42 INTRODUCTORY LETTER. 



like beautiful marbles ; others have the semblance of a robe of the finest 

 net-work thrown over them ; some she blazons wit^ heraldic insignia, 

 giving them to bear in fields sable — azure — vert — gules — argent and or, 

 fesses — bars — bends — crosses — crescents — stars, and even animals.^ On 

 many, taking her rule and compasses, she draws with precision mathemat- 

 ical figures ; points, lines, angles, triangles^, squares, and circles. On 

 others she portrays, with mystic hand, what seem like hieroglyphic 

 symbols, or inscribes them with the characters and letters of various 

 languages, often very correctly formed^; and, what is more extraordinary, 

 she has registered in others figures which correspond with several dates of 

 the Christian era.'' 



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 

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

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

 various quadrupeds. The bull^, the stag''^, the rhinoceros^, and even the 

 hitherto vainly sought for unicorn^, have in this respect many representa- 

 tives amonjist insects. One is armed with tusks not unlike those of the 

 elephant^"; another is bristled with spines, as the porcupine and hedge-hog 

 with quills^' ; a third is an armadillo in miniature ; the disproportioned hind 

 legs of the kangaroo give a most grotesque appearance to a fourth^- ; 

 and the threatening head of the snake is found in a fifth. ^' It would, how- 

 ever, be endless to produce all the instances which occur of such imita- 

 tions ; 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, 

 every thing 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 

 behold 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 dark- 

 ness 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 



• Ptinus imperialis, L. * Trichius {Archimedius K.) delta, F. 

 3 Acrocinus longimanus, F. Vanessa C. album, Acronycta \p, Plusia y. 



* On the (inderside of the primary wings near the margin in Argynnis Aglaia, Lathonia, 

 Selene, &c. * Empis, Asilus. ^ Onthophagus Taurus, Curtis. Brit. Ent. t. 52. 



" Lucanus Cervus, ' Oryctes. ' Dynastes Hercules. 



'<> Andrena spinigera. Melitta. **c. K. and especially Dicronocephalus Hardnickii and 

 Cyphonocephalus smaragdulvs, Westw. Arc. Ent. PI. 33. fig. 2. 



" Hispa. 



'* Scarahccus macropus, Francillon. Now ascertained, by the discovery of numerous 

 specimens by the French collectors, to be the male of a species of the genus Chnjsina K. 

 Mr. W. S. MacLeay informs us that he gave the manuscript name of Eusceks to the group 

 to which it belongs. 



" Baphidia ophiopsis. 



