Illustrations of Exotic Entomology, Volume 3

by Dru Drury

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."