FOREWORD. 



■\Yhen, some time since, in consequence of continuing demands, the Brooklyn 

 Entomological Society resolved to publish a new edition of its Explanation of 

 Terms used in Entomology, and entrusted the writer and two associates with 

 the task of preparing the same, it was believed that a little revision of defini- 

 tions, the dropping of a few obsolete terms and the addition of a few lately 

 proposed, would be all that was necessary. It was to be a light task to fill 

 idle time in summer, report to be made in fall. Two years have passed since 

 that time : the associates have dropped by the way ; the manuscript contains 

 five times the number of terms in the original " Explanation," and if it is 

 published now, it is not because I believe it to be complete ; but because I do 

 not believe it can be made complete except as the result of criticism and 

 voluntary addition by specialists throughout the country. 



It is twenty-six years since the original list was published and nothing can 

 better illustrate the advances made than a comparison between the old and the 

 new Glossary. No one realizes better than I the fact that as students have in- 

 creased in each order, each has followed an independent line of research, 

 absolutely without regard to the work done elsewhere. In consequence, we 

 have several terms for the same thing in many cases and, in an equal number, 

 several meanings to the same term. As no one man can now-a-days cover the 

 entire field of Entomology, it goes without saying that I was compelled to rely 

 partly upon books and partly upon the good nature of correspondents to make 

 the work even approximately complete. 



The first notable contribution came from Professor Justus W. Folsom, of 

 Urbana, Illinois, who sent me over 2000 cards of terms collected by himself 

 and his assistants, and these added materially at the beginning of the work. 

 A number of correspondents were good enough to send in lists of terms in 

 Coleoptera, Lepidoptera, Orthoptera, Hemiptera and Xeuroptera. and to refer 

 me to literature where explanations of other special terms could be found. 



After the cards were so far advanced as to warrant a preliminary manu- 

 script, Dr. Philip P. Calvert of the University of Pennsylvania. Mr. Nathan 

 Banks of Washington, D. C, and Mr. C. W. Johnson of the Boston Society of 

 Natural History went carefully over the entire work and by their criticisms 

 and additions contributed materially to such merit as it possesses. To these 

 gentlemen and to the many others not specifically mentioned I give thanks for 

 their assistance, and if there have not been more co-workers it has been only 

 because of the time element that seems to demand the best that is ready, rather 

 than a delay to secure perfection. 



It would be interesting to go at length into the history of the correspond' in > 

 to determine what sort of terms should or should not be included and to liriiiu 

 out the hopeless divergencies existing ; but all that is important here is to 

 state briefly what has been included and what omitted. 



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