 
him to brave a bad smell. 
We trust, then, in this age of pro- 
gress, that, besides all attention being 
a 
