Xll PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 



M. de Lamarck, in which will be found all that the most ar- 

 dent thirst for knowledge can desire. 



As regards Insects, which, by their exterjial form, organi- 

 zation, habits, and influence on all animated nature, are so 

 highly interesting, I have been fortunate enough to find assis- 

 tance, which, in rendering my work infinitely more perfect 

 than it could have possibly been had it emanated from my pen 

 alone, has at the same time considerably accelerated its publica- 

 tion. My friend and colleague M. Latreille, who has studied 

 these animals more profoundly than any other man in Europe, 

 has kindly consented to give, in a single volume, and nearly. 

 in the order adopted for the other parts, a summary of his 

 immense researches, and an abridged description of those in- 

 numerable genera entomologists are continually establishing. 



As for the rest, if in some places I have given less extent 

 to the exposition of subgenera and species, all that relates to 

 the superior divisions and the indicia of relations, I have 

 founded on bases equally solid, by assiduous and universal re- 

 searches. 



I have examined, one by one, all the species of which I 

 could procure specimens ; I have approximated those which 

 merely differed from each other in size, colour, or in the 

 number of some parts of little importance, and have formed 

 them into what I denominate subgenera. 



Every time it was possible, I dissected one species at least 

 of each subgenus, and if those be excepted to which the 

 scalpel cannot be applied, but very few groups of this degree 

 can be found in my work, of which I cannot produce some 

 considerable portion of the organs. 



Having determined the names of the species I observed, 

 which had been previously either well described or well 

 figured, I placed in the same subgenera those I had not 

 seen, but whose exact figures, or descriptions, sufficiently 

 precise to leave no doubt remaining as to their natural rela- 

 tions, I found in authors; but I have passed over in silence 

 that great number of vague indications, on which, in my opi- 

 nion, naturalists have been too eager to establish species, 



