152 Claim of certain Lepidopterous Insects 



enumeration of such as he has himself detected, it may be 

 inferred they were mostly of the beetle tribe, and wood- 

 borers in their larva state. Can any thing be more apparent 

 than that the insects in question were imported along with 

 foreign wood, in which the larvae or pupa^ were embedded 

 till the appointed time for their disclosure arrived ; or the 

 imago itself might have taken up its abode in some crevice, 

 and so be conveyed across the Atlantic, endued as insects of 

 this class are with astonishing powers of abstinence. ikTygale 

 Avicularia has frequently been taken in other parts of Europe, 

 generally we believe amongst piles of wood ; but knowing as 

 we do the habits of the ^rachnidse, their propensity to con- 

 cealment, and their capability of resisting a long privation of 

 food, our wonder may cease at occasionally finding them at 

 large in less genial climates than their own. The appear- 

 ance of the Chinese Conocephalus is at once accounted for by 

 supposing its accidental introduction into one of the Com- 

 pany's tea boxes ; and surely, amidst such abundant good 

 cheer, passage free, and a secure berth, what earthly reason 

 could there be for his feeling mal a son aise, and not arriving 

 safe and sound ? Of these Mr. Stephens may truly say, 

 without danger of contradiction, " Vix ea nostra voco." ["I 

 can scarcely call them ours."] 



Not so, however, I apprehend, of our outlawed Sphinges, 

 whose appearance it would puzzle a divine to account for on 

 the above principle. We have here to deal with a class of 

 insects of great size, and comparatively delicate organisation ; 

 their larvae, bulky, and conspicuous from the variety and 

 beauty of their colouring, are ill fitted to escape observation, 

 and seek retirement in holes and corners, few of which could 

 be found ample enough to conceal them effectually, did their 

 habits incline them to do so otherwise than by availing them- 

 selves of the partial shelter of some leaf; their transform- 

 ations into pupae are conducted below the surface of the 

 earth, the only condition under which animals of this exten- 

 sive order can exist for any length of time without taking 

 nourishment. With so many impediments to their acci- 

 dental transport, by what means can we conceive their 

 introduction to have been accomplished, presuming it always 

 to have been a fortuitous one ? We have demonstrated the 

 difficulty as it regards the larva, the necessary pabulum for 

 which is not to be looked for amongst the ship's stores ; the 

 subterraneous habits of the pupa are not less formidable ob- 

 stacles ; and the imago, it may be confidently asserted, could 

 not sustain a voyage across the Atlantic without the requisite 

 supply of its nectareous food. To conjecture that the eggs 



