Litargus Pictus
Thomas Vernon Wollaston published this drawing in his book ‘Insecta Maderensia’ in 1854. In the book he thanks Westwood for providing the illustrations, ‘Particularly, however, would I draw attention to the valuable help which I have received from J. O. Westwood, Esq., whose pencil has been so elaborately employed in the figures which I am thus enabled to attach, and by whom many of the minutest of the dissections were accomplished, — with a degree of delicacy, moreover, to which I did not myself at the commencement of this Work (though I have since succeeded in anatomizing the larger portion of them, likewise) lay claim.’
159. Litargus pictus, Woll. (Tab. IV. fig. 5.). Wollaston wrote the following about this species:
‘A truly indigenous and distinct Litargus, and by no means uncommon throughout the sylvan regions of Madeira between the limits of from 2000 to abort 4500 feet above the sea. I have rarely observed it below the former of those altitudes; although I once detected a single specimen even in the immediate vicinity of Funchal (in the Rev. R. T. Lowe's garden at the Levada), attracted by the light of a candle into an open window, after twilight :—that specimen however, I have but little doubt was an accidental one, brought down perchance from the mountains through the agency of the wood-cutters, or by some other means equally the result of chance. It is found for the most part beneath the loose bark of trees,—under which circumstances I have taken it abundantly during the summer months in the districts of the Ribeiro Frio and the Panal.’
159. Litargus pictus, Woll. (Tab. IV. fig. 5.). Wollaston wrote the following about this species:
‘A truly indigenous and distinct Litargus, and by no means uncommon throughout the sylvan regions of Madeira between the limits of from 2000 to abort 4500 feet above the sea. I have rarely observed it below the former of those altitudes; although I once detected a single specimen even in the immediate vicinity of Funchal (in the Rev. R. T. Lowe's garden at the Levada), attracted by the light of a candle into an open window, after twilight :—that specimen however, I have but little doubt was an accidental one, brought down perchance from the mountains through the agency of the wood-cutters, or by some other means equally the result of chance. It is found for the most part beneath the loose bark of trees,—under which circumstances I have taken it abundantly during the summer months in the districts of the Ribeiro Frio and the Panal.’
Object Summary
- Accession Loan No.
- 638/1911
- Collection Class
- Drawings
- Medium
- watercolour on card
- Common Name
- Litargus Pictus
- Simple Name
- drawing
- Period Classification
- Victorian (1837-1901)
- Production Town
- Production Date
- 1850
- Production Person Initials
- John Obadiah
- Production Person Surname
- Westwood
- Production Year Low
- 1850
- Production Year High
- 1850
