Page:Jardine Naturalist's Library Exotic Moths.djvu/75

Rh by Dr. Smith; but the design is now abandoned. The healthy and peaceful occupations of this meritorious entomologist has led to great length of life; for we had the pleasure of receiving a collection of insects from him only two years ago. He is probably now above eighty."

This splendid work is in two large folio volumes, and contains one hundred and four plates, of which no fewer than eighty are devoted to the crepuscular and nocturnal Lepidoptera. In almost every instance both sexes are figured, along with the larva, and the plant it frequents. There are no descriptions; and rather a paucity of details regarding the general history of the respective species. It deserves, notwithstanding, to occupy a very high place among the illustrated works which have advanced our knowledge of the tribe of insects of which we are now treating. The various works of Donovan on the insects of China, India, and New Holland, although chiefly occupied with other tribes, furnish not a few highly finished delineations of beautiful and interesting moths from these several countries. They were published at intervals between the years 1799 and 1805. For originality, pains-taking, and a successful elucidation of the subject taken in hand, few works surpass the small publication of J. W. Lewin on the lepidopterous insects of New South Wales. It forms a thin quarto, with nineteen plates, engraved