The Butterflies and Moths of Teneriffe
9781465664907
213 pages
Library of Alexandria
Overview
When the author left England, in the autumn of 1892, for a winter’s sunshine in Teneriffe, it was by no means her intention to write on the Lepidoptera of that Island. Soon after her arrival, however, she was struck by two things; the want of any sort of interesting out-door occupation (other than somewhat desultory riding expeditions) experienced by her companions in exile, and the absence of any account of the Lepidoptera of the Canary Islands, which would enable collectors to name their specimens. It is her hope that the present publication may be, at least to some extent, the means of remedying these deficiences. To a detailed description of the Lepidoptera of Teneriffe, so far as they are at present known, an introductory chapter has been added, for the benefit of novices in the study and collection of butterflies and moths. Those, for whom fresh air and a certain amount of exercise are essential, can hardly find any more health-giving or light interesting occupation than the practical study of Entomology. This study lends an interest to excursions which might otherwise be tedious, and leads the collector into all sorts of beautiful and picturesque unexplored nooks and corners of the Island, which to the ordinary traveller are quite unknown. Many visitors hardly ever extend their wanderings farther than the Carretera (the one high road in Teneriffe), and have no idea of the many beauties to be seen, or of the interest that may be found in studying the Botany, as well as the Entomology, of this most charming of the “Summer isles of Eden lying in dark-purple spheres of sea.” All the species and varieties of Teneriffe butterflies, with the exception perhaps of three, are found between the months of November and May; so that anyone staying there for the winter and spring months may procure a tolerably perfect collection; more especially as the different species found in Teneriffe are but twenty-nine, so far as is at present known, all of which are now described. The author has been fortunate enough to add four of these to the number previously known to exist in the Island. The most complete collection of moths which came under notice is in the possession of Dr. Zorolo, of Villa Orotava, and this numbers about seventy species and varieties. Forty-one moths are described out of some fifty which were collected and studied by the author; and a list of twenty-one others, chiefly small and of little interest to the amateur collector, is appended. Almost all the facts and particulars relating to the life history of the Lepidoptera are the result of the personal experience of the author, who is also responsible for the drawings from which the illustrations have been reproduced.
