A singular circumstance has been recorded by a recent traveller regarding one of the species, Euplœa humata (Mac Leay), found in the country just referred to, namely, that it is employed as an article of food!
He states that there is a certain mountain, called the Bugong Mountain from multitudes of small moths, named Bugong by the natives, which congregate at certain times upon the masses of granite which compose it. The months of November, December, and January are quite a season of festivity among these people, who assemble from every quarter to collect these moths. They are stated also to form the principal summer food of those who inhabit to the south of the Snow Mountains. To collect these moths (improperly so called, for as above indicated, they are true butterflies), the natives make smothered fires under the rocks on which they congregate; and suffocating them with smoke, collect them by bushels, and then bake them by placing them on heated ground. Thus they separate from them the down and the wings; they are then grounded and formed into cakes, resembling lumps of fat, and often smoked, which preserves them for some time. When accustomed to this diet, they thrive and fatten exceedingly upon it[23]. Millions of these butterflies were likewise observed on the coasts of New Holland, both by Captains Cook and King; and thus, says Mr. Kirby, has a kind Providence provided an abundant supply of food for a race that, subsisting entirely on hunting and fishing, must often be reduced to great straits[24].
These insects were, no doubt, the first that attracted the attention of naturalists, in consequence of their imposing appearance and striking metamorphoses. Collections of them began to be made at an early time, and were valued not only by the lover of nature, but by those who had no farther or more worthy design in view than to possess them as objects highly ornamental. Very extensive collections exist in nearly all the principal cities and museums of Europe; and many are to be found throughout Britain, not only belonging to public institutions for promoting natural history, but also in the possession of private individuals. One of the best conditioned collections of exotic lepidoptera in this country, is that in the possession of the East India Company, made in Java by Dr. Horsfield. As the method followed by that gentleman for preserving his specimens was attended with great success, the following account of it will be interesting and useful to those who have opportunities of making collections in foreign countries:—“During the inquiries I made,” says Dr. Horsfield, “in the early part of my residence in Java, to become acquainted with the best methods for securing what I obtained in my excursions, I noticed the plan described by Le Vaillant in his Travels in Africa, for the preservation of entomological collections. It is the following:—Boxes or chests carefully made of light wood, of a convenient portable size, are provided with partitions or moveable shelves, each consisting of a simple board; these are fitted at the distance of two inches one from another, in grooves in the sides of the box, in which they are made to slide with accuracy and facility, and are therefore removable at pleasure. These boards or shelves have necessarily the exact dimensions of the ends of the chest, and are placed in a vertical position; a small vacancy is preserved between this lower extremity and the floor, and any object detached by accident falls to the bottom without causing further injury. Each board or shelf, lined with cork or soft wood, supplies, in some measure, the place of a cabinet drawer. When taken out of the box and placed on a table, it rests securely, and affords a plain surface, upon which insects may be fixed and examined with perfect ease and security: it is returned into the box in an instant, which, if carefully made, when closed secures most effectually the contents. A small quantity of camphor, at the bottom, spreads its influence over the whole. One large box may conveniently contain fourteen boards, answering the purpose of as many drawers; and, being eighteen inches long, they have a manageable size. This plan I resolved to adopt. In the early period of my pursuits, the boxes which I provided were made of light wood, and to their use I must ascribe, in a great measure, the preservation of my collection. I found that they afforded a complete protection against the ants and other destructive insects which abound in the island of Java, perhaps as much as in any other tropical region. They were peculiarly useful in travelling, and possessed the advantage of affording a ready access to the subjects. As the ultimate object of my pursuits was to provide an extensive and well-conditioned collection, which might be useful and instructive in England, I had, soon after receiving the patronage of the Honourable East India Company, directed my attention to the provision necessary for its safety during a voyage. My residence at Surakarta afforded me peculiar advantages in this point of view. Both materials and workmen are here obtained, perhaps more readily than in any other part of Java. Boxes, according to the plan described, were therefore provided, of more substantial materials than those employed in travelling, in proportion to the increase of the collection. The wood of the Bombax pentandrum was employed for lining the boards and securing the pins; and I ascribe to an acquaintance with the peculiar property of this wood—which renders it an effectual substitute for cork—the preservation of the collection during its transportation. After having carefully packed the subjects, every necessary precaution that suggested itself was used in securing the boxes against accidents during the voyage. They were individually painted and covered with oil-cloth. Each box was then placed in an outer case, made of the same substantial materials, and secured in the same manner. By these various precautions, and by the care which the collection received from the commander of the vessel during the voyage, I enjoy the satisfaction of having brought the whole in safety to England[25].”
