PREFACE. 



IN' preparing this little book the aim has been to make it 

 generally useful to different classes of readers. Beginners 

 in the study will find in it copious directions for collecting 

 and preserving insects, how to form cabinets, how to mount 

 insects for the microscope, and how to prepare them for 

 study, as well as guides to the literature containing the de- 

 scription of species. While amateurs and dilettanti ento- 

 mologists may find useful hints, the needs of those who 

 wish to make a serious study of these animals have not been 

 overlooked, and it is hoped that the book will be of some 

 service in leading such students to pay more attention to 

 the modes of life, transformations, and structure of insects 

 than has yet been done in this country. 



The book is also designed as a hand-book for the farmer, 

 the fruit-grower, and the gardener. Besides treating of the 

 elements of the science and the means of ascertaining to 

 what order and family their insect pests belong, the reader is 

 referred to descriptive works and reports for fuller informa- 

 tion, while Chapter V. gives the fundamental principles of 

 Economic Entomology, with brief accounts of the more in- 

 jurious insects and the natural and artificial means of check- 

 ing their attacks. On account of the prominence given to 

 this topic it is hoped that the book will, with its copious 

 glossary, be serviceable to agricultural editors and useful as 

 a text-book in agricultural schools and colleges. 



As a first book in entomology it is also designed to be an 

 introduction to the author's "Guide to the Study of In- 

 sects." 



