THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 35 



solicitude. Although I did not at this period so fully con- 

 ceive the paramount necessity of an acquaintance with the 

 metamorphoses of Lepidoptera towards the establishment 

 of a natural arrangement, as I have been led to do in 

 later periods, yet 1 was so strongly impressed with its 

 essential importance in attempting a complete history of 

 insects, that I commenced with a fixed determination to 

 prosecute the inquiry with unremitted industry and zeal, 

 to collect all the larvae of lepidopterous insects which I 

 might possibly obtain, and to trace them through the 

 various periods of their existence : with this view I fitted up 

 a large apartment adjoining my residence with breeding- 

 cages and receptacles for chrysalides. At the commence- 

 ment of the rainy season, the period when, in tropical 

 climates, the foliage of vegetables is renewed, I daily went 

 out in search of caterpillars, accompanied by the most intelli- 

 gent of my native assistants. The caterpillars thus collected 

 were placed in separate breeding-cages, and several of the 

 assistants were instructed to provide daily, at regular periods, 

 the food the individuals required, and to secure the cleanli- 

 ness of the cages. As soon as the caterpillars were ap- 

 proaching to perfection, a drawing was made of them : the 

 same individual which had been submitted to the draughts- 

 man was then separately confined, watched with the most 

 diligent care, and as soon as it had passed into the state of 

 the chrysalis, again made the object of the pencil. A deter- 

 minate number was carefully attached to the drawing and 

 to the cage of the chrysalis. As soon as the perfect insect 

 had appeared and expanded its wings it was secured, set 

 and numbered, in accordance with the larva and chrysalis. 

 During this period every possible solicitude was employed to 

 prevent mistakes." 



The enormous amount of information thus acquired en- 

 abled Dr. Horsfield to enter on the difficult subject of classi- 

 fication with a facility and from a vantage ground that no 

 previous writer had possessed ; but it was the author's mis- 

 fortune, as I consider it, at the ver}^ period when he was 

 arranging his materials, to meet with, study and accept, Mr. 

 MacLeay's work on the quinary system, and every fact he 

 had observed, every combination he had made, became sub- 

 servient to this most seductive scheme ; so that, following 



