Volume 1

Illustrations of exotic entomology, containing upwards of six hundred and fifty figures and descriptions of foreign insects, interspersed with remarks and reflections on their nature and properties / By Dru Drury. A new edition, brought down to the present state of science, with the systematic characters of each species, synonyms, indexes, and other additional matter by J.O. Westwood.

  • Dru Drury
Date:
1837
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Illustrations of exotic entomology, containing upwards of six hundred and fifty figures and descriptions of foreign insects, interspersed with remarks and reflections on their nature and properties / By Dru Drury. A new edition, brought down to the present state of science, with the systematic characters of each species, synonyms, indexes, and other additional matter by J.O. Westwood. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    xx only from men of a liberal and ingenious turn of mind, settled there, that we can hope to have any information of the state of nature in distant regions ; and the scarcity of such men I have found to be exceeding great. For these reasons the reader must not expect to find the caterpillar and chrysalis of every insect represented. It is sufficient if I am able to give figures of many exotics that have hitherto been unknown. The natural history, the forms of the caterpillars, ways of life, haunts, &c. can, in such cases, be known only to persons living on the spot, and who have speculation enough to observe them. When- ever I receive such pieces of information, they shall, certainly, not be withheld from the public. When I first engaged in the business of describing the different insects that compose the following work, I found myself surrounded with difficulties of so unexpected a nature, that I had more than once entertained thoughts of postponing, if not totally relinquishing so arduous a task. Nothing but the strong desire I had of promoting the study of natural history, could have led me to overcome a sense of my own incapacity of writing with that precision, which the public eye demands ; and, therefore, I have reason to hope for the candid allowance of the ingenious, to faults, which might, perhaps, escape from the pen of a master, on*a subject so new as the present. Among the rest, I laboured under no little trouble from a want of knowing what names to give to many colours found on the wings of some of the farinaceous tribe. The want of a series, or standard for names to colours, is a matter much to be lamented in this kingdom. I know no English author that has attempted it; perhaps the arduousness of the task may be the reason it has not been done; for if we form to ourselves an idea of the difficulty of bringing forth that innumerable train of colours that is to be done from only a yellow, a red and a blue, we may partly judge of the labour that man has to undergo who shall attempt it. In my case, the great variety of tints to be found on the insects, the harshness of some, the softness of others, together with the manner of their running into one another, increases the difficulty, and renders descriptions a matter of such labour, that nothing but the strongest resolution and perseverance could overcome. From hence, I hope, if the reader should chance to meet with any part among them, that does not entirely correspond with the colour given to the print, he will impute it to its proper cause, the painter. I know of no defects of this kind; but it is not impossible some may have escaped my observation, among such a multitude of figures which I had to correct. It is necessary I should inform the reader, that all my descriptions have been taken from the natural subjects themselves, and not from the coloured prints of them ; and that my intention therein, is not to give a perfect idea of the insects, without the help of the figures, but only to assist the imagination in knowing what is described. And when we consider the advantages that good engravings have over verbal descriptions, the former representing to the mind, at first view, the object designed to be understood, without putting us to the trouble of calling all our ideas, all our powers of conception to our assistance, in order to discover what is intended to be described; cg
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