James Duncan

“ It would then become my part to point out by what labours the indefatigable Latreille submitted all the observations of these great men to a new test,—a more exact and complete analysis; how prodigiously he added to the number of their observations; and how at last he succeeded in uniting into a body of doctrine such an immense number of facts, as to form at once a guide to the philosophical naturalist in this difficult department of science, and facilitate the study of all the authors who have treated of it. ”

“ A careful comparison of the two sexes in all the species we can find either figured or described, has convinced us that there are few genera in which the male and female present such marked differences. The male, as is usual among insects, is much smaller than the female, and the whole outline of his form is, so to speak, comparatively contracted. Hence there is almost always a strong tendency in the exterior line of the upper wings to be curved inwards, or assume a falcate shape. ”

“ The group is named Cryptophasa, from the secret and secure manner in which this new and evidently natural division of moths live in the larva state; reflecting on the singularity of which, we are struck at the wonderful means of self-preservation which the great Author of Nature has bestowed on different members of the animal creation, among which we know insects of every country abound with examples. The great enemy against which these larvæ take such precaution, is the mantis or walking-leaf, which abound in New South Wales, devouring multitudes of larvæ in the day-time. ”

“ This insect, as well as that next described, was first made known to entomologists by the Rev. Lansdown Guilding, in a paper read to the Linnean Society of London on the 6th June 1826, and published in the fifteenth volume of their Transactions. Its economy is so remarkable that it has ever since excited attention, and its history can scarcely fail to be read with interest. The most curious circumstance is that the female is entirely apterous, that she never leaves the puparium, but there receives the male and produces her eggs, after which she soon dies. ”

“ At first, the leaf enveloping the cocoon remains green, but soon changes to a red or brown colour, when it becomes brittle, and is gradually carried away by the winds and storms of the winter, until finally nothing remains except the cocoon itself, which is firmly suspended by the silk which once covered the footstalk of the leaf. The instinct of the caterpillar, in thus providing for the permanent attachment of its future habitation, appears to be superior to that shown by many other species. ”

“ When the pupa had slept the appointed time, the animal, still resident within the habitaculum formed by the larva, was found to open the carina by the motion of its head, and prepare to receive the winged male. Here, therefore, we have an animal which in its adult state is for ever excluded from the light, and never even beholds the mate to which it is indebted for its progeny. ”

“ The thorax is short and thick, as is also the abdomen. The legs are of nearly equal length, and very woolly, the spurs of the hind legs being almost concealed. The tarsi are long and thick and very woolly, the tarsal unguis and large flat pulvilli being concealed above by curved black hairs. When at rest, the wings are deflexed at the sides of the body, like the roof of a house. The colour of the entire moth is buff, the wings having a silky gloss, and the palpi have a pale ring near the apex; the back of the abdomen is rather more fulvous, and marked with short black bands. ”

“ Of all the genera included in this family, the pre-eminence must be assigned to Saturnia, whether we regard the number, size, and beauty of the species, or their utility to man. As at present constituted it is of very great extent; but the most cursory glance suffices to show that its contents are far too heterogeneous to accord with the notion we now form of a genus. Without a full series of specimens, or more accurate descriptive details than we now possess, it would be impossible to make a satisfactory revision of the Saturniæ with a view to their distribution into consistent genera. ”

“ The larva forms a lodgement or chamber in the centre of a stem of a species of Casaurina or the she-oak of the colony, and feeding on the bark and sappy wood directly above the entrance, eating round the stem, and carefully hiding its dilapidations by weaving fragments of wood and bark which it gnaws off, in a strong web; forming at once a fortification and disguise of considerable bulk and thickness around the stem, under which, in a winding cylindric passage, the larva constantly keeps its body while at work, alternately gnawing and weaving ”

“ His silk is more of a dull colour than that of the Bughy, which latter worm the hill people put on the Asseen alone, not because it prefers it to the Byer, but because they have greater plenty of Asseen than Byer, and, moreover, trim and dress out plots of Asseen on purpose for the worms. The principal difference between the above two species is, that the natives retain a part of the Jarroo cocoons for seed; these they hang out on the Asseen trees when the proper season of the moth arrives; when the moths come out, the male insects invariably all fly away, but the females remain on the trees. ”

