ENTOMOLOGY. 



particular spot which Mr. Smeathman visited, may have produced 

 this insect in some plenty at the precise season when he chanced to 

 be a resident there, it is by no means to be inferred that it is com- 

 mon there at other seasons, or that it is to be found in other parts of 

 Africa. Were it only owing to the loftiness of its flight, the bag- 

 net, in use among collectors for the capture of insects that fly princi- 

 pally about the higher branches of trees, would have enabled 

 travellers, in those parts, to overcome this difiiculty. The truth 

 appears to be, that under some peculiar circumstances, this curious 

 insect, like many others which Mr. Smeathman met with, during 

 his travels in Africa, might have occurred to him in some plenty, 

 and it is not improbable, for this reason it might have been in his 

 power, at that time, to enrich several of the Entomological cabinets 

 of Europe, with examples of the species, but for this conjecture, 

 we have no positive confirmation, and were it even correct, we have 

 no present knowledge of them; neither can we learn, that any 

 specimens have been brought to Europe by subsequent observers, 

 although half a century has elapsed since the period in which the 

 species was communicated to Mr. Drury, by Mr. Smeathman. In- 

 deed it may be finally observed, that the only example now extant 

 upon which we can speak with certainty, is the original from which 

 our present figures are taken, and this moreover is the only 

 authority to which Fabricius adverts, for he quotes no other tlian the 

 work of Drury and the drawings of Mr, Jones. 



