Tw^^ ILLUSTRATIONS 



OP 



BRITISH ENTOMOLOGY, 



" Say who can paint 

 Like Nature ? Can imagination boast. 

 Amid her gay creation, hues like these ?" 



Thomson. 



Such is the language of one whose works abound in imagery 

 drawn from the beauties of the visible world, and peculiarly appli- 

 cable to various insects belonging to the subclass upon whose de- 

 scription I am now entering ; not, however, that I conceive the pro- 

 ductions of these prolific isles to be of a particularly resplendent 

 character ; but what art can equal the brilliant silvery blue of the 

 beautiful and lovely Polyommatus Adonis — the iridescent purple 

 splendour of Lyc»na Chryseis — the fiery and almost dazzling cu- 

 preous wings of Lycaense dispar andVirgaurese — the imperial purple 

 plumes of Apatura Iris — the gorgeous silver spots, streaks, and 

 fascise of the Argynni — or the elegant metallic cilia and markings of 

 various groups of Tinseidae ? whose wings may truly be said to be 



" With silver fringed, and freckled o'er with gold." 



— Again, the fine and gaudy colouring of the tiger moths, as they 

 are commonly called — and the singularly delicate pencilling on the 

 under surface of the wings of Cynthia Cardui, and Vanessa Atalanta, 

 and on the upper surface of those of many Geometrida?, are, equally 

 with the more glittering colours, beyond the utmost reach of the 

 pictorial art. 



I shall now proceed with my descriptions of the 



HAUSTELLATA, ClairvlUc, 



which, like the Mandibulata, 1 also consider divisible into seven 

 orders ; thus briefly characterized : 



Haustellata, \o\.. I. 1 June, 1827. u 