“ Drury's insect is a male; all the specimens in this country of Bombyx spectabilis (as far as we know) are females; the size corresponds; and the general character of the colour and markings is similar. The fore wings of Lucina are strongly falcate, those of Spectabilis rounded laterally; and although this peculiarity is in no other instance that we are acquainted with so strongly marked, the considerations formerly adduced are sufficient to show that it is not incompatible with the view now taken of the supposed relationship of the two insects in question. ”

“ The pupa is very dark brown, approaching to black, and if Abbot's delineation be correct, free from hairs. The author just alluded to found the caterpillar spin up on 27th September, and the fly appeared on the wing on the 17th of May, and continued coming out at different times till the 15th of August following. The caterpillar stings very severely, and encloses itself in a brown web on the leaves. It is not very common, and is a very tender fly to keep in cabinets, the male sooner decaying than any other. When young, the caterpillars feed in large companies, but ultimately become solitary. ”

“ The cocoon is larger than a pigeon's egg, of a yellowish-brown colour, the outer layer of silk rather coarse, the interior of finer texture. We are not aware that this silk has ever been unwound, but it has been carded, spun, and made into stockings, and Abbot states that it will wash like linen. The insect is rather plentiful in the neighbourhood of New York, but scarce in Georgia. The caterpillar has occasionally been reared by feeding it with the leaves of the apple-tree, but it is at all times difficult to make it flourish in confinement. ”

“ The perfect insect issues from one end, and in that state exists from four to eight days, during which period it is wholly employed in the grand work of Nature, generation; remaining perfectly contented in its chamber, seldom attempting to fly away. In this respect it differs exceedingly from the Bughy and Jarroo moths.
The caterpillars, like the common silk-worm, are reared in a domestic state, and entirely fed on the leaves of the Palma Christi plant (Recinus communis) . The filament of the cocoon is so exceedingly delicate as to render it impracticable to wind off the silk ”

“ The insect appears to be plentiful in many parts of the West Indies, and is extremely injurious to fruit-trees in gardens. It is difficult to determine the proper relations of this moth; in its habits and metamorphosis it obviously approaches to Psyche, but the appearance of the perfect insect is very dissimilar. Guilding conjectured that it might be allied to Zeuzera; Mr. Westwood considers it as forming the connecting link between the Hepialidæ and the remainder of the Bombycidæ, and certainly, if we put out of view the metamorphosis, there can be no doubt about its affinity to the former. ”

“ Let one who has had the happiness to enjoy his friendship for the period of nearly forty years be permitted to pass upon him that simple eulogy. It would, I am certain, be more satisfying to his heart than all those called forth by his genius or talent. ”

“ But the shape of the wings is not the only sexual difference. The colours of the male are always darker than those of the female, and the markings on a much smaller scale. Nay, some of the markings found in the one entirely disappear in the other. Thus the female of H. atlas has a small supplemental vitreous spot on the disk of the wings; [41] in many of the smaller species the form of the vitreous spaces is quite different in the two sexes; and there is commonly some additional bar or spots peculiar to the female. ”

“ When young, it is one-half orange-coloured and the other black. At its full growth it becomes brownish-black, with an orange-red band along each side; the incisures of the segments and legs likewise of that colour. The hairs are placed on tubercles alternately nearer the anterior edges of each segment, so that they form a pretty broad band, and leave the rest of the body naked. When about to change to a chrysalis, it spins a thin gummy yellow web, something like that constructed on the same occasion by our common tiger-moth. ”

“ The larva of this species is provident and wood-boring, entering the sappy branches or slender stems of the Banksia serrata, where it forms a cell, having its entrance barricaded with a fabric of interwoven web and excrement; under which the larva conveys its food by nightly perambulations, that is, so much of a leaf of the above tree as it can conveniently convey away at a time, and which it partly forces down its cell, where in security it feeds and sleeps during the whole day. ”

