8 INTRODUCTORY LETTER. 



like liquid drops, or plates of gold and silver a ; or with 

 scales or pile, which mimic the colour and emit the ray 

 of the same precious metals 5 . Some exhibit a rude ex- 

 terior, like stones in their native state c , while others re- 

 present their smooth and shining face after they have 

 been submitted to the tool of the polisher: others, again, 

 like so many pygmy Atlases bearing on their backs a 

 microcosm, by the rugged and various elevations and de- 

 pressions of their tuberculated crust, present to the eye 

 of the beholder no unapt imitation of the unequal surface 

 of the earth, now horrid with mis-shapen rocks, ridges, 

 and precipices now swelling into hills and mountains, 

 and now sinking into valleys, glens, and caves d ; while 

 not a few are covered with branching spines, which fancy 

 may form into a forest of trees 6 . 



What numbers vie with the charming offspring of Flora 

 in various beauties ! some in the delicacy and variety of 

 their colours, colours not like those of flowers evanescent 

 and fugitive, but fixed and durable, surviving their sub- 

 ject, and adorning it as much after death as they did 

 when it was alive ; others, again, in the veining and tex- 

 ture of their wings ; and others in the rich cottony down 

 that clothes them. To such perfection, indeed, has na- 

 ture in them carried her mimetic art, that you would de- 



216 ) regards this insect as synonymous with Jlliger's Eurhin cu- 

 pratus, the description of which I had not seen when the Century of 

 Insects (Linn, Trans, xii.) was written, nor am I able now to speak 

 decisively on the subject. K. 



a Helicopis Cupido, Argynnis Passiflorce, Lathonia, &c. 



b Pepsis fuscipennis, argentata, &c. 



c The species of the genus Trox. 



d Many of the ScarabceidcBy Dynastidce, &c. 



e Many caterpillars of Butterflies. Merian Surinam, t. xxii. xxv. 

 &c, and of Saiuflies. Reaum. v. t. xii./. 7, 814. 



