6 INTRODUCTORY LETTER. 



others she pourtrays, with mystic hand, what seem like hieroglyphic sym- 

 bols, or inscribes them with the characters and letters of various languages, 

 often very correctly formed x ; and what is more extraordinary, she has 

 registered in others figures which correspond with several dates of the 

 Christian era. 2 



Nor has nature been lavish only in the apparel and ornament of these 

 privileged tribes ; in other respects she has been equally unsparing of her 

 favours. To some she has given fins like those of fish, or a beak resem- 

 bling that of birds 3 ; to others horns, nearly the counterparts of those of 

 various quadrupeds. The bull 4 , the stag 5 , the rhinoceros 6 , and even the 

 hitherto vainly sought for unicorn 7 , have in this respect many representatives 

 amongst insects. One is armed with tusks not unlike those of the elephant 8 ; 

 another is bristled with spines, as the porcupine and hedgehog with quills 9 ; 

 a third is an armadillo in miniature ; the disproportioned hind legs of the 

 kangaroo gives a most grotesque appearance to a fourth 10 ; and the threaten- 

 ing head of the snake is found in a fifth. 11 It would, however, be endless 

 to produce all the instances which occur of such imitations ; and I shall 

 only remark that, generally speaking, these arms and instruments in 

 structure and finishing far exceed those which they resemble. 



But further, insects not only mimic, in a manner infinitely various, 

 everything in nature, they may also with very little violence be regarded 

 as symbolical of beings out of and above nature. The butterfly, adorned 

 with every beauty and every grace, borne by radiant wings through the 

 fields of ether, and extracting nectar from every flower, gives us some idea 

 of the blessed inhabitants of happier worlds, of angels, and of the 

 spirits of the just arrived at their state of perfection. Again, other insects 

 seem emblematical of a different class of unearthly beings ; when we be- 

 hold some tremendous for the numerous horns and spines projecting in 

 horrid array from their head or shoulders ; others for their threatening 

 jaws of fearful length, and armed with cruel fangs : when we survey the 

 dismal hue and demoniac air that distinguish others, the dens of darkness 

 in which they live, the impurity of their food, their predatory habits and 

 cruelty, the nets which they spread, and the pits which they sink to entrap 

 the unwary, we can scarcely help regarding them as aptly symbolising evil 

 demons, the enemies of man, or of impure spirits, for their vices and 

 crimes driven from the regions of light into darkness and punishment. 13 



1 Acrodnus longimanus F., Vanessa C. album, Acronycta -^, Plusia y. 



2 On the underside of the primary wings near the margin in Argynnis Aglaia, 

 Lathonia, Selene, &c. 



3 Empis, Asilus. 



4 Onthophagus Taurus Curtis, Brit. Ent. t. 52. 



5 Lucanus Cervus. 



6 Oryctes. 



7 Dynastes Hercules. 



8 Andrena spinigera. Melitta, ** c. K. and especially Dicronocephalus Hard- 

 wickii and Cyphonocephalus smaragdulus Westw., Arc. Ent. PI. 33. fig. 2. 



9 Hispa. 



10 Scarabceus macropus, Francillon. Now ascertained, by the discovery of numer- 

 ous spesimens by the French collectors, to be the male of a species of the genus 

 Chrysina K. Mr. W. S. MacLeay informs us that he gave the manuscript name of 

 Eusceles to the group to which it belongs. 



J 1 Raphidia ophiopsis. 



13 This idea seems to have been present to the mind of Linne' and Fabricius, 

 when they gave to insects such names as Beelzebub, Bdial, Titan, Tvphon, Nimrod, 

 Geryon, and the like. 