The systematic arrangement of this tribe of insects has always been considered a task of great difficulty. So convinced of this was Latreille, who had himself studied the subject profoundly, that he says a classification of lepidoptera may be considered the touchstone of entomologists. This difficulty arises chiefly from the uniformity of organization which prevails throughout the order—a uniformity occasioned by all of them being designed to subsist on liquid food, and to imbibe it in the same manner. The oral organs, therefore, which are of the first importance in classifying other tribes—the coleoptera, for example, in which they undergo almost endless variations of form and consistency to fit them for consuming every kind of organic substance, from semi-fluid animal or vegetable matter to the hardest ligneous tissue—are, in this instance, of comparatively little avail. Recourse must be had to secondary and subordinate characters; and even when we are convinced that, owing to a peculiar facies, and the concurrence of many minute resemblances, certain groups should be regarded as distinct, it is found difficult to define them in a satisfactory manner. Neither has the difficulty been much lessened by the manner in which the subject has been handled by many modern naturalists. The numerous illustrations of lepidoptera published of late years, have been partial, being either selections from the whole class, or forming part of a local fauna. In either case, the subject is regarded in too insulated a light. The illustrator of foreign butterflies selects a species, and by giving prominence to all its minute characters, proposes it with considerable plausibility as a distinct genus. The local faunist divides his groups in reference to his own limited sphere of observation. Neither contemplates the possibility of being ever called upon to elaborate a general system, and he leaves it to those who are to reconcile all existing inconsistences. Hence it follows, that so many of the genera proposed in local and partial works can find no place in a general one; for however specious they may appear when standing alone, it is often found that they will not unite into a consistent whole, and they may therefore be said still further to embroil the very subject they were designed to elucidate.
The Linnean distribution was vague and unsatisfactory, even at the time when it was first produced, and soon became utterly inapplicable when the amount of known species was increased. But it did not fail to exercise, like every other system emanating from that gifted mind, a powerful influence on the progress of the science, and is interesting on account of its ingenuity and poetical elegance. “It is an attempt,” says Dr. Shaw, “to combine, in some degree, natural and civil history, by attaching the memory of some illustrious ancient name to an insect of a particular cast.” The first Linnæan division consists of Equites, which are distinguished by the shape of the upper wings; these are longer, measured from their posterior angle to their anterior extremity, than from the same point to the base; the antennæ sometimes filiform. The equites are denominated Troes or Trojans, distinguished by having blood-coloured spots on each side of the breast: or Achivi, Greeks, which are without red marks on the breast, of gayer colours, and having an eye-shaped spot on the anal angle of the inferior wings. The second division consists of Heliconii, which are distinguished by having the wings narrow and entire, often naked or without scales; the superior oblong, the inferior very short. The third division consists of the Danai, so called from the sons and daughters of Danaus. They are divided into Danai candidi, or such as have whitish wings, and Danai festivi, in which the ground colour is never white, and the surface variegated. The fourth division consists of the Nymphales, distinguished by the edges of the wings being scolloped or indented; it is subdivided into N. gemmati, in which the wings are marked with ocellated spots, and N. Phalerati, without these spots. The fifth division contains the Plebeii. These are commonly smaller than the preceding butterflies, and are subdivided into rurales and urbicolæ; the former having the wings marked with obscure spots, the latter for the most part with transparent spots.
In his earlier works, Mantissa and Species, Fabricius made no important change on the Linnæan method; but the many additional species which had come to his knowledge when he drew up his Systema glossatarum, led him to establish many new genera, and remodel the arrangement of the old ones. This method consists of forty-one genera, most of which have been adopted by subsequent authors; but it is less complete than it might otherwise have been rendered, owing to the death of the author before it was finished. Latreille did not deviate materially from the Fabrician method, adopting nearly all the genera; but he did not derive the distinctive characters exclusively from the antennæ and palpi, as the Danish entomologist had done, but had recourse to other parts of structure, and likewise judiciously took into account the peculiarities of the caterpillar and chrysalis. Several arrangements were proposed subsequent to or contemporaneous with that of Latreille, such as those of Lamarck, Dumeril, Dalman, &c. but most of them are of little importance. The last mentioned individual, however, appears to have been the first to apply to actual practice, in his description of the lepidoptera of Sweden, characters derived from the neuration of the wings, the value of which were first pointed out by Mr. Jones, in a paper in the Linnæan Transactions, published in 1794. Godart, without appearing to have been acquainted with what had been done by Dalman, likewise had recourse to the structure of the wings in his arrangement, as published in the Encyclopédie Methodique, and Lepidoptera of France. In the latter work, the diurnal series is classified with reference to the appearance of the discoidal cell in the inferior wings; and by adopting this excellent character, he has, in most instances, greatly improved on Latreille’s method.
In 1776, an arrangement was proposed which attracted little attention at the time, but which has since risen to considerable distinction. It is that exhibited in the Systematic Catalogue of the Lepidoptera found in the neighbourhood of Vienna, by MM. Denis and Schiffermüller. This original and highly valuable system is entirely founded on the appearance of the caterpillars. It is singular that characters almost exclusively drawn from that state, should confirm the classifications founded on characters afforded by the imago or complete insect. But to such a degree does this coincidence obtain, that almost all the families proposed by the Austrian naturalists have been adopted as genera by those who were guided by other principles. This method remained for a long time almost unknown to the naturalists of this country, and even on the continent its excellence seems to have been but inadequately appreciated, except among the Germans. The only authors that have acted upon it are Ochsenheimer, and his continuator Treitschke, in their valuable and extensive work on the Lepidoptera of Europe[26].
But there can be little doubt that those arrangements are the most accurate and philosophical which are founded on characters derived from all the different states in which these insects exist. This conviction seems now to be generally entertained, and most writers of very recent date have seen the propriety of acting upon it. In the works of Curtis, Stephens, Horsfield, &c. it has been adhered to to a greater or less extent, and in a general work on Lepidoptera lately published by Dr. Boisduval of Paris, nearly equal importance is assigned to the peculiarities of the caterpillar, chrysalis, and butterfly. As this method presents some new features, and is the last that has been laid before the public, we shall give an account of it along with the accompanying remarks in the authors own words:—“It is not till after a most attentive study of the butterflies of Europe in their different states, and after having collected a certain number of materials on the metamorphoses of exotic species, that we have attempted to group the lepidoptera in a manner different from that hitherto followed, not neglecting, at the same time, the study of those authors who have occupied themselves with this order, that we might be enabled to combine the results of their labours with our own. We do not flatter ourselves, however, that the combinations which we have made are altogether free from blame, any more than those of our predecessors. When occupied with the productions of a single country, the classification is much more easy; the greater number of species associate pretty well with each other, and, if we except a few of the most anomalous, a series is obtained free from much irregularity. In this way, the European species form a pretty homogeneous assemblage, and the same thing holds with regard to those of South America, New Holland, or any other country taken by itself; but when we attempt to classify those of the whole globe, we frequently meet with intermediate genera which interrupt this harmony. If we even take a somewhat numerous genus belonging at the same time to several different countries, we find species which form a passage to other races proper to each of these countries. For example, the genus Pieris of Latreille offers species in America (genus Leptalis) which bear a perfect resemblance to the Heliconii in their colour, the length of their bodies, and narrowness of the wings. Others of the same country (genus Euterpe) insensibly unite with that division of American Papiliones which is of a black colour with red spots; those of Europe, on the contrary, present certain relations to Parnassius, Pieris Cratægi appearing to form the passage to P. Mnemosyne, while those of India gradually approach Colias through P. Judith and P. Panda, and to Danais with green spots through P. Valeria. All other genera of some extent, and distributed over several countries, are in the same condition.
“What we have just stated, applies equally to the correlation of species with each other. If we take, for example, the genus Satyrus of Latreille, we perceive that it is composed of an infinite number of secondary groups, scarcely any of which are proper to one country. Thus, in Europe, we have the division to which Galatea belongs, extending along the basin of the Mediterranean, even into Persia; that of Hermione, which takes the same direction, and continues to Cachmere; that of Norna, proper to the polar regions of the two continents; that of Nigres, which inhabits mountainous countries, and is found only at the Cape and at Chili; finally, that of the Satyres, properly so called, which are connected with the species of New Holland, some of them with those of Chili, of North America, and Siberia. America and the East Indies, likewise, present groups which in general appearance differ widely from our European species; while there are others which resemble several at the same time. A collection of the Satyres of one country would, therefore, form a sufficiently natural series; but it would appear most irregular when the species of several countries were brought together.