54 CRITICAL NOTICE — FOREIGN. 



in the preservation of his property from the ravages of the more de- 

 structive and rapacious kinds, the authors of the present interesting 

 Collection of European Caterpillars, have long been accumulating mate- 

 rials for their arduous enterprize. Not only have they procured from 

 different parts of Europe, original drawings, of extreme accuracy; but 

 they have employed an accomplished artist to make sketches of the 

 caterpillars received or collected, by themselves, in a living state. Such 

 an undertaking is obviously encompassed by many difficulties, which 

 are not encountered in the execution of a work on the perfect Lepidoptera : 

 for a collection of the caterpillars is generally little more than an assem- 

 blage of mis-shapen bodies and desiccated skins, retaining little or no 

 vestige of their original form and character. 



Divers methods have been employed to remedy this evil ; yet none of 

 them has, at present, been productive of any satisfactory result. Some 

 Naturalists, after having squeezed out the intestines and sub-cutaneous 

 tissue through the posterior extremity of the caterpillar, inflate the re- 

 maining skin with air. Such a process, however, has the effect of impart- 

 ing to the specimen an unnatural figure. The rings of the body become 

 distended, and more prominent than in a state of nature. The colours 

 are not preserved : those which were originally green, assume a dead 

 leaf hue; and the hairy species lose their covering. In the preservation 

 of these latter, another method is sometimes had recourse to : the abdo- 

 men is opened, and stuffed with cotton, in the ordinary way of preserving 

 birds and quadrupeds. This mode is attended with less deformity, and 

 loss or variation of colour, than the preceding. Again, it has been at- 

 tempted to preserve caterpillars, like the Annelides, in spirits of wine. In 

 this way, if the colours fade, the animal still, in some degree, retains its 

 pristine form and distinctive characters. Lastly, some persons employ 

 the art of modelling in wax. This, by far the most eligible process, is, 

 however, only applicable to the smooth caterpillars. It may also, be re- 

 marked, that wax is promptly discoloured by the action of light ; and 

 that the models which were originally deep-green, assume, after a certain 

 time, a pale-green hue. Such, unfortunately, are the difficulties and 

 discouragements with which a collection and delineation of the cater- 

 pillars are encompassed : while the Lepidoptera, if preserved with ordi- 

 nary care, retain their characters, and their colouring in all its pristine 

 freshness, during a long succession of years. 



That these difficulties, however, are not insuperable, an examination 

 of the exquisite and admirable collection by which the preceding observa- 

 tions have been elicited, will suffice to prove. 



It was long a question with the authors whether they should, in the 

 execution of their work, publish the description of the whole of the Cater- 

 pillars, belonging to one tribe or family of the Lepidoptera, in unbroken 

 succession, or exhibit them in small interrupted series. After much deli- 

 beration, they, at length, decided, with evident propriety, upon the 

 adoption of the latter plan : since, as all the figures are copied from 

 nature, it would have been obviously impossible for them, even with the 

 stock of materials already accumulated, to present the whole of the 

 Caterpillars of one tribe, amounting, in some instances, to upwards of 

 two hundred species, in regular succession. 



In conformity with this arrangement, the work is published by plates, 

 and not by series: care, however, has been taken that each plate shall 

 exhibit only species of the same genus or tribe ; and that the plates illus- 

 trative of each tribe, shall be separately numbered. Thus, we have 

 Sphingidce, pi. I, II, III, Pseudo-Bombycid(B I, II, and so forth : and, as 

 one entire leaf is devoted to the description of each subject of each 



