TO THE FIRST EDITION.

VOL. III.

Grateful for the favourable reception the two preceding volumes of this work have met from the lovers of Natural History, it is with pleasure that I now present them, though late, with this my third and last volume, which has been completed in opposition to greater disadvantages and disappointments than attended either of the others.

It may not be superfluous to inform my readers, that this publication is the result of such leisure hours only as could be spared from an indispensable assiduity to immediate business, and a necessary attention, at that time, to an impaired constitution.

This being taken into consideration, little apology will be required for the length of time I have been in bringing it out, by those who know what trouble we must necessarily have with the various artists, who are employed in executing the different parts of such a work, and with what scrupulous exactness and care every minute part ought to be examined and corrected. This unavoidable delay, however, has been productive of another circumstance, which compels me to entreat all their candour and indulgence.

I have always made it a rule of my conduct to promote Natural History by every method in my power. My cabinet has therefore been open to all those gentlemen, from whatever part of the world they came, who made Entomology their study. In consequence of this permission, descriptions of many of the insects now published have got abroad some time since, and even figures of several of them have made their appearance. This I did not expect, as many of my plates were entirely finished some months, and even years, before those above-mentioned could have got forth. This will account for the seeming contradiction in many places, upon comparing the descriptions with the Index, where many insects are described and mentioned as new ones, but in the Index have their synonyms given in various authors. The truth is, the descriptions were made about the year 1775, between which time and the present those authors published their respective works.

But who can foresee disappointments, or avoid their effects? It may be urged, that these plates might have been omitted, and others substituted. In so doing, however, I could not have been justified, either to the purchasers of the former volumes, or to myself. Many of them, there is no doubt, would not have the figures of those insects alluded to, unless in this work; and, as to my part, without considering the loss, neither my business, my health, nor my leisure, would have enabled me to supply their place. This very circumstance I have mentioned in the Preface to my last volume, wherein I bespoke the candour of my readers for an anticipation of a similar kind, which got abroad before I could bring out that volume. In the present case, I have the greatest reason to request the same indulgence from a motive still stronger, which is, that almost all the figures given by other authors, and which I have quoted in the index, were taken from specimens originally in my possession. As it is, I hope, the novelty, the beauty, and the curiosity of the other insects herein published, will, by affording large gratification to the inquisitive naturalist, make some amends, and that the nature of my situation will procure me a full acquittal from any kind of premeditated imposition.

In regard to the manners and economy of the insects now published, I have been able to get little information. There are very few, even of those who collect abroad, who will give themselves the trouble of making observations; and such as do not want inclination or ability, and even travel expressly for the purpose, find great, and to us almost inconceivable impediments.

Mr. Smeathman, who has been many years in Africa and the West Indies, has furnished me with a few remarks on this subject, together with observations on some particular insects, published in the preceding volumes as well as this. These observations, I am of opinion, will afford information and entertainment to my readers, and, at the same time, throw some light on the nature, qualities, or dispositions of many kinds of insects, of which, hitherto, we know nothing more than the external figure. He informs me, that in hot climates, especially such as are not well settled, the difficulties attending every kind of study, and every species of collecting, are infinitely greater than those who have not visited them can possibly suppose. In those countries, either from the scarcity and high price of the materials, or the dearness of labour, the traders or settlers are obliged to calculate for little more than necessary house-room, with such conveniences only as are absolutely necessary for their different occupations and pursuits; in which they are, from these circumstances, frequently much cramped and embarrassed. If this is the case with those who have all the best means in their power of providing for themselves, how must it be with transient persons and speculative travellers, who are seldom profitable visitors, and whose studies consequently meet with little partiality from such as are assiduously engaged in the sole pursuit of wealth or power?

As to the breeding of insects, and observing their changes and dispositions with care and circumspection, it seems almost impossible in the nature of things to be practised, except, comparatively speaking, with a very few.

(The ravages of the tropical ants and cock-roaches are then detailed from the information given by Mr. Smeathman, which I have thought it more interesting to introduce with the descriptions of those insects in the second volume.)

