JO INTRODUCTORY LETTER. 



of their bodies a . — We admire with reason the coats of 

 quadrupeds, whether their skins be covered with pile, or 

 wool, or fur, yet are not perhaps aware that a vast va- 

 riety of insects are clothed with all these kinds of hair, 

 but infinitely finer and more silky in texture, more bril- 

 liant and delicate in colour, and more variously shaded 

 than what any other animals can pretend to. 



In variegation insects certainly exceed every other 

 class of animated beings. Nature, in her sportive mood, 

 when painting them, sometimes imitates the clouds of 

 heaven; at others, the meandring course of the rivers 

 of the earth, or the undulations of their waters : many 

 are veined like beautiful marbles ; others have the sem- 

 blance of a robe of the finest net- work thrown over them 3 

 some she blazons with heraldic insignia, giving them to 

 bear in fields sable — azure — vert — gules — argent and 

 or, fesses — bars — bends — crosses — crescents — stars, and 

 even animals b . On many, taking her rule and com- 

 passes, she draws with precision mathematical figures; 

 points, lines, angles, triangles c , squares, and circles. On 

 others she pourtrays, with mystic hand, what seem like 

 hieroglyphic symbols, or inscribes them with the cha- 

 racters and letters of various languages, often very cor- 

 rectly formed d ; and, what is more extraordinary, she 

 has registered in others figures which correspond with 

 several dates of the Christian era e . 



Nor has nature been lavish only in the apparel and 



* Hairs of many of the Apidcs. Mon. Ap. Ang. 1. t. 1 0, ** d. 1 ./. 1 . b. 



b Ptinus imperialis, L. c Trichius delta, F. 



d Primus longimanus, F. Papilio C. album, L. Bombyx \p, Nqc- 

 tua y, F. 



e On the underside of the primary wings near the margin in Pa- 

 pilio Aglaia, Lallwma, Silene, &c. 



