[1] The original title of this work, Vol. I., was "Illustrations of
Natural History, wherein are exhibited upwards of two hundred and
forty figures of EXOTIC INSECTS, according to their different genera,
very few of which have hitherto been figured by any author, being
engraved and coloured from nature, with the greatest accuracy, and
under the author's own inspection; on fifty copper-plates; with a
particular description of each Insect, interspersed with remarks and
reflections on the nature and properties of many of them, by D. Drury,
1770." The second volume containing upwards of two hundred and twenty
figures, on fifty copper-plates, appeared in 1773; and the third
containing upwards of two hundred figures, also on fifty plates, was
not published until 1782. The majority of the plates were drawn and
engraved by the celebrated Moses Harris, but some of the plates in the
last volume were by a different hand.
[2] A similar compilation bringing down the science to the present time
would be invaluable, even with all the inaccuracies charged to Gmelin.
[3] This is evident from Gmelin's occasionally copying some of Fabricius'
erroneous references, e.g. Bombyx ornatrix, Gmel. p. 2444. with a
reference to Drury, v. I. t. 74. as in Fabr. Syst. Ent. p. 586.
instead of tab. 24.
[4] Subsequently purchased by the Linnæan Society.
[5] This contemplated edition of the Syst. Nat. never appears to have been
published.
[6] I find no notice of this contemplated fourth volume amongst Drury's
manuscripts.
[7] See Goedartius, translated by Dr. Lister.
[8] See Swammerdam's Book of Nature, translated by Dr. Hill.
[9] There is a species of ants in Africa, exceedingly numerous, and
continually ranging from place to place; not dwelling in colonies or
hills, as we see them in England; being armed with strong jaws or
forceps, and whatever animal they assail in the course of their
travels, they generally by means of their numbers overcome; there
being no method of securing themselves, or preserving their lives, but
by running into the water. The blacks, as I have been informed by
gentlemen who have lived there, will get out of their way, or quit
their habitations, taking their children, &c. with them, and wait till
the ants have passed them. So numerous is this host, that a deer, hog,
&c. being killed and left on the ground, in one night will have the
flesh entirely cleared from the bones, and made a complete skeleton.
[10] If any person is inclinable to make this trial, I must advise him to
collect them in the spring, when they abound with this liquor, and to
choose only the females, whose bodies at that season are so large,
being as it were overcharged with oil and a great number of eggs, that
they seem with difficulty to drag them along. When they have
discharged their eggs, they appear much less, and are not furnished
with that oil they before abounded with. The males have little, if any
of it, therefore are not proper for the purpose. This insect is of a
blue colour, and found in the fields during the months of April and
May, in the state I have mentioned; the blue colour is not shining and
beautiful as that on the belly and legs of the blue dung beetle, but
of a fine mazarine blue, without that polish. It is about an inch and
half long (the males are shorter), the head and thorax about
five-eighths of an inch, being very small and slender for the size of
the insect.
[11] I have seen in the cabinet of a very curious lady, sister to Ralph
Willett, Esq. of Dean Street, Soho, not less than forty of this
species, being taken near his seat at Morley Place, near Winbourn, in
Dorsetshire, where she informed me they were found in great plenty
during the month of June or July, frequenting the privet trees. I have
also found them in the environs of London, but not plentifully.
[12] The synonyms of this author are all taken from the 12th edition.
[13] The primary division of the Annulose subkingdom, now adopted, is into
classes, Crustacea, Arachnida, Insecta.
[14] The primary division of the class Insecta, now adopted, is into
orders, Lepidoptera (called farinaceous by Drury), Coleoptera (called
crustaceous by Drury), &c.
[15] In consequence of the great increase of the science it has been found
necessary to divide the Orders of Insects into Sections, Families,
Subfamilies, &c. before arriving at Genera, which are now much more
limited than in the time of Linnæus.
[16] There is no branch of natural history where the existence of a _Lusus
Naturæ_ is so plain and observable as in this, particularly among the
insects brought from warm climates; where the wantonness and
luxuriance of nature is so great; that its laws, strict and regular as
they are, through the rest of the animal creation, almost seem to be
invaded and broke in upon. Instances, also, are frequent in this
study, of a cluster of eggs being discharged by a female, the insects
springing from which, have differed in the circumstances
above-mentioned so very greatly, as in some cases to be mistaken for
different species.
[17] In these definitions, I have thought it serviceable to give the modern
names without introducing those, now out of use, employed by Drury,
&c. The most conspicuous parts are alone noticed. (_J. O. W._)
[18] By five eyes, I mean those that have three lesser ones, as in Plate
43, 44, 45, &c. See the Plate in the Preface, fig. 4.
