ENTOMOLOGY. 



Genus*-- PAPILIO. DtWon--ARCUATUS. 



IT was formerly the method adopted by some emi- 

 nent naturalists, to class the Butterfly-tribes by placing 

 them under five principal divisions, or families, and these 

 again into sub-divisions, according to the spots, the trans- 

 parency of the wings, or the colour or form of the upper 

 wings. This was the custom of Linnaeus and Fabricius, 

 and is found now to be entirely wanting in decision and 

 preciseness of terms, for in many instances, the spots vary 

 in number and colour, even in the same individual, from 

 difference of sex, or of food and situation. 



The terms of Rurales, Danai, Equites, Nymphae, &c. 

 are so confused and contradictory to each other, so liitle 

 explanatory of their nature and qualities, and drawn from 

 such opposite and unmeaning circumstances, added to the 

 pompous and ridiculous names of the Greeks and Trojans, 

 that every judicious Papilionist naturally wishes for a new- 

 arrangement in that difficult, yet interesting tribe of insects. 

 To enter into the full disquisition of the errors and obvious 

 contradictions of such a mode of classification, would be 

 inconsistent with the conciseness of our present plan in this 

 work, as we wish rather to draw the attention of our readers 

 to the general observations of nature, than to abstruse dis- 

 tinctions of difficult terms. We would therefore suggest, 

 in preference to the above, a method adopted by an ingeni- 

 ous naturalist of the present time, who proposes to include 

 all the Papilio-tribes which are found in nature, under 

 certain definitional characters, taken entirely from the forms 

 of the wings, which will impart to us in every word, some 

 particular character of its shape and proportion. This, 



