Illustrations of Exotic Entomology, Volume 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.

A similar compilation bringing down the science to the present time would be invaluable, even with all the inaccuracies charged to Gmelin.

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.

Subsequently purchased by the Linnæan Society.

This contemplated edition of the Syst. Nat. never appears to have been published.

I find no notice of this contemplated fourth volume amongst Drury's manuscripts.

See Goedartius, translated by Dr. Lister.

See Swammerdam's Book of Nature, translated by Dr. Hill.

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.

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.

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.

The synonyms of this author are all taken from the 12th edition.

The primary division of the Annulose subkingdom, now adopted, is into classes, Crustacea, Arachnida, Insecta.

The primary division of the class Insecta, now adopted, is into orders, Lepidoptera (called farinaceous by Drury), Coleoptera (called crustaceous by Drury), &c.

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.

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.

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.)

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.

They are part of and give support to the hind pair of legs.

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."

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.

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.

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.

Goliath. micans is an inhabitant of Africa, and not of South America, it is figured in the 2nd vol. of these Illustrations, pl. 32.

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.

Hence I have not adopted De Lamarck's specific name Africanus, which is of course applicable to all the species.

These scales, which Drury in his description called "the abdominal scales," are the dilated trochanters of the posterior pair of legs.

If this had really been the case, the Fabrician name ought surely to have yielded to that of Linnæus.

"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.

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.