[19] They are part of and give support to the hind pair of legs.
[20] The name of this African species has not been recorded. The following
additional observations by Mr. Smeathman will be serviceable in
enabling us to obtain an idea of the treasures which, even yet,
European entomologists may expect to receive from this but little
investigated quarter of the globe. "The whole country of Africa,
within the tropics, is one immense forest, except where the sandy
plains are too unsettled to afford a proper footing for vegetation.
Wherever any inhabitants settle, they make plantations by cutting down
the woods and burning them to fertilize the ground, and never sow two
years together on the same spot, but let the trees grow up again for
two or three years, by way of fallow, before they attempt to get
another crop from it. It is these spots, which Smeathman calls recent
plantations, which afford the greatest variety of insects and the
easiest obtained. In the second and third year they become impassable
to human feet."
[21] Sir J. E. Smith states that the Linnæan cabinet does not contain a
specimen of this insect, nor of the Ilioneus of "the Insects of
Georgia," pl. 2, one of the figures of which was considered by Mr.
Jones, the celebrated lepidopterist, to be the Linnæan Troilus.
Nevertheless, on the authority of the Banksian cabinet labelled (from
recollection alone) by Fabricius, Sir J. E. Smith gave the Asterias
under the name of Troilus, and the true Troilus as a new species.
[22] From the peculiar power of contraction and elongation possessed by
these segments, and which is found in the caterpillars of other
species of Deilephila, these insects have obtained the name of
Elephant-hawk Moths.
[23] Since this was written, I have been favoured by Mr. MacLeay with an
inspection of his magnificent collection, which possesses a Goliathus,
nearly resembling the insect here figured, and which that gentleman
considers as a variety of this. It is, however, considerably smaller,
and the horns of the head are not so much developed.
[24] Goliath. micans is an inhabitant of Africa, and not of South America,
it is figured in the 2nd vol. of these Illustrations, pl. 32.
[25] The female of this insect and two other new species of Goliathus, are
described by M. L. Buquet, in the Annales de la Société Entomologique
de France, for 1835 and 1836.
[26] Hence I have not adopted De Lamarck's specific name Africanus, which
is of course applicable to all the species.
[27] These scales, which Drury in his description called "the abdominal
scales," are the dilated trochanters of the posterior pair of legs.
[28] If this had really been the case, the Fabrician name ought surely to
have yielded to that of Linnæus.
[29] "Let no one that is unacquainted with this study, suppose that there
is any exaggeration in this account; or that what I have related, is
done with a view to catch the opinion of the public. Far from it.
Every adept knows it, and to every adept I would appeal.
"I have counted above three hundred eggs, contained in the bag of a
spider; and I have observed more than that number laid by a water
insect (Phryganea) on a blade of grass, by a river side. The moth,
common in our gardens, named the _Great Tiger_ (or Caja of Linnæus),
lays above six hundred eggs; and almost double that number I have
known discharged by a _Long Legs_, as it is called, or Tipula of
Linnæus. Goedartius mentions two thousand worms that he plainly
counted, springing from their parent insect, and imagines there were
three thousand bred from the same animal.
[30] From our information respecting the habits of the indigenous and
European species of Fossorial Hymenopterous insects, including the
Pelopæus spirifex, it is evident that the male takes no share in the
labour of constructing the nest. See my memoirs upon this subject in
the "Annales de la Société Entomologique de France," for 1836, and the
Transactions of the Entomological Society of London, vol. i. for the
same year, and the Memoirs of Saint Fargeau and Shuckard therein
referred to.
[31] The presence of the dorsal wing cases indicates the arrival of the
insect at the pupa state.
[32] "The morning is the time they generally choose for completing this
change, because I am pretty certain it is in their power to retard
this regeneration considerably, if I can judge from concurrent
circumstances attending those I have kept in glass bowls, on purpose
to observe their nature and behaviour. In one of these I have seen two
libella-caterpillars, that were fully grown, for three days
successively creep up the straws out of the water, in order to undergo
their transformation; but finding themselves deprived of the
sun-shine, (a circumstance generally attending this performance,) or
at least that agreeable warmth of air so necessary for their purpose,
they retired into the water: in an hour's time they made another
essay, but finding the same circumstances subsisting as before, they
again retired under water, and this they continued doing for three
mornings; till at length one of them, wearied out by those frequent
efforts, the period of nature not being to be totally avoided or
suppressed, although it might be retarded, perished in the water,
being at length so weak as to be unable to creep above its surface.
The other, on removing the vessel into the sunshine, yielded its
proper insect."