INTRODUCTION. 



The following work is the production of many years severe study and applica- 

 tion ; though it must be owned that the pursuit of it has afforded the Author many 

 pleasing and delightful excursions, in procuring objects in this favourite branch of 

 Natural History. 



" Whether he steals along the lonely dale 

 In silent search, or climbs the mountain 

 Rock, fir'd by the nodding plumage of its brow, 



Or muses through the woods at noon 



ever delightful in the ceaseless hum ; — 



Full nature swarms with life ; one wond'rous mass 

 Of animals, or atoms organized ; 

 Waiting the vital breath, when Parent Heaven 

 Shall bid his Spirit blow." 



Anybody the least acquainted with Natural History need not be informed that 

 all insects, from the largest to the smallest, are originally produced from eggs, 

 from which the maggots or caterpillars come forth : after feeding till they arrive at 

 their full growth, they change into the chrysalis or aurelia state, where they lie 

 inactive some time, till at length they come out in their perfect fly state, either moth, 

 butterfly, beetle, &c. when they propagate their species and die. But it must be 

 observed, that all caterpillars that have not less than ten nor more than sixteen legs, 

 only produce moths or butterflies; those that have more, produce what have 

 hitherto been distinguished by the name of Ichneumons [Tenthredinidse] ; and such 

 as have less, commonly produce the Beetle or Chafer kind. 



The females, both of moths and butterflies, lay their eggs in a few hours after 

 copulation, upon or contiguous to what is designed to be the food for the young 

 caterpillars when they appear from the shells : some produce the caterpillars in four- 

 teen days, others in four or five weeks, some again do not appear till the expiration 

 of four or five months. When the young caterpillars are perfect within the shells, 

 they eat, or rather crumble the shell away with their jaws, and feed on what was 

 provided by the parent for them ; these caterpillars having grown to their full 

 size, and purged themselves from their excrement, cast off their last skin, and 

 become a chrysalis or an aurelia ; from which, after lying in that state a certain 

 number of days, weeks, or months, according to the respective species or class to 

 which they belong, a fly or moth is produced, in the likeness of its parent ; and this 

 is their general progression. 



In the following account of their respective changes and appearances, I shall 

 endeavour to prepare the young Aurelian for the perusal of the following work ; 

 where each insect, whose history is known, is particularly considered, and repre- 

 sented in its different states. 



