95 



intendence, for botanical tlelineations, and the skill they acquired in 

 those soon fitted tliem for the annulose department. I was therefore 

 enabled to enter upon a history of the metamorphoses of Javanese 

 Lepidoptera ; a design which had long engaged my anxious 

 sv^licitude. 



" Although I did not, at this period, so fully conceive the para- 

 mount necessity of an acquaintance with the metamorphoses of 

 Lepidoptera, towards the establishment of a natural arrangement, 

 as I have been led to do in later periods, yet I was so strongly 

 impressed with its essential importance in attempting a complete 

 history of insects, that 1 commenced with a fixed determination 

 to prosecute the enquiry with unremitted industry and zeal, to 

 collect all the larvae of Lepidopterous insects which I might possibly 

 obtain, and to trace them through the various periods of their 

 existence. With this view I fitted up a large apartment adjoining 

 my residence with breeding-cages and receptacles for chrysalides. 

 At the commencement of the rainy season, the period when, in 

 tropical climates, the ft)liage of vegetables is renewed, I daily went 

 out in search of caterpillars, accompanied by the most intelligent 

 of my native assistants. The caterpillars thus collected vvere placed 

 in separate breeding-cages, and several of the assistants were in- 

 structed to provide daily, at regular periods, the food the individuals 

 required, and to secure the cleanliness of the cages. As soon as the 

 individuals were approaching to perfection, a drawing was made of 

 them. The same individual which had been submitted to the 

 draughtsman was then separately confined, watched with the most 

 diligent care, and, as soon as it had passed into the state of a 

 chrysalis, again made the object of the pencil. A determinate 

 number was carefully attached to the drawing and to the cage of 

 the chrysalis. As soon as the perfect insect had appeared and 

 expanded its wings, it was secured, set and nunjbered in accordance 

 with the larva and chrysalis- During this period every possible 

 solicitude was employed to prevent mistakes ; the original series, 

 consisting of the perfect insects and the chrysalides, obtained by 

 this mode of proceeding, and numbered in accordance with the 

 collection of drawings made at the same time, is now deposited 

 in the Museum of the Honourable East India Company, and affords 

 an authentic document of the accuracy of the details regarding 

 the metamorphoses of Javanese Lepidoptera. 



" During this process, the food, the date of appearance, the 

 peculiarities, as far as regards the abundance or the scarcity of 



