CORRESPONDENCE OF RAY. 455 



Mr. RAY to Mr. DERHAM. 



SIR, Yours of August 28th came to hand, for which 

 I return thanks. I am sorry you cannot as yet perfect 

 your ' History of Gnats,' of which I admire you should 

 discover so many distinct species, indeed that there should 

 be so many in rerum naturd. 



As for the cimices they may easily be compassed ; but 

 to find out, describe, and methodise all the species of 

 flies and beetles of England alone, is the work of a man's 

 life. ^ 



The phala?nse are so numerous, that should I live 

 twenty years longer, and were in condition to search them 

 out, yet I should despair of coming to an end of them, 

 much less of discovering the several changes they go 

 through, from the egg to the papilio, and describing the 

 eruca3 and aureliae of each. 



I am of opinion that the number of beetles is equal to 

 if it doth not exceed that of papilios, and they all undergo 

 the like changes with them, of which I know no man 

 hath given us any tolerable account. 



The name of Musca I know not how far to extend, 

 but if we make it to comprehend all the Diptera, then it 

 will take in gnats and tipula3 ; and if them only, where 

 shall we place the Mmcce papilioniformcs and formici- 

 formes, &c. 



I should refer all flying insects with four inembrana- 

 ceous wings and a sting in their tails, to the bee-kind ; 

 but then I must draw under that tribe the formicae, 

 which have bodies too unlike. 



The work which I have now entered upon is, indeed, 

 too great a task for me ; I am very crazy and infirm, 

 and God knows whether I shall over-live this winter. 

 Cold weather is very grievous to me ; besides, I have not 

 bestowed sufficient time and pains in the quest of any 

 tribe of insects except papilios, and I have told how far 



