to Europe;[1] but it is of the authors who have treated of extra-European Lepidoptera that we wish at present more particularly to speak.
The splendid work of Madame Merian on the Insects of Surinam, published in 1705, may be regarded as the first illustrated work of any consequence devoted to exotic entomology. About one-half of it is occupied with the crepuscular and nocturnal Lepidoptera; and several of the most conspicuous kinds of the tropical parts of the New World are represented, such as Attacus erythrinæ, Erebus strix, Attacus aurota, Hesperus, &c., besides numerous species of Sphingidæ. Viewed in relation to its merits as a work of art, this publication is deserving of high praise; the objects are gracefully grouped and distributed, and great freedom and power of drawing is often displayed. But it derives its chief value in the eyes of naturalists from the figures of the caterpillars, which are almost always given, and generally executed with much greater care than those of the perfect insects. A few glaring errors into which the fair authoress has fallen, have, it is true, produced some degree of doubt as to the fidelity of her representations; but in general there is no reason why they should not be relied on. Many caterpillars are to be found here, for which we should look in vain in any work of more recent date. It is to be lamented that the
- ↑ A very full list of the writers on European Lepidoptera will be found in Westwood's Modern Classification of Insects, vol. ii. p. 308.