“ There are few departments of entomology more worthy of the attention of travellers in foreign countries than that now under consideration. Scarcely any will supply them with a greater number of new objects, or afford a wider field for interesting observation. The history of a large proportion of the moths of which we possess figures and descriptions in the perfect state, is entirely unknown to us. The appearance of the larva, its habits, food, metamorphoses, &c. ”

“ Before referring to a few of the principal methods in which it has been proposed to arrange the nocturnal Lepidoptera, it will be of advantage to take a slight glance at some of those authors who have contributed most to extend our knowledge of exotic species, and from whose works the materials must be principally derived to form the basis of these arrangements. ”

“ The male of this species, named by its discoverer in honour of Mr. Macleay, is wholly of a black colour; the female yellowish, each segment with a band of yellow wool-like hairs. The larva has the three anterior segments of the thorax and the head yellow with brown marks; the rest obscure and bearing scattered pale warts. It always carries its tail erect, and lives among the branches and trunks of old trees, frequently forming its moveable tent of the lichens with which they are covered. In most other respects the history of this insect nearly corresponds to that of O. Kirbyi. ”

“ I procured several in Virginia upon the last mentioned shrub, which went into the ground July 31st, but every one of them died in the chrysalis during winter. After I had been several years in Georgia, I found some on the old-man's-beard in June, which buried themselves on the 22nd of that month, and came forth on the wing July 20th. It is not a common moth.
"Of those insects which go into the earth, and breed twice in the year, it is best to procure the spring caterpillars, which are much more likely to survive, the autumnal ones commonly dying in chrysalis in the winter." ”

“ I have put, at different times and occasions, innumerable questions to them on this subject, and they assure me that it is no uncommon practice amongst them to catch some of the male moths and put a mark on their wings previous to letting them fly, the marks of different districts being known. I am told that it has been thus ascertained that male moths have come from a distance equal to a hundred miles and upwards: I of course cannot vouch for the truth of this, but have no hesitation in declaring that I believe it. The Jarroo worm is guarded on the trees in like manner as the Bughy ”

“ In the female all the wings are white, with numerous black spots, which are very variable in their distribution, but there is a marginal row on the hinder wings which does not exist in the other sex. The abdomen is coloured nearly as in the male; eyes and antennæ in both sexes black.
The caterpillar is said to be white when young, and to become nearly black when full grown, a transition to two extremes which is not common even among a race of creatures subject to great variation in regard to colour. ”

“ If it be true that the life of a man ought to be estimated only by the use he has made of it, that of Latreille is worthy of envy, since it was spent so worthily. Let us cherish his memory, and study his writings. ”

“ The perfect insect, according to Dr. Roxburgh, to whom we are indebted for the above information, as well as for what follows, [47] does not live for more than from six to twelve days, at least in a state of confinement. It takes no nourishment whatever, not having any mouth or channel by which food could be received. When the female is impregnated, she deposits her eggs on the branches of the tree she may be resting on, to which they adhere firmly by means of the gluten they are covered with when newly laid.
This insect is a native of Bengal, Bahar, Assam, &c. ”

“ Your name will live in our memories with those of Lamarck and Cuvier, of whom you have been so long the worthy fellow-labourer, and with those of Reaumur and Fabricius, to whose renown you will add the equitable voice of posterity, thus confirming a judgment which you had the happiness to hear pronounced during your life-time."
The Entomological Society, immediately after the funeral, determined to raise a monument over the tomb; and for this purpose a subscription was entered into, not confined to the members, but open to scientific men of every description in all countries. ”

“ It is much to be regretted that no detailed biography of an individual so celebrated for his attainments in the branch of study to which he devoted himself, has yet been laid before the public. M. Audouin, an eminent student in the same department of science, has promised a historical notice of Latreille for the Annals of the Entomological Society of France, of which he was the honorary president, but we are not aware that this has yet made its appearance. ”