vii. 



diurnal and nocturnal, and though I have found and described near upon 

 300 species, great and small^within the small compass of four or five miles; 

 yet came I not to the end of them. Now, the genus of beetles is as numerous 

 as that of the Papilios, if not more. The flies (so at present I call all insects 

 that have naked and smooth, not farinaceous wings), both bipennes and quad- 

 ripennes, are in a manner infinite, nor has their history been with diligence 

 prosecuted by any man that I know of, except Mr. Willoughby ; whose 

 manuscript I hope to procure." In another letter he writes, "As for books 

 about insects, written in, or translated into Latin, I know none but Aldro- 

 mandus, Mouffet, Johnson, and Gcedartius, except Malpighius de Bombyce, 

 and Dr. Lister de Araneis. The best general history, or account of insects, 

 is that of Swammerdam, written in Low-Dutch, and translated into French." 

 One of his friends, James Petiver, published at London a variety of mis- 

 cellaneous zoological, botanical, and other treatises, illustrated by several 

 thousand figures, each of which is (like the items of Merrett's Pinax) explained 

 by a concise and descriptive sentence, which served as a name. He also was 

 the author of one work, entirely entomological, entitled " Papilionum Britan- 

 nia Icones, Nomina, &c," of about eighty English butterflies, being all that 

 have hitherto been discovered in Britain, by James Petiver, F.K.S., London, 

 1717, folio. It is a valuable publication to the student in British lepidoptera, 

 the figures being (for these times) well executed. 



The species are fifty in number, viz : Black- veined White, Great Cabbage 

 White, Small Cabbage White, Green-veined White, Wood White, Brimstone, 

 Clouded Yellow or Saffron, Swallow-tail or Koyal William, Orange-tip or 

 White Marbled, Bath White or Yernon's Greenish Half-Mourner, Marbled 

 White or Common Half-Mourner, Eed Admiral, White Admiral, Silver- 

 streaked Fritillary, Great Silver-spotted Fritillary, High Brown Fritillary, 

 Heath or Straw May Fritillary, Dark Pearl-bordered Fritillary, Duke of 

 Burgundy or Yernon's Small Fritillary, Light Pearl-bordered Fritillary, 

 Marsh or Dandridge's Black Fritillary, Queen of Spain or Lesser Spotted 

 Fritillary, Glanville or White Dullidge Fritillary, Great Tortoise-shell, Lesser 

 Tortoise-shell, Comma, Small Copper, Spotted Skipper or Brown Marsh 

 Fritillary, Brown Skipper or Handley's Small Brown Butterfly, Painted Lady, 

 Brown Hair-streak, Purple or Bay's Blue Hair-streak, Peacock, Albin's 

 Hampstead Eye, Black-eyed Marble or Tunbridge Grayling, Speckled Wood 

 or Enfield Eye, Wall or London Eye, Meadow Brown or Eye, Hedge Brown 

 or Eye, Kinglet or Brown Eye, Small Heath or Silver-edged Heath Eye, Chalk- 

 hill Blue or Pale Blue Argus, Common Blue or Blue Argus, Heath Blue or 

 Silver-edged Blue Argus, Brown Argus, Azure or Blue Speck t Butterfly, 



