"As, however, observation and experience have demonstrated, through length of time, that useful hints may be drawn from very trivial properties in the smallest insects, it seems that none are unworthy of being noted. Future travellers may draw useful inferences from those now given, and may add to the number, for the benefit of those who follow after them. There can be no doubt that every species of insect has its use in the creation, and probably there are few from which mankind might not derive some advantage, if their nature and properties were ascertained. We know of a few direct methods, and must therefore in general wait with patience, till a variety of observations, such as Mr. Smeathman has given us, by being frequently compared, strike out new lights upon this part of {9}science, and elucidate matters at this time buried in obscurity. The uses of many insects in the creation are obvious at the first sight: such, for instance, are those which feed on putrid animal or vegetable substances; while others promote the general good by such remote means, that we cannot immediately see to what end their operations verge. We are not therefore, however, to suppose them mere expletives in the great system of beings; neither are we rashly to attribute an importance to them which they do not deserve, or ridiculously affect to admire circumstances in them of little moment, and praise the Creator for dispositions of a secondary nature. "When I recommend observations to be made on the most trivial circumstances, it will readily be conceived I do not wish to derogate from experiment, from which alone solid hopes are to be formed, and those which have been hitherto made give great encouragement. Mr. Reaumur has found that the moth, which feeds on clothes, refines the colour with which they are dyed in a wonderful manner; for the excrement of the animal is the colour of the cloth on which it is fed; and therefore, for miniature paintings, infinitely surpasses all others. How far this kind of experiment can be refined on, must be left to the curiosity and diligence of travellers and experimental philosophers, who may perhaps, in some part of the world, realize and improve this reasoning upon a large and useful scale." MELITÆA CYTHERIS. Plate IV. fig. 3, 4. ORDER: Lepidoptera. SECTION: Diurna. FAMILY: Nymphalidæ, _Swains._ GENUS. MELITÆA, _Fabr._ Argynnis p. _Ochs. Latr. & God._ Papilio (Nymph. Phal.) _Drury_. MELITÆA CYTHERIS. Alis supra fulvis nigro maculatis, subtus anticis fulvis apice fusco, strigâ albâ, posticis fuscis strigâ discoidali maculâque marginali albis. (Expans. Alar. 1 unc. 3 lin.) SYN. Papilio (Nymph. Ph.) Cytheris, _Drury_, _App. vol._ 2. HABITAT: Falkland Islands.