A NOTICE OF 



If we extend the comparison to the vegetable kingdom, we shall 

 find that insects vie with its finest productions; some in the delicacy 

 and variety of their colours — colours, however, not like those of 

 flowers, evanescent and fugitive, but fixed and durable, outliving the 

 insect which they adorn, and appearing as fresh and brilliant as when 

 it was alive. Others are no less remarkable in the texture and veining 

 of their wings, or in the rich cottony down, or rather feathers, that 

 clothe them. Nature, indeed, has in many insects carried her mimetic 

 art to so great a degree of nicety, that some of them appear to have 

 robbed the trees of their leaves to form for themselves artificial wings, 

 so exactly do they resemble them in form, substance, and vascular 

 structure — some representing green, and others dry withered leaves. 

 Sometimes this mimickry, if we may call it so, is so exquisite, that a 

 whole insect might be mistaken for a portion of the branching spray of 

 a tree, or for a dead lifeless twig — appearances which seem to be in- 

 tended to deceive their natural enemies. The rich and velvet tints 

 even of the plumage of birds are not superior to what the curious 

 observer may discover in a variety of moths ; and those irridescent 

 eyes Which deck so gloriously the peacocks' tail, are successfully 

 imitated in the wings of one of our most common butterflies. 



In variety, indeed, insects certainly exceed any other class of 

 animals. Nature, in her sportive mood, when painting them, some- 

 time? imitates the clouds of heaven, at others the meandering course 

 of the rivers of the earth, or the undulation of the waters. Many 

 have the semblance of a robe of the finest net- work thrown over them ; 

 some have fins like those of fishes, or a beak resembling that of birds ; 

 to others horns are given ; the bull, the stag, the rhinoceros, and even 

 the hitherto vainly sought for unicorn, have in this respect many re- 

 presentatives among insects. It would, indeed, be endless to produce 

 all the instances which occur of such imitations ; but it may be added, 

 that their arms and members, generally speaking,' far exceed in struc- 

 ture and finishing those which they resemble. 



Some of the preceding descriptions and comparisons may appear 

 exaggerated and hyperbolical to such of our readers as have taken little 

 notice of our native insects ; nor can Britain boast of examples to 

 bear us out in all that has now been said. Still, we are profusely 

 rich in many of the tribes — to an extent, indeed, which the uninitiated 

 might, with some colour of reason, refuse to credit. But whoever 

 begins the study of entomology, will be utterly astonished, at every 

 step, that he had so long overlooked the countless variety and beauty 

 of our native specimens, many of which have wings 



"With silver fringed, and freckled o'er with gold." 

 Let us now consider some of the real advantages to be derived from 

 the study of entomology. And here it may be proper, first of all. to 

 weigh the burden of the objections urged by its impugners. They 

 say it tends to withdraw the mind from subjects of higher moment ; 

 that it cramps and narrows the range of thought; that it destroys, or 

 at least weakens, the finer processes of the imagination and fancy ; and 

 that it must be hostile to every thing like knowledge which leads to 

 practical results. All this might be feasible enough, were it the fact 



