CRITICAL NOTICE — FOREIGN. 65 



plate, and as the text is not paged, the whole may be readily arranged at 

 the conclusion of the work, according to the peculiar views of the pos- 

 sessor, or in the order of any entomological system which he may have 

 been led to adopt. 



Each caterpillar is figured at the adult age, with the plant upon which 

 it feeds ; but its appearance at different ages will, as often as practicable, 

 be described in the text. The most remarkable varieties of each species 

 are also represented ; and a drawing, of the nympha or chrysalis, added. 

 In the accompanying text, the process and period of metamorphosis of 

 each species is, moreover, indicated ; and the time of its existence in 

 the chrysalid state. 



In the plates of those Caterpillars which spin a cocoon, the figure of 

 this curious and admirable production of *' insect architecture" is fre- 

 quently introduced ; as often, at least, as it exhibits any striking pecu- 

 liarity of form or character. Thus, if the cocoon of the Dicranura 

 (Cerura) vinula have been represented, those of D.furcula and erminea 

 will be omitted : and to the drawing of the cocoon of Bombyx (Lasio- 

 campa) quercus, it will be unnecessary to subjoin that of the corresponding 

 state of B. lanestris and catax ; since all the cocoons display the same 

 figure as those of their congeners. The same principle is generally fol- 

 lowed in the delineation of the chrysalis. 



With the figures of the numerous Caterpillars, which are polyphagous, 

 or feed upon many different plants, that plant upon which the animal is 

 most commonly found, will be selected for delineation. Thus the cater- 

 pillar of the Bombyx quercus is represented on the leaves of a briar ; and 

 that of the Orgyafascelina upon the Spartium scoparium. 



In the prospectus of this most interesting and valuable work, it was 

 stated by the authors, that one number (livraison) containing three 

 plates, and the letter-press descriptive of them, would appear every 

 month. The number of distinct species of European Caterpillars, re- 

 quiring delineation, would, they calculated, be about nine hundred : and 

 as they proposed to give, upon the average, five species of caterpillar in 

 each plate, the whole work would be completed, according to the ordinary 

 rules of arithmetic, in sixty numbers, and in five years from its commence- 

 ment. But the professions of literary men, like the promises of newly- 

 fledged statesmen and embryo senators, should be invariably received 

 with suspicion : as they are too commonly fallacious in exact proportion 

 to the loudness and confidence with which they are advanced. In the 

 present instance, the justice of this censure is conspicuously exemplified : 

 after a lapse of almost three years, we have received twenty-eight num- 

 bers of the Iconographic Collection of European Caterpillars ; and, in the 

 first twelve numbers, seventy-six species, instead of one hundred and 

 eighty, have only been delineated. At this rate of progress, the work 

 will obviously require, for its completion, at least fifteen years, and one 

 hundred and forty-four such numbers as these, which are now lying 

 before us. The price of each number is three francs in Paris. 



Having thus succinctly exposed the origin, pretensions, and plan of 

 this remarkable publication, we have now only to speak of the execution 

 of the plates, and of the accompanying descriptions. The former, like 

 the Scottish Cryptogamic Plants of Greville, the British Insects of Curtis, 

 and the European Birds of Gould, are unrivalled in their peculiar depart- 

 ment. The drawing is correct ; the character of the subject admirably 

 preserved ; the colouring delicate, rich, but true to nature. The animal, 

 injnany instances, looks as if it were starting from the paper,|and actually 

 feeding or crawling before our eyes. The delineations of the accom- 

 panying plants, although less highly-finished and elaborate, are almost 



