53 



CRITICAL NOTICE— FOREIGN. 



Collection Iconographique et Historique des Chenilles, ou Description et 

 Figures des Chenilles d'Europe. Avec I'Histoire de leurs Metamor- 

 phoses ^ et des Applications a V Agriculture. Par MM. Boisduval, 

 Rambur, et Graslin. 8vo. Paris, 1832. 



With the exception of the antiquated and curious work of Madame 

 Merian,* we recollect the existence of no publication exhibiting even 

 the pretensions to the character of a complete Monograph on the Cater- 

 pillars. Many of the British and continental writers upon insects have, 

 we are well aware, cursorily adverted to, or partially and imperfectly 

 illustrated, the subject. Not one of them, however, has yet been 

 inspired by the noble ambition of grasping with a master-hand, this most 

 instructive and important but neglected branch of entomological science, 

 and treating it in the minute, luminous, and comprehensive manner of 

 which it is alike susceptible and pre-eminently deserving. 



Among the foreign publications upon the European Lepidoptera, those 

 of Reaumur, Degeer, Ernst, Esper, and Roesel exhibit, here and there, 

 figures of the caterpillars ; but they are, for the most part, unfavourable 

 specimens of the iconographic art, even at the period of their execution, 

 — generally coarse, and sometimes contemptible. By another artist, the 

 lamented Hubner, a numerous collection of the caterpillars of Europe 

 has, indeed, been published. The text, however, is wanting; and, 

 while many of the figures are excellent, others, from their inaccuracy, 

 are completely worthless. This sad failure may probably be traced to 

 the fact of Hubner having sometimes drawn his figures from inflated 

 specimens, or servilely copied them from the faulty productions of pre- 

 ceding authors. 



Donovan and Curtis, in their respective works on British Entomology, 

 have frequently appended to the figures of the Lepidoptera, correct and 

 even splendid drawings of the Caterpillar. In proof of this assertion, 

 we confidently refer the reader to that engraving of the third volume of 

 the Natural History of British Insects, in which the various states of the 

 beautiful Papilio Antiopa, are depicted ; and to the first, in the fourth of 

 British Entomology, exhibiting representations of the Acherontia Atropos 

 and its magnificent caterpillar. But the volumes of Donovan unfortu- 

 tunately contain not a tenth part of even the British Lepidoptera ; and 

 the exquisite work of Mr. Curtis is a book of genera only, not of species. 

 Again, the minute and generally correct descriptions of the Caterpillars, 

 which exist in the productions of Haworthf, Stephens, and Rennie, are 

 not illustrated by engravings. 



Impressed with a conviction of the necessity and importance of a work 

 which may enable the student of entomology to recognize the numerous 

 species of caterpillar everywhere met with, and instruct the agriculturist 



* Erucarum Ortus, Alimentum et Paradoxa Metamorphosis, 8fc. Per Mariam 

 Sibillam MeriaD. Amstelsedami, 4to. No date. 



f Lepidoptera Britannica, 8vo. Londini, 1803 — 1828; Illustrations of British 

 Entomology, 8vo. London, 1828 ; — Conspectus of the Butterflies and Moths found m 

 Britain, 12mo. London, 1832. Mr. Stephens has availed himself, with admirable 

 effect, of his profound knowledge of the Caterpillars, in the construction and 

 arrangement of the genera, and discrimination of obscurely marked species of 

 Lepidopterous insects. The term Caterpillar, we may observe, is exclusively re- 

 stricted to the larva of the Lepidoptera. 



