iv. 



lished at Liguity in the year 1603, by Casper Schwenckfield, a physician of 

 Hieschberg, under the title of " Theriotrophium Silesiae." This was probably 

 the first attempt at a fauna that ever was made. In it animals are divided 

 into quadrupeds, reptiles, birds, fishes, and insects. 



In 1667, Christopher Merrett, M.D., one of the earliest Fellows of the 

 Royal Society, published at London, his " Pinax rerum Naturalium Britanni- 

 carum, continens Yegitabilia, Animalia, et Fossilia, in hac Insula reperta 

 inchoatus." It is the first publication which gives any account of British 

 insects exclusively ; and contains among other things, a brief catalogue of 

 such as Dr. Merrett knew to be indigenous, each accompanied with a concise 

 descriptive sentence, by way of a name. There are twenty-two descriptive 

 sentences of butterflies ; which, according to Mr. Haworth in his " Review of 

 Entomology/' published in the Transactions of the Entomological Society of 

 London, for the year 1812, belong to the following species : — Large White, 

 Black-veined White, Small White, Speckled Wood, Comma, Ringlet, Brim- 

 stone, Wall, Green-veined White, Small Tortoise-shell, Marbled White, 

 Meadow Brown, Wood White, Purple-edged Copper, Green Hairstreak, 

 Common Blue, Large Heath, Brown Skipper, Dark Pearl-bordered Fritillary, 

 Small Heath, and the Silver Spotted Skipper. Mr. Haworth goes on to say 

 " That Merrett should have been acquainted with the Purple-edged Copper 

 is indeed singular ; but his words, " Externis purpurascentibus/' by which I 

 understand externis marginibus, &c, absolutely and pointed agree with it ; 

 and as absolutely and pointedly disagree with every other known British 

 species." 



At page 197 of the Pinax, we read exactly as follows : " Papilio, vel 

 diurnus, a Butterfly, vel nocturnus, a Miller, qui phalsena dicitur cujus species 

 sequuntur. Phalsene major ? Exigua argentea nigris maculis rotata, a Moth." 

 Amongst other insects Dr. Merrett mentions Staphylinus, the poisonous 

 caterpillar; Formica, Ant, Emet, or Pismire; Gryllus, Cricket; Locusta 

 Grasshopper ; and Cicindela, a Glowworm. 



In 1662, Goedart published in Middelburg his "Metamorphosis et His- 

 toria Naturalis Insectorum/' which was done into English and methodized 

 with the addition of notes by Martin Lister in 1685. Goedart is stated to 

 have spent forty years of his life in attending to the proceedings of insects. 

 The improvement he effected in the drawing and engraving of them was great, 

 for his figures, though sometimes incorrect, were far superior to those of his 

 predecessors. He appears also to have been the first author who gave any 

 figures of the caterpillars and chrysalides. The British butterflies he figures 

 are the Peacock, Large Tortoise-shell, Small Tortoise-shell, Painted Lady, 



