GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF INSECTS. 507 



almost as wide as it is long, and situated in or near the 

 tropics, instead of inland seas or sea-like rivers, is inter- 

 sected by parched sandy deserts, extending far and wide; 

 circumstances which, though in the vicinity of its streams 

 it is humid, impart an unusual degree of aridity as well 

 as heat to its general atmosphere ; so that it well merits 

 the poet's epithet, Leonum arida nutrix -, and is also pe- 

 culiarly fitted for all such animals, especially insects, as 

 delight in a dry, sandy, hot country, particularly such as 

 are predaceous in their habits. America^ on the other 

 hand, exhibits quite an opposite character. It is long, 

 and comparatively narrow ; surrounded, and almost di- 

 vided into two continents, by immense circumfluent 

 oceans ; watered every where by rivers and lakes that 

 emulate seas: in some parts covered by interminable 

 forests ; in others, intersected by ridges of the loftiest 

 mountains. These circumstances, except in its Llanos, 

 Pampas, or table-land, give a general character of hu- 

 midity to its atmosphere, and fit it particularly for the 

 production of a vast variety of peculiar plants, and for 

 the residence of numerous and peculiar phytiphagous 

 insects and other animals a . Midway between these two 

 continents lies a third (for so the vast island of New 

 Holland may be denominated), which presents new fea- 

 tures in its general aspect, and consequently new forms 

 both in its Flora and Fauna, mixed with many old ones 

 parallel to those both of the new world and the old. 

 Perhaps Europe and Asia, with several that are peculiar, 

 agree more in their animal productions than the con- 

 tinents just described. 



3 Latr. Geograph. &c. 18. 



