fcarcely any thing to be defired; but where are the metamorphofes
through which thefe finilhed forms have pafled ? and where are their
various habitations, foods, and manners? Some Europsean moths
and butterflies alone are exhibited through all their changes, and with
fome of their varieties, by Harris, Wilkes, Efper, Emit, the admirable
Roefel, and the inimitable Sepp; but who fince the celebrated, though
not very accurate, 'Merian, has laborioufly fcrutinized thofe of the remote
regions of India or America?
The materials of the following work have been collected on the
fpot by a faithful obferver, Mr. John Abbot, many years resident in
Georgia, who, after having previoufly ftudied the metamorphofes of
Englilh infeits, purfued his enquiries among thofe of Georgia and
the neighbouring parts of North America. The refult of his obferva-
tions he has delineated in a flyle of beauty and accuracy which can
fcarcely be excelled, and has accompanied his figures with an account,
as well as a reprefentation, of the plants on which each infedt chiefly
feeds, together with many circumftances of its manners, times of the
different metamorphofes, and other interefling particulars. For all
fuch fadts recorded in thefe pages the public are entirely obliged to
Mr. Abbot. His memorandums, not methodized by himfelf for publication,
have merely been digefted into fome fort of flyle and order
by the editor, who has generally added remarks of his own, in a
feparate paragraph and different type from thé reft; and who has entirely
to anfwer for the fyftematic names and definitions; that department
having been left altogether unattempted by Mr. Abbot.
The execution of this part of the work has not been without its
difficulties. The fpecies of L efidoftera, as difplayed in the laft edition
of Fabricius, are fo immenfely numerous, that it requires no fmall
ftudy and"obfervation to acquire a competent knowledge of them, fo
as to be certain whether any particular infedt that may come before
us be among them or not. This difficulty has been overcome in a
i l l
great meafure by the accefs which has obligingly been allowed the
editor to the cabinets of the Britifh Mufeum, Sir Jofeph Banks, the
late Dr. Hunter, now Dr. Baillie’s,' and the late Mr. Lee’s of Ham-
merfmith, in-one or other of which almoft all the new fpecies of
Fabricius are to be found named by himfelf; while, as to the Linnsean
fpecies, the original colledfion of Linnasus has afforded the fulleft and
.moft certain information. Moft of even the new infects figured in
this work may be found in one Or other of the abovi; cabinets; and
all of them in the exquiiite colledfion of Mr. Francillon, tranfmitted
by Mr. Abbot himfelf. In the genus of Papilio the editor has derived
great affiftance from his accurate and. liberal friend, Mr. Jones, of
Chelfea, whofe knowledge-of that tribeds. perhaps unequalled, and
whofe drawings are themfelves the original authority for many of
Profeflor Fabricius?s recently publifhed P o f Himes, which were adtually
deferibed from thence alone.
Wherever any of the.infedts in this work could be detedted in the
works of Fabricius, and it is hoped there are few, if any, of his among
them that have not been found out, his trivial names have been feru-
puloufly retained, except when, as it will be found, weighty reafons
required a change. In many cafes the terminations of his names have
neceffarily been altered, to prevent their clafhing with thofe peculiar
terminations, which Linnasus judicioufly appropriated to peculiar sec-
tions of Phalamie. Thus the imperialis of Fabricius has been changed
to imperatoria, regalis to regia, becaufe names ending in atis belong
only to the Phalanuz Pyrales. The fpecific charadters however have
not been blindly adopted from either Fabricius, or Linmeus himfelf,
but have all been modelled from as wide a contemplation as could be
obtained of fpecies naturally akin; hence they will be found often
more full, and perhaps more exadt, than thofe of Linnasus, who knew
comparatively few Lepidoptera, or thofe of Fabricius, who was not
particularly acquainted with their metamorphofes, knowing them
chiefly in cabinets, and therefore wanting the great clue to a natural