THE LEPIDOPTEROLOGICAL BOOKS OF THE NIXETEEXTII CENTURY. 21 



books, and what were the principal works in progress, in the year ISOl". 

 Fabricius had recently (1798) completed his o-cneral systematic work 

 with his " Supplementum," and was devoting his attention to separate 

 orders. Whatever may have been his grip of some of these, and 

 Avhatever he may have had in store for lepidopterists in his unpublished 

 Si/sti'iiiata (Htmiatornm, his published work on this order is of an 

 extremely slight and superficial kind ; yet it obtained a very wide 

 following, and indeed was probably more used than any other system, 

 though a few German lepidopterists worked rather from Borkhausen's 

 Natiin/eschichte tier JuirD/iaischcn SchmcttcrUiuie (completed 1791). 

 "Specialisation" as regards separate orders was just beginning to 

 assert itself ; Hiibner, who seems to have taken little if any interest in 

 insects other than lepidopterous, had already made a good reputation, 

 and was engaged upon two of his great works, the Scunmlunn ^'^'^^ the 

 (irschichtc (larvae). Two other large iconographic works were also in 

 progress, viz., Herbst's continuation of Jablonsky's Xatursi/.^tem, which 

 Avas completed in 1801 (Rhopalocera only) and is not without some 

 systematic value, and Esper's Die Schii)cttt:iiin<ic in AbhiUhinijen, which 

 had been publishing since 1777 or the very end of 1776, and of which 

 about 403 plates (by far the greater part) had already appeared. In 

 England, the works of Wilkes and Harris on the lepidoptera Avere 

 already getting somewhat antiquated, but probably served as the basis 

 of Matthew Martin's Aiirdians Vade-Mecniii. (1785), of the lepidoptero- 

 logical portion of Bcrkenhout's Sj/nojisis, etc. Lepidopterists Avere, 

 hoAvever, Avaking up, and the commencement of the publication of 

 Trcuisactidii.'i in 1791 by the recently-founded Linnean Society gaA"e 

 opportunity for the production of some useful papers by Marsham and 

 others, Avhile the " Aurelian Society " Avitnessed the birth of the 

 energies Avhich Av^ere soon to giA-e us HaAvorth's Lrjiidoptcra Britannica 

 (1808-28). LeAvin's I'dpilioa of Lireat Uvitain (1795), may also be 

 mentioned; but the principal entomological book Avhich Avas in progress 

 at the daAvn of our century Avas not confined to the lepidoptera-^-I refer 

 to DonoA'an's Xatiind Histiiry of Jlrit.isJi lu.scrtx, of Avhich the 9th A'olume 

 Avas apparently published from about July, 1800, to June, 1801. 



None of the Avorks of this period contain anything Avhich is of much 

 use to the more philosophically-minded student of the order ; almost 

 their sole object was to make knoAvn species, although the gradual 

 accumulation of data as to localities, early stages, &c., AA'as already 

 providing some material Avhich Avould later prove of more value than 

 Avas yet realised. The earlier years of the present century, troubled by 

 many political agitations, did not conduce to any particular increase of 

 activity in the pursuit of natural history ; indeed I have been much 

 struck by the falling-off of entomological publications daring that 

 period, and, as the Avorks Avhich appeared still shoAved the same objects 

 as those of the Fabrician period, they need not be A'ery fully discussed. 

 Many attempts, most of Avhich have stood the test of time, Avere made 

 to subdivide the very inadequate Fabrician genera, although the workers 

 in this direction — with the notable exception of Hiibner, and perhaps 

 also of Laspeyres — Avere not specialists in the lepidoptera, nor are their 



* A good bird's-eA-e view of natural history literature at that period may be 

 obtained from a perusal of the article on pp. 21)8-492 of the Itt'cision dcr Litcratur 

 t'iir die Jiihre I'/do-lSOU in Kru-'nizun^fs^blnttcni zur All<jem:i)is L'tcrutur-Zcituni/, 

 fii)i/lcn Jahrijanjs erster Band (Halle and Leipsic, lS05j. 



