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only from men of a liberal and ingenious turn of mind, settled there, that we can hope to 

 have any information of the state of nature in distant regions ; and the scarcity of such 

 men I have found to be exceeding great. For these reasons the reader must not expect 

 to find the caterpillar and chrysalis of every insect represented. It is sufficient if I am able 

 to give figures of many exotics that have hitherto been unknown. The natural history, 

 the forms of the caterpillars, ways of life, haunts, &c. can, in such cases, be known only 

 to persons living on the spot, and who have speculation enough to observe them. When- 

 ever I receive such pieces of information, they shall, certainly, not be withheld from the 

 public. 



When I first engaged in the business of describing the different insects that compose 

 the following work, I found myself surrounded with difficulties of so unexpected a nature, 

 that I had more than once entertained thoughts of postponing, if not totally relinquishing 

 so arduous a task. Nothing but the strong desire I had of promoting the study of natural 

 history, could have led me to overcome a sense of my own incapacity of writing with 

 that precision, which the public eye demands ; and, therefore, I have reason to hope for the 

 candid allowance of the ingenious, to faults, which might, perhaps, escape from the pen 

 of a master, on a subject so new as the present. Among the rest, I laboured under no 

 little trouble from a want of knowing what names to give to many colours found on the 

 wings of some of the farinaceous tribe. The want of a seiics, or standard for names to 

 colours, is a matter much to be lamented in this kingdom. I know no English author 

 that has attempted it ; perhaps the arduousness of the task may be the reason it has not 

 been done ; for if we form to ourselves an idea of the difficulty of bringing forth that 

 innumerable train of colours that is to be done from only a yellow, a red and a blue, we 

 may partly judge of the labour that man has to undergo who shall attempt it. In my case, 

 the great variety of tints to be found on the insects, the harshness of some, the softness of 

 others, together with the manner of their running into one another, increases the difficulty, 

 and renders descriptions a matter of such labour, that nothing but the strongest resolution 

 and perseverance could overcome. From hence, I hope, if the reader should chance to 

 meet with any part among them, that does not entirely correspond with the colour given 

 to the print, he will impute it to its proper cause, the painter. I know of no defects of 

 this kind ; but it is not impossible some may have escaped my observation, among such a 

 multitude of figures which I had to correct. It is necessary I should inform the reader, 

 that all my descriptions have been taken from the natural subjects themselves, and not from 

 the coloured jwints of them ; and that my intention therein, is not to give a perfect idea of 

 the insects, without the help of the figures, but only to assist the imagination in knowing 

 what is described. And when we consider the advantages that good engravings have over 

 verbal descriptions, the former representing to the mind, at first view, the object designed 

 to be understood, without putting us to the trouble of calling all our ideas, all our powers 

 of conception to our assistance, in order to discover what is intended to be described; 



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