54 BihliograpMcal Notices, 



with the preceding volumes, the most complete general ' Introduc- 

 tion' to the study hitherto published. These were shortly followed 

 by the appearance of Mr. Curtis's beautiful work on the ' Genera of 

 British Insects,' recently noticed in our pages, and by the * Systematic 

 Catalogue and Illustrations ' of Mr. Stephens, the latter consisting of 

 detailed descriptions of all the British species. 



Besides these, a very considerable number of minor treatises 

 have been produced by authors who have in a great measure been 

 instigated to the pursuit by the establishment of the various ento- 

 mological societies, and whose works are scattered through the pages 

 of numberless English and Foreign Transactions and other similar 

 works. During this period also the principles of natural classifica- 

 tion have been greatly investigated both at home and abroad, but in 

 no work have these principles being applied throughout to the nu- 

 merous families of insects. 



The object of the present work may be best shown by the follow- 

 ing passages from the preface to the first volume. After noticing 

 the distinction between the general nature of Introductions to Ento- 

 mology and the generic and specijic nature of the works of Curtis, 

 Stephens, etc., the author observes that the student has hitherto 

 been "led at once from the general views he had gained on the sub- 

 ject to the minute technical details of genera and species, there being 

 no work which he could take up to serve as a guide to the develop- 

 ment of the principles of modern classification in the distribution of 

 the orders and families. For years this deficiency has strikingly 

 manifested itself to me, and it is long since I announced my present 

 undertaking, in which I had proposed to myself to show the appli- 

 cation of the modern views which have been entertained relative to 

 the natural relations of animals in the arrangement of the entire 

 groups of winged insects ; illustrating the subject by details of the 

 natural habits, transformations, and structure of the diflferent fami- 

 lies." 



The work opens with a series of general observations upon the 

 class of Insects, their general structure and transformations, and the 

 various systems of Swammerdam, Linnaeus, Fabricius, Latreille and 

 MacLeay, the respective authors of the metamorphotic, alary, ciba- 

 rian. eclectic, and representative systems. The arrangement adopted 

 by the author nearly corresponds with that of MacLeay, the orders 

 of Hexapod, Metamorphotic Insects (which are alone treated upon 

 in this work), being divided into two parallel sub- classes. Each order 

 with its sections is then passed in review, ample details being given 

 of the characters, structures, habits, transformations, and general dis- 

 tribution and relation of the different families, with an illustration 

 of their characteristic anatomical details and preparatory states. It 

 is thus that the author has endeavoured to make his work a fitting 

 ' Sequel' to the 'Introduction' of Kirby and Spence, whilst at the 

 same time it will be found equally, if not still more, useful to the 

 student who would extend his inquiries beyond the details of genera 

 "and species : in this respect it forms an equally fitting precursor to 

 the works of Curtis, Stephens, etc. A few extracts, however, will 