The termites are another genus of insects, which some time or other injure the traveller, and at least add to the number of his cares. These wonderful creatures were little known till Mr. Smeathman developed their extraordinary history. They were generally supposed to be a species of ant, and in consequence so frequently confounded with the natural history of that great genus of insects, that it has thrown much obscurity into both.

The ravages of these insects are so insidious, that travellers frequently suffer irreparable damage before they are aware of them. When they are previously informed, the depredations of those insects may be greatly prevented; but constant care and caution are required, which is no small addition to the number of cares that a collector must always have upon his mind. I shall not pretend to go any further into the history of this genus of insects, as I must necessarily borrow it from my ingenious friend's very entertaining account of them, published last year in the seventy-first volume, Part I. of the Philosophical Transactions, to which I refer my reader.

To these obstacles, Mr. Smeathman adds others, some of which we can have little idea of in these climates. The Norway rats are so numerous and so bold, that they will come and feed by the side of the table at supper, and during the still hours of night, search every corner for plunder, making a continual uproar, and often, in a kind of furor, carry away small utensils, and other articles, which they can turn to no advantage either for food or shelter. They are very mischievous to the naturalist's collection of plants and seeds, tearing them and the books, in which they are kept, to pieces, as it were in wantonness, and carrying away such as are edible, in which they are often assisted by the land-crabs. These amphibious insects frequently make holes for themselves, or use those made by the rats under ground, and enter through the floors of the negroes' cottages.

In the rainy seasons many small animals are apt to take shelter in the thatch; among others, various species of snakes, who most probably get there in pursuit of the rats. Mr. Smeathman when on the African shore observed, that the former were very harmless; and, as he found the latter very mischievous and destructive, he would not suffer the snakes to be killed or hunted out. The patient natives there, it seems, as well as the rational travellers, are not without consolation amidst this heterogeneous crowd of inmates. They see with pleasure the spiders always on the watch for the wasps and cock-roaches, the last of which are intolerable. The lizards, again, attack all sorts of insects, the large Tarantula, as it is called, not excepted. The lizards not unfrequently fall a prey to the fowls, and the rats to the snakes. Hence lizards, rats, snakes, and land-crabs occasionally serve as delicious repasts to the improvident inhabitants, who thus "thrive under evil."

Sometimes indeed the land-crab becomes, as in the West Indies, a part of the stock of the provident and luxurious inhabitants, who inclose a small piece of ground in the manner of a yard, and feed them with fruit, herbs, Indian corn, and other grain, on which they fatten exceedingly, and stewed in any manner are most delicious eating.

Thus a speculative man can find few opportunities of securing his collections, or of making observations, while surrounded by the hospitable chief, the trader, the planter, and their families, who scarce finding room enough in their houses for themselves, think all time lost that is not spent in lucrative business, active pleasures, or social festivity. If to this we add frequent sickness, the want of boats or cattle for conveyance in cases where moving without is impracticable; the want of information, of guides, of assistance, the means of transporting things, of candlelights, or even a table to write on, it will not be surprising we have so little knowledge of the uncultivated tropical regions. Even travellers, who go expressly to make observations, have other great difficulties to encounter. They are sometimes obliged to pass much of their time in providing the mere necessaries of life, and some in securing themselves from danger, while their industry is always exposed to the avarice, the neglect, or the ill-will of ignorant people, whose services, though poor, are not to be easily dispensed with.

Sometimes the cottages have no windows, and the larger houses, which they contrive to form in such manner as to receive the breezes, are generally without glass; so that the student frequently has his subject, his pen, or his paper blown away, with various other disappointments and vexations too numerous and too trivial to mention, but altogether distressing, and in many instances insurmountable.

As this is the case, we have not much reason to wonder that our accounts of some foreign countries, and their natural productions, are so short and imperfect. We must content ourselves with slight sketches, which, repeated and corroborated by various travellers, may at last amount to one great descriptive and useful work, of which those contained in this Preface are offered only as so many scattered seeds.

(The various observations upon the economy of different species figured in these Illustrations, and inserted in this Preface, have been respectively introduced under the species to which they belonged.)

ILLUSTRATIONS

OF

EXOTIC ENTOMOLOGY